Hi, I am a little scared right now.

Quick history, ds (3 y/o in Aug) was diagnosed with a speech delay in 04. I went through a parent program (Hanan) that teaches the parent how to communicate with thier child to promote language. We finished that and he's doing great. He still has a delay, but is making progress. Which is great...

But now he's stuttering, and it scares me. His big brother stuttered for 3 years, and I know how it can frustrate the child. I don't want him to stop talking, ecpecially now that he is doing so great.

Has anyone had this happen with thier speech delayed child? Did it go along with an articulation delay?

I'm going to call his therapist on Monday, I just needed to see if anyone else has dealt with this too.

TIA

My ds isn't speech delayed, but my 3 year old (today!!) was stuttering pretty badly. I was worried because my dad stuttered through high school. Both my brother and I stuttered. I outgrew my in my 3rd year and my brother around Kindergarten.

I sought the advise of two different speech therapists about my ds. Both said it's very normal at this age. I was told that a lot of the time it's because their brain is working faster than their mouths can form the words, or because they know what they need to say and don't know the word yet. The 2 pieces of good advice I got from them were: 1) don't ask a child with stuttering issues to perform on demand. It may make them nervous and will make the stutter (at that time) worse. 2) Let them take as much time as they need to get the sentence out. Don't finish for them.

I, too, have heard it can be normal at this age. I hope that is the case for your little guy.

I have also heard it can be normal to stutter at that age. I also know where you are coming from. My 4yr old has been in speech therapy for a little over 2yrs now. It really stinks when something sets. My dd also knows she doesn't speak like the other kids and that has been hard. We went through stages where she just shut off from talking to other people outside the family.

I am sure your therapist will direct you with the right info and some helpful tools to use with your son.

Good luck.

It is very normal even for a child with normal developing speech and language habits. You are probably just more sensitive to it because of his other issues.

The best advice is to simply wait him out, let him take all the time it takes to say what he needs to say. Never jump in and try to finish for him to save him the frustration. That will only make things worse for him from a language stand point.