Stuttering - Las Vegas,NV

R.- Alright....make sure your sitting down for this. Take a deep breath......exhale. Relax your shoulders....Your son is PERFECTLY normal. I do have some experience with this. I have 2 boys. My oldest is almost 6 and my youngest is almost 3. I had never experienced this with my older son, so when it started with my youngest, I was also concerned. My son would repeat the first letter or sound, for up to 20 seconds at times, or he would prolong sounds; "mmmmmmay". I spoke with a speech therapist and an occupational therapist. They said that it was completely normal for children between the ages of 2 and 5. The first thing you want to do is get away from calling this "stuttering". This is called a normal speech disfluency. Realx, and don't act concerned or stressed when your son is doing this. As you know, he picks up on that and it adds to his frustration. When he starts talking and is repeating his sounds, get down on his level, relax your shoulders, try a relaxed smile, make eye contact and when he gets out what he is saying...simply respond. DO NOT try to give him his words or help him to get it out. Be patient. The speech disfluency is the same as when we say "uuuhhh" or "ummm" when we are looking for a filler while we think of what to say next. He is learning many words, very quickly at this age and his brain may be moving faster than his mouth can. Only a teeny-tiny percent of children who experience this disfluency, actually end up having problems with stuttering. My son did this for about a month. At one point it seemed like he was having trouble with EVERYTHING he said. Today, he dosent do it at all. It can last much longer but, like I said, you do not need to be concerned. Make sure that the people who interact with your child (babysitters, daddy, grandma) know how to use these same skills and not to label this as stuttering. I hope this helps. Good luck and keep up the good work mom!!

It's ok but you may just want to looking to it just in case. My daughter stared doing that as well she aslo talke very well fr he age, and I just told her to talk slower nd helped correct her and she just stopped. So good luck and he will be fine.

My son will be 4 at the end of the month and his stuttering has just stopped. he started at about 3 years. Thier little brains are going so fast that thier little mouths cant keep up. THIS IS NORMAL. He will grow out of it both of my boys went through and both are very normal little boys. he is just trying to get his mouth around the though comming out. He will eventually learn to catch up. All I did was when he would start to stutter I would tell him to take a deep breath and then say what you need to say. It helps if they know you are listening and will wait for what they have to say.

R., I have never dealt with this, but it seems you may want to get started with a speach therapist. Are there any changes in his life? Is he getting enough rest? I don't know, wish I could help.

Has anything drastic happened recently? If nothing has changed then I wouldn't worry about it too much. Like the others have said. It's normal at this age. If it continues for a long time, then I'd get him checked out with a speech therapist.