| Q. My son is three years old and has always had good verbal skills. Recently he has begun having difficulty speaking. He repeats sounds and adds sounds to words. I am worried that he is starting to stutter.
A. Stuttering, or disfluency, is common in early childhood. It often appears between ages three and four. This type of disfluency may show up as early as 18 months and as late as school age. For many parents, stuttering is a troubling development because the concern is whether or not the child will “out grow it.” While pediatricians and well-meaning family often tell parents, “Don’t worry - he’ll outgrow it,” this may not always be true with stuttering.
How can a parent tell when to worry and when to relax and let nature take its course? Experts offer this advice: if a normally fluent child occasionally repeats syllables or words once or twice or is hesitant or uses occasional fillers like “um” and “er” and this comes and goes, appearing and disappearing over several weeks during a period of rapid language growth, then this is probably nothing to worry about. Parents should be patient and allow the child to speak without interruption or help.
Even for those children who seem to have more disfluency than what is considered “normal,” experts in language and speech also offer this advice: not all stuttering is equal. Stuttering can be on a continuum from mild to severe. Children with mild stuttering will repeat sounds more than twice, may have blocking where no sound is being made, and may show facial grimacing from time-to-time. These kinds of disfluencies should be less than ten percent of the total speech. On the other hand, if your child frequently “blocks” or experiences facial grimacing or changes words, then you should seek out a qualified speech pathologist.
For children with mild stuttering, parents can do the following things to help:
- slow down your own speech
- wait patiently without interrupting or filling in
- offer simple reassurances that everyone has difficulty speaking sometimes.
There is an excellent website by the Stuttering Foundation of America that offers lists of qualified speech pathologists and describes treatment options for children, teens and adults with stuttering as well as advice for nonstutters who may live or work with someone who stutters.
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