Stuttering

[Jennie]

I am the grandmother of a darling 3 yr old little girl. She's extremely bright and up until recently, very articulate. Over the past month, she has started stuttering terribly. It's so hard to see her struggling to get her words out and she is very hard to understand.

My son is very concerned and are doing all the right things like not hurrying her or drawing attention to her stuttering. They took her to a speech therapist who felt she had moderate to severe stuttering.

They are not going to use this therapist as she seems very stern and does not seem to relate well to children. They are now looking for another therapist.

Can any of you mums offer any advice?

[Guest]

Have you tried getting her to recite poetry, or sing song or simialr?

My son stutters, and while this didnt completely cure it, its made it much better. not sure how it works, i think its something to do with getting them to think out wht theyre gonna say?? I dunno.

[Jennie]

I am the grandmother of a darling 3 yr old little girl. She's extremely bright and up until recently, very articulate. Over the past month, she has started stuttering terribly. It's so hard to see her struggling to get her words out and she is very hard to understand.

My son is very concerned and are doing all the right things like not hurrying her or drawing attention to her stuttering. They took her to a speech therapist who felt she had moderate to severe stuttering.

They are not going to use this therapist as she seems very stern and does not seem to relate well to children. They are now looking for another therapist.

Can any of you mums offer any advice?

Tried that as well as getting him to whisper everything, hopefully the therapist will have more luck

[Tilda2468]

Hi Jennie

Our son went through the same thing from around the age of 3 and a half and it lasted around 6 months - stopping as quickly as it had started.

He too was very bright and we were referred to a lovely speech therapist who basically said that because of his intelligence level, his brain was moving too fast for his mouth - in other words, he was thinking ahead too much and could not formulate conversation as quickly as his brain wanted too.

We were advised to ignore it - not to make a big deal out of it and as his mouth caught up with his brain he should grow out of it...and this is what happened. We grew so used to hearing him stutter, especially on the 'w' words, when it did stop happening we hadn't noticed for a few days and then it literlly stopped. 18 months on he is fine and talking constantly with no problems.

It is a very distressing problem for those around - you feel like you have to warn everyone beforehand not to finish sentences for them - but there is usually light at the end of the tunnel. For the majority of children - so I was told - stuttering is just a temporary thing which they grow out of after a few months.

I hope your grandaughter is the same, please take comfort in that it is relatively common and should hopefully stop within a few months.

Best wishes

Tilda
xx