what is my little brothers speech problem?

Question

My little brother has a speech problem. He's almost 11. Speech pathologists don't know what it is. He says "awh" "uh" and he tends to repeat his words alot, but not like stuttering. for example: "awh, mum? awh, awh, awh mum?..." he also sometimes says a sentence and repeats the last phrase 2 or three times really quietly. Yet whats weird is that he speaks fine when he reads out loud. Me and my mum and dad feel bad for him, and he doesnt even know he has a speech problem. How should my mother or i approach this?
Man, i wish kids werent so cruel. hes actually really funny haha

Answer 1

Maybe he has some type of obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD, which is why he repeats words a lot. Maybe he feels like he has to say certain things and repeat certain things?

This is the only thing I can think of. You could try to go in this direction and see if anything fits with his behavior-- if not, then that's okay too because I'm not a doctor.

Answer 2

Check this page http://www.stutteringhelp.org/DeskLeftDefault.aspx?TabID=82 to see if any of this fits his speech. The Stuttering Foundation of America states on one page "The normally disfluent child: The normally disfluent child occasionally repeats syllables or words once or twice, li-li-like this. Disfluencies may also include hesitancies and the use of fillers such as "uh", "er", "um".
Disfluencies occur most often between ages one and one-half and five years, and they tend to come and go. They are usually signs that a child is learning to use language in new ways. If disfluencies disappear for several weeks, then return, the child may just be going through another stage of learning. "

Perhaps, he is just going through a learning phase and things will be fine. Check out more of the vast amount of information at www.stutteringhelp.org which will give you tips of ways you can help.