All of a sudden my 28month old son has started stuttering - I have no idea why. I have read that it is quite normal for some toddlers to stutter - but if anyone has advice on dealing with it that would be great. Should I be correcting him or asking him to speak clearly? Or just ignore it for a while.
Does anyone else have toddlers who stutter/have stuttered? How long before they grow out of it???
I would advice to ignore and not make a fuss at all infront of him cos this wil make him nervous and worsen it obviously
in the meanwhile u can give him cod liver oil, this helps even in extreme cases, i had a cousin stutter around 3yrs so bad that he couldnt talk and my aunt gave him cod liver oil out of a sggestion made by a friend, and now my cousin chats non stop tht people have to ask him to shut up!!! XD
I have the same problem with my 28 months daughter and I know she does to imitate the brother of 10 months. I believe it will pass.
I remember reading in a forum (can’t remember which one) about a mom who got her daughter to stop stuttering within a few weeks by getting her to crawl around a few times a day. I can’t remember where she got her idea from. I guess there is no harm giving it a try. Good luck.
Half of my kids went through this and they all grew out of it. It usually starts around that age. I just ignored it or told them to slow down and repeat it. I think that their brains are working so fast and they can’t get the words out fast enough. That has been my experience.
Krista - How long does it take them to grow out of it?
Tellinh him to slow down has made a huge difference - he’ll repeat what he’s saying without any stuttering!
yes, i too have heard its a phase, but there are extreme cases have seen, in my son’s case i am not soo worried cos i can see its cos he wanna say it all in one go and if hes asked to slow down it works big time… at times when I am talking with another and he wanna say something he goes, mummi wait ky wants to say something and then start stuttering!!! i mean he asks me to wait in normal n then he needs to hurry and say what he want to say which cause the stuttering!
According to a specialist, the child can pass by this phase of stuttering in a period of 8 months, it is important to say that each case is different and it disappear naturally. The parents can´t help the child to talk, or say something like: “speak slowly”, “breaf deep”, etc. This kind of help can be a pressure to them.
I just did a forum search on “stuttering” as my son just started this three days ago. The little boy we woke up to today was so different than who we know him as. Today his stuttering was way, way worse - even more stuttering than the last three days.
I’m happy for all of you who have used the “just slow down” method, but the majority of websites suggest that YOU as the parent slow down and not to use those words with your child. They say, in a nutshell, focus on the child, make eye contact, don’t interrupt or finish for them, make them feel that whatever it is that they want to say is worth waiting for. They say once the child is done to repeat the sentence saying something like “That’s right! The dog IS running quickly!” or whatever the child just said - to confirm to the child that you were actually listening.
As for me and my husband, we are trying to be calm even though we hope and pray that this is not a “lifetime” thing but, as with many toddlers, will grow out of it!
The crawling thing makes sense. That is a Doman strategy, you can read about it in his physically superb book. If it just happened overnight - could it be related to a vaccine? Just something to think about.
Hi All,
My son hasn’t had a vaccine recently so I doubt its that. Its probably a developmental thing - which has improved considerably by just asking him to slow down. I don’t think I’ve applied any pressure on him by saying this.
I’m intrigued about the crawling link - can anyone summarise why thsi works please?
Yes, I, too, would like to hear more about the crawling bit. I’ve googled so many different words to try to find links to theories about this but can’t find a single thing! None-the-less, we’ve been crawling for the last few days - my knees are SO sore! Just a few minutes on the carpet have given me rug burn! 
I’ve also heard about using a chiropractor for this. Apparently, back 60 some years ago my dad stuttered and his mom took him to a chiropractor…and then yesterday my husband heard that a co-worker’s cousin did this with her son and had success. When I called to book an appointment for later this week the receptionist was very, very familiar with this type of request. They, apparently, see many, many children for this reason. I’m looking forward to the appointment as I’m having a hard time watching him as he struggles - yesterday we all had a meltdown because of it (not in front of him).
Kizudo,
I know how you feel - having a hard time about it…Please do let us know how the appointment with the chiropractor goes.
Re: crawling. these might help.
http://www.brillbaby.com/teaching-baby/physical-development/baby-crawling.php
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-other-topics/crawling-is-it-important/
Here is a link to the Child Brain forum. This forum used to be very active before they had a major crash, you may not get many replies if you post a question, however, if you check their archives, there is an amazing volume of knowledge.
Don’t panic. Your right it’s probably developmental. My daughter stuttered for several months not long ago. It seemed worse whenever she was excited. Recently we noticed that we hadn’t heard a stutter over the past couple of months, so I think she is done. There is alot of good professional advice online. All consistently recommended the instructions that Kizudo posted. We waited patiently for our dd to complete her sentence. We didn’t finish the sentence for her. Then we calmly repeated the sentence. I was especially worried because my grandfather has stuttered his whole life. I thought there was a good possiblity that her stutter was genetic, not developmental. But it looks like her stutter is completely gone - hooray.
Good Luck, Lori
That’s excellent, Lori!
I hope to write my own “hooray” post, too! Watch (and pray) for it!
So we went to the chiropractor today.
As I said earlier, they are quite familiar with treating kids who stutter. Our doctor was very clear though in that not all stuttering is caused by something being misaligned - that there are, in fact, many things that are suspected that cause it. (This was also told to us when we spoke to a speech pathologist the other day. She said that “they” can’t precisely say what causes stuttering as there is no one common denominator. She used the term “multifactorial”.)
Anyway, he showed us on a diagram what areas of my son’s neck can affect speech but, again, if this stuttering is not caused by his mechanics being “off” then, of course, what he does won’t make a difference. He did some neck massage (and showed us how to do it at home) and he also snapped his neck twice (of course, we were nervous about this, but in the end we trusted him - he’s got a great reputation in our city). He said that often a trauma of sorts is what kicks it in if the child is disposed to it anyway. Thinking back, my son fell on his head (yes, his HEAD) about a month ago, but I think that his traumatic moment was last Friday (this was when it really got BAD). I had jerked him up off his chair and bent him over the kitchen sink as I frantically tried to wash out the paint he that he had “want a taste.” It seems, to my recollection, that it got bad after that moment. That’s why I’m praying that this chiropractor theory is right.
He also suggested giving him extra vitamin B. We already give him Poly-Vi-Sol but apparently there’s a drop form of vitamin B out there. He said that he used to give his kids gel casules of vit.B.
I’ll keep you posted.
Kizudo. V useful to know. Karma to you.
know it’s quite distressing for you but I can assure you, it’ll pass. My 6 year old stuttered badly from about 3 years old and it just have lasted about a year. There were times when it got really bad- when he was excited especially. I felt really bad and wondered what I did wrong! I was scared he’d be bullied in school and all. We saw a speech therapist and wentthrough some exercises with him which I’m not sure helped much but it got less and less until one day we looked back and realized he was speaking fluently.
A lot of kids stutter, for some it’s part of language development where their brain is much faster than their mouths can articulate the words! Eventually they’ll learn to slow down.
Hope everything goes well with you.