my daughter turns 3 tomorrow. She's been beyond her yrs speech wise and all of a sudden she started a stammer on the first sound of the first word. Past 1-2 weeks it at times is the entire first word, and once today it was the first 3 words. at first i asked her to slow down if she needed and then read NOT to do that and just to be patient and ignor it. Its been about 2 months of the first word first sound. Her older son teased her twice and we had a talk and i'm confident it won't happen again. Any idea how long this usually lasts? my son didn't have it. thanks, i guess it can be pretty normal but i'm still worried.
Seems like she is just thinking too fast for her words to catch up. I still do this quite often hahaha. It will probably go away once she just calms down and thinks a little more before talking. Hey, I still get ahead of myself at times, so just be patient with her. There is probably a lot going on in that little head! =)
It's not a stutter... it's normal development that stems from her thoughts outpacing her mouth. (It has a name, but I forget offhand what it is).
The biggest trick for ending it soon is to give them full eye contact, a smile, and your full attention. Kids often feel like they have to "get it out" as quickly as possible or they'll lose their audience. Their mouth can't keep up, so they end up repeating words trying to back track their thoughts, adults get impatient and give less attention or scold for it and the problem gets worse.
One other thing..... don't try to finish their words or sentences.... even if you know what they are trying to say, just wait it out.
As the other poster said, it is like they are in such a hurry to tell you, their tongue gets all tripped up! If you show you are patient and waiting, then she will learn she doesn't have to be in such a rush to tell you something.
My grandson, who turned 3 in December, had this issue for a couple of months about 6 months ago...I think his mind was just running to far ahead of his mouth...lol. Basically his Momma and Papa would suggest quietly that he "slow down" and it went away as suddenly as it had begun. I wouldnt be too worried about it if I were you...I think it is pretty normal.
This is pretty typical and does not necessarily mean your child "has a stutter" that is going to stick. It means, especially if she's "beyond her years speech-wise" as you say, that she is on the verge of a leap forward in communicating, and knows what she wants to say but not quite how to say it, and is so focused on and excited about talking that she can't quite spit out the words. I think a lot of, if not most, kids do some of this at times.
As always, ask your pediatrician and/or her preschool teacher if she has one, if you're worried. I think they'll tell you to wait it out and be very patient with her speech, and not try to guess at her words but let her get out what she wants to get out in her own time.
My daughter is in speech therapy and has passed through stuttering phases a couple times. Her speech therapist gave me a few tips which seemed to work for us.
As you read, don't even acknowledge the stuttering. Don't tell her to slow down or try to fill in the words for her. Just give her all the time she needs. Avoid direct questions because it can make a child feel pressured to come up with the right words on the spot. For example, instead of "What do you want to drink?" try "I wonder if [child's name] would like milk, juice or water...". Also, try to allow extra time in the daily routine to avoid creating a sense of urgency.
My daughter has been doing the same thing. SHe is simply trying SOO hard to get it all out. We ignore it completely, don't call any attention to it by asking her to slow down or speaking for her. It doesn't bother her at all and I think it's happening less frequently but she's about 3.75 years old now.
I think it will pass.
I went through this with my daughter on and off for about a year until we finally took her to a speech pathologist at the referral of her pedi...she was evaluated right before starting pre-k in Septemeber of this year...the speech pathologist pretty much said that she did have a slight stutter but she wanted to wait until about 3 months into pre-k to evaluate her again..she strongly thought that once she interacted with other kids more she would improve..she has been at her school for 8 months and has improved so much that we didnt even need to take her back to be reevaluated....every once in a while she will stutter...what the speech pathologist told us to do was this~ when she stutters let her finish what she is saying no matter how long she takes to get it out...when she is done tell her "that sentence was a little bumpy, can you smooth it out for me"....you can explain to them the difference between bumpy (stuttering) and smooth (non-stuttering) speech and then have them repeat back to you what you say~she told us to never try to finish the sentence for her or ask her why she is stuttering so much-its really just there little brain trying to keep up with everything and thinking faster than she can speak....I know how upsetting it is...I was a worry wart and didnt get some feeling of peace until I took her to the speech pathologist..If you cant get a referral from your pedi you can call the birth to three hotline and they will be able to help you out-they sent me alot of information and gave me names of places that specialized in stuttering...if you need any more info please feel free to ask!!
Meg :)
Ya, she is just adding so much to her vocabulary right now. She is overloading her brain with all those new words. I have seen other little kids do it. Mine never did but I babysat a few that did. Don't give her more stress about it and it should not last long.
My brother did this for a couple months. It's like he was sooo excited to tell us something that he couldn't get the words out. :P We just kept on him to S-L-O-W D-O-W-N when he was talking to us. Eventually he stopped.
I think it's a normal phase--their brains are going faster than their tongues.
