Will was a slow talker. I had him on the wait list for speech and language because he took his sweet time. I went away for a weekend just before he turned two, came back and that was that. Sentences. Non-stop talking. It hasn’t stopped.
When he first started to talk, he was just so excited to get the words out that he stuttered. It lasted a few weeks until he got used to the whole business of this talking thing. Since then, his vocabulary growth has been insane and the stuttering had stopped.
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This past week, the it started again. I’m not concerned but it’s there. My first reaction is to tell him to slow down and get the words out. I think he’s going through a spurt where he’s adding words to his vocab and again, his brain is just going faster than his mouth can get the words out. His new teachers brought it up to me as well as it threw them how it came from nowhere. So we’re going to get him accessed and see if he needs some therapy. Why not be proactive? Worse comes to worse – I’ll call Geoffrey Rush!
I had a speech impediment when I was younger. I said my r’s as w’s. I was mocked mercilessly by my siblings (don’t even TRY to say you didn’t – so says Sawa and no, I’m not cwying).
Did you have a stutterer on your hands?
I did google ‘stuttering in preschoolers’ and learned that you shouldn’t tell them to slow down..doh…apparently it will make them think about how they’re talking instead of just letting them approach it naturally.
Hey Donna!
so interesting that is EXACTLY what Will is doing – first word in sentences and mostly with A, I and W. I know it’s very common – so i’m not freaking yet. I have put him on the wait list at speech and language – figure I’ll get a jump on it. It’s amazing how it starts and stops though isn’t it?
Hi Sara, Arielle has been stuttering off an on for about a year and a half. It’s back right now. When she started JK I talked to her teacher about it and she didn’t seem to be concerned. In her case it is the beginning of the first word in her sentences that she stuttters and recently I’ve noticed it’s mostly sounds that begin with A, I and W. Apparently this is can be quite common.
Dude, don’t I know it… they have something to say every 14 seconds, holy crap… 😉
Thanks guys – you’re all backing up exactly how I feel. I”m really not too worried. I did take your advice Tracey and did the undivided attention thing! That’s hard…:)
It’s such a typical trait in kids his age.
The thoughts come faster than the words do. I think it’s a processing thing. Once he can team he thoughts with the speech, the stuttering subsides.
My oldest did. It sounds just like your son. He was an early talker, and his brain was just firing up faster than his mouth could keep up I think. As Tracey said, it was all about the eye contact and just getting down to his level and waiting patiently to let him get through his thoughts. We also found that putting a hand on his arm or shoulder as he stammered kind of grounded him and helped him focus. It was something I was worried about for a while, and then suddenly I forgot he ever did it.
I feel like just about every preschool aged boy I’ve ever met (including my own) did his share of stammering for a while… I don’t think any of them stammer at all now. It seems to be very common at this age – for girls too.
I was advised not to say “slow down” to them too – it doesn’t tend to help. What can help is just giving the kid your undivided attention, and stop doing whatever you’re doing (phoning/dish-wiping/dinner-making/whatever) and turn to face him directly so he knows you’re listening (not rushing) and he’s not trying to compete for your “eyes.” it will likely be gone again after some time – maybe six months, or even a year, but in the threes, fours and fives, it’s a common occurrence, I’ve found.