Stuttering-When to be Concerned?

Both of my girls began stuttering a few months ago. One of them outgrew it, and the other has progressively gotten worse. She mainly stutters on the first word of the sentence, but sometimes it's so bad she loses focus on what she was saying all together and just shuts down. It doesn't help that her sister (the dominant one) will step in and finish what she was saying in the first place, therefore not giving her the opportunity to try again and maybe get it right. She is now stuttering to some degree with almost every sentence she speaks. It is obviously very frustrating for her, and I think it's starting to effect her confidence in her speaking abilities, as she has been a lot more quiet than normal.

At what point is this not a phase, and something I genuinely need to be concerned about? When should I have her professionally evaluated?

Is there anything I can do to help her?

I am really starting to get worried. :unsure:

 

Definitely don't get worried. :hug: We went through this same thing. And on top of that, it happened TWICE! My very eloquent speaker was stuttering horribly and it completely freaked me out and upset me. I came on here and received lots of reassurance that it would most likely correct itself. And it did. And then it came back, and was WORSE. I was convinced she would need speech therapy forever because it was so bad. But it eventually corrected itself and has gone away for good. I don't remember how long each of them did it for, but with Lauren it was quite a while! Just be patient, let her work her thoughts out herself, and try and stop the other one from interrupting as much as you can. :hug:


ETA: One thing I did notice was that her mouth seemed to not be working fast enough with her mind. I could see her thinking but the words just weren't coming out clearly. So when she got real bad, I would get down on her level, tell her to take a breath and take a second to think about what she wanted to say. By getting her to come down a notch, she could gather her thoughts and sometimes it would help a bit.

 

This is what happens to my DD. I notice that she will stutter and lose focus because her mind is working faster then her mouth. Once she gets her focus back again, then she's okay with what she has to say.
Kyrstyn, I hope this resolves itself quickly for your DD :hug: But if you remain concerned, it can never hurt to contact the pedi.

 

Mine both did it. It went away and I agree, it was the brain going faster than the mouth.

My brother also stuttered TERRIBLY for about a year at about that age. He never saw speech and outgrew it by age 4 1/2. My dad was told it was due to my parents divorce but I don't know about that. I think it's a common occurrence. Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much and they do outgrow it. GL!

 

Both of mine stutter sometimes - their mouths just can't keep up with their brains! We get a lot of "And - nd - nd - nd - nd - and then..." I try to just be very patient, not react at all, just listen quietly until they get through it. I don't draw any attention to it, because I don't want them to get self conscious.

Since your dominant one keeps jumping in, do you think maybe you & DH could split them up sometimes so that the quieter one who's having more trouble with stuttering gets some laid back one-on-one time with someone patient enough to hear her out?

 

no "and then"!!

 

At this stage I would not be too worried. She is still at the age where stuttering is quite common and the majority of children do outgrow it without actual therapy. There are some things you can do to help her (this is advice we got when Alyssa developed a stutter):
1. Don't finish her sentences for her. As much as possible don't let her sister finish the sentence for her or talk over her either. This was something we had to work on with Bryony, it was hard going for the first week or two but we really stressed that they needed to take turns to speak and it did work. I would tell them "speak one at a time", "wait a minute, X is speaking", "Alyssa is telling me herself" and so on, basically I would interrupt any interrupting and get the first child to finish what they were saying (it did go both ways because Alyssa would start talking when Bryony was talking as well).
2. Slow down your own rate of speaking. As pp's have mentioned for many children the problem is that they are trying to talk faster than their brains can process. By modelling slower speech it will encourage her to speak more slowly, without her even knowing/thinking about it. It can also help her feel less rushed. If she asks a question pause before you answer, then she can see it's ok to take the time to think about what you want to say.
3. When possible after she finishes a sentence repeat it back to her slowly and clearly. It doesn't have to be word for word, make it conversational-eg "There, there, there there's a bird" "Oh, yes. There's a bird in the garden. I can see it." "On, on, on, on, on the tree." "It is on the tree, that's where birds live."
4. Look at her and maintain natural eye contact while she speaks to show that you are interested in what she has to say.
5. We were told not to say things like "slow down" "take a deep breath" "try starting again" as it can make the child more aware and self concious of the problem.

I hope this is just a short phase for you.

ETA: I re-read your post and, while I still would not be overly worried, given that you feel she's getting progressively worse and that it's begining to affect her confidence I'd get her evaluated. At the very least you will get reassurance from a proffessional that it's a normal phase and if she does need some speech therapy then you'll be getting her the help she needs.