Question about speech?

Question

My daughter will be 4 in about 2 weeks. She did not talk until she was about 2 1/2. She was in Speech Therapy. She was released earlier this summer and had only like a 10% delay at that time, which wasn't a big deal at all since when she started she had a 75% delay! My question though is this.....She stutters a lot, do other 3 1/2 to 4 year olds do this often too because none of my other children did. Her speech therapist is out on maternity leave and is supposed to retest her when she comes back to make sure she isn't falling behind. Thanks!

Answer 1

Your best source for information on stuttering, what you can do to help, and a chart that will help you decide if a young child needs to see a specialist in stuttering is The Stuttering Foundation of America at www.stutteringhelp.org. You can call and talk to someone there, too. Their site has a list of speech therapists who specialize in treating stuttering.

Answer 2

I have been told many children stutter but many will grow out of it with out needing speech. My son is 4 1/2 and has been stuttering since he was around 3. He is still in speech therapy for stuttering twice a wk and I do the same things with him at home everyday and what to do to help when they are stuttering. Did they give you things to do at home? If not, when she goes back, ask what you can do at home. Dont worry, though, it is normal and they also told me at this age, they know they are stuttering and have some worry over it which makes the stuttering even worse. Just talk slowly to her and when she stutters remind her to stop for a sec, think about what she wants to say and slow down. Just don't correct her in front of others or she will be embarrased. These are just a few things they told me, Im sure her therapist will tell you all this and more
best of luck

Answer 3

All kids stutter, usually around ages 3 to 4. It is a normal part of speech and language development. It only becomes a problem if it persists after about age 6, at which time it is relatively easy to tell if there are qualitatively different behaviors compared to the normal "developmental stuttering".
I'm sure her therapist will be able to allay your fears once she gets back to work. This is not something that requires immediate attention. In the meantime, don't react to your daughter's dysfluencies; be careful of your facial expression, too. You don't need to tell her to slow down, either. She'll move through it just fine.

Answer 4

according to my daughter's speech ther. if your child had a significant delay (as my daughter did also) the stuttering can be a symptom. She could just be trying to find her words (as they said mine was) Help her to slow down and think the words through before she says them. I found it helps when my daughter was doing it I am listening, slow down and tell me what you need to say" Then I would make sure to give her all the answer or support to the sentence that she needed. It seemed to help and give her the confidence to try again.
Good luck!

Answer 5

hey- i don't know too much about this, just what i learned in one of my education classes last semester. and that was, a lot of kids from 3-6 stutter, almost like they are excited and can't talk fast enough... "an,an,an,an,and then th,th,th,they we,we,went... ..." and so on. we learned that this can be a semantics problem, and can be a sign of a learning disability. once you find the problem it's super easy to remedy it, you just have to adjust the way she's taught basically. obviously i'm no expert, but hopefully the therapist will know what to do for her-- she definitely should know.
oh- also we learned that a lot of times kids with speech problems feel like they are stupid or something, but they aren't, so it's really important to reinforce them and make sure they know they are smart. a lot of times they are extremely intelligent, they need to feel that way too.