Stutting in very young children

[Toms Dad]

Hi all. New to the forum, in fact this is my first post. I had a moderate stutter when I was aged 5-10, which caused me a fair bit of grief and shame (I’m sure a lot of you know what I mean), had some therapy but never really got over it. I learned to avoid the things I couldn’t say, and eventually managed to put it behind me. I deal with it now, and in fact I rarely notice it.
Fast forward 25 years or so, now married with two kids and a third on the way. My youngest is Tomas, 2yrs 11mths old and in the last week he has begun to stutter. Disturbingly, it seems to be the sounds I struggled with (W, Y and I amongst others) that he has trouble with.
I’m wondering if anyone else has seen this in kids this young? It breaks my heart to see my little man going through it, I’d say he is too young for any professional help, but I’m not sure. Hopefully someone can advise what my wife and I can do to help him.
It has happened so suddenly, literally in a matter of days. We did have a friend of the family pass away last week, so I’m wondering if it could have been triggered by stress? Any help or advice appreciated, I know I shouldn’t worry too much about it yet, but I can’t help it when it caused me such trauma I my younger years. I don’t want my boy to through what I did.

Thanks for listening

Matt

Sorry about the spelling mistake in the title, seems i can't edit it. Grrrrrrrrrrrr

[warrick]

Hi Toms Dad,
I know exactly how you feel. I have had a life long stutter (not overly bad, but certainly noticable) and my 3 boys (8 years and two 4 year olds) all have been stuttering at times in their lives. It is definately affected by stress. For example, we move house when my 8 year old was about Tomas's age, and his stuttering got really uncomfortable for him. He would fight and struggle with every word. It was painful to watch them struggle so much. In time, it improves and his stutter is bearly noticable, and he now talks none stop, so it didnt slow him down much. One of my 4 year olds is at the same stage after just starting school, but I have no intension of doing anything at this stage. The biggest mistake to make is to make them self-conscious of it. Most children are able to grow out of it if left to their own devices. Personally I would leave it as old as 7 or 8 before seeking professional help.

Hope that helps. Let me know if I can help with anything else. I know what its like when someone who has had a stutter starts seeing it in their children. You just want to do everything you can to protect them straight away. Simply make you boy feel safe and secure and be sure to listen to him as he speaks and enjoy real conversations with him shows nothing but patience so he can develop the complex art of speaking in a safe environment.

Hope that helps. Keep us posted.

[Toms Dad]

Thanks for the reply Warrick, and the advice. As a father yourself you would know how i feel. I'm hoping that this will be a short lived thing, and he'll "grow out of it" on his own. I'm constantly amazed by how smart he is, he's figured out just today that if he's having trouble saying something he can whisper the first few words and that will get him over the block. Now i'm not sure if that is a good technique or not, but it's not something he's come up with by himself and i couldn't stop him i wanted to. If he's still stuttering by the time he starts prep we will seek professional advice, but hopefully it won't come to that.
The only consolation i have is that at least it will be easier for him than it was for me if it is an ongoing issue for him, because he'll have a dad that has been through it. I had no-one when i was a young fella.
Great forum guys, hoping i can help contribute to it's success.

Cheers

Matt

[warrick]

Well, be sure to keep us updated, as Im sure there are a lot of people in the same situation that have the same concerns. Myself included. I have 2 boys that have been through it and have pretty much come out the other side, and I have one still in the worst stages of his speech development and is fighting for every word. It is a real stuggle for me to try no to intervene, but I know what can happen if I make him self-conscious too early bacause I believe that is what happened to me. I was in speech therapy when I was three. After being told all the things I should and shouldnt be doing, I remember feeling like I was doing it all wrong and that I would be in trouble. I guess that feeling has never really gone away.

The only thing I really help my kids with is their temprament. If the are getting to wound up or tense I help them to calm down during speech by talking calm and quiet myself. It is natural when two people have a strong connection they naturally mimic each others body language and speech patterns. Children naturally mimic and are very connected with parents so will copy a lot of what you do.

I often worried that this mimicing was what caused a lot of the stuttering because children have an amazing ability to mimic to the smallest detail, and they mimic the ones they are closest to. In our house, my children have a stronger bond with me more than anyone so they shared the same speech patterns I had including the tense, hesitated and fast speech, which in my opinion invites a stutter. I truly believe we need to lead my example and our children will follow us naturally.