Baby's Speech?

Question

My niece stutter a lot and its scary.....she is only two but can speak really well. Will she grow out of it?

Answer 1

Sometimes yes...sometimes no. At two, she may just be very excited to get her point across. She's still practicing and it's all new to her. Her vocabulary may just be more developed than her speaking ability.

If she does continue to stutter, speech therapy works miracles with stuttering. My nephew really stuttered a lot, but now you'd never know he had the problem.

Answer 2

Hollychri left something out. The age to become concerned is more like age 5, not 3.
The best way to handle "developmental stuttering" (the language development stage that 90% of all kids go through) is to IGNORE the dysfluencies. Don't call attention to the stuttering or tell the child to "slow down". About 98% of kids DO grow out of it.

Answer 3

Your best source for information about stuttering, especially in young children, is The Stuttering Foundation of America at www.stutteringhelp.org. You will find a chart that helps you determine if and when a child needs to see a speech pathologist, what parents and others can do to help the child, and online videos and books.

Answer 4

A lot of children begin to stutter at this age due to growing vocabulary and their increasing rate of speech (they want to say so much and get really excited!). I would keep an eye on it, usually around age 3, if they are still stuttering, have them see a speech therapist.

Also, what type of stuttering do you see her doing? Does she do part-word repetitions "puh-puh-please" or whole-word "I-I-I want to go outside?" Part-word repetitions are more indicative of a stuttering disorder, whereas whole-word repetitions are more than likely just her being excited and/or getting ahead of herself.

Another good indicator of a true stuttering disorder is if she blocks totally when trying to start a word (for example...she tries to say "ball" but just gets stuck and nothing comes out as her lips are in the "b" position). If she is doing this and shows extra behaviors like blinking her eyes or what looks like a nervous "tick" on her face, then she will probably need therapy!