Stuttering and Toddlers: What You Need To Know
You might not be surprised to learn that stuttering or stammering isn’t uncommon in
toddlers between the ages of two to five. In fact, these little blips that can take the form
of a repeated sound or a syllable at the beginning of a word (li-li-like) or a complete
break in speech coupled with fillers like ‘uh’ or ‘umm’, are thought to be your child’s
mental processing abilities racing ahead of their ability to make sentences in normally
developing children.
Boys are more likely to need to work through this often frustrating aspect of growing
up than girls and the prolongation of certain sounds like “ssssee” can be frustrating for
Mom and Dad as they watch their little ones struggle. Experts suggest you can listen for
a rise in pitch in your child’s voice that accompanies repetitions—it generally means
they’ve experienced a block where there’s no airflow for several seconds, and use that as
a springboard to get involved and foster the kind of slow and relaxed speech Mr. Rogers
was famous for. You’ll want to talk slowly around your child but not so much so that it
sounds forced and abnormal.
It’s also suggested you take some time each day to give your toddler your undivided
attention so you can listen to the way they talk. Their struggles may be evident in the
facial muscles around the mouth. When they ask you a question, remember to take a few
seconds before you answer so slow and unhurried speech becomes the template they get
used to.
Positive Attitude
It’s also best if you don’t get annoyed when your toddler suffers with mild stuttering.
A calm and positive attitude will foster the same in your child and this is critical since
effortless, relaxed repetitions are the best way for any child to move through this phase.
However, there can come a time when parents might need to take their toddlers’ stuttering
more seriously and even consider getting some help from a specialist. Some general
benchmarks indicating this might be the case includes stuttering more than 10% of
the time, changing words completely to avoid stuttering, or an excessive amount of
frustration or tension when trying to get the words out.
Six Months
Statistics tell us that one in 20 children will develop a stutter that lasts for more than six
months and, although that’s not necessarily the timeframe where there’s an issue, parents
who are concerned can have their toddlers evaluated by a qualified speech-language
pathologist (SLP).
Stuttering has a few causes that need to be taken into account. A family history can be a
deciding factor in whether you want to pursue professional help and children who have
issues in other areas of speech development are more likely to have issues in this area as
well. Neurophysiology is another factor since for some children, language gets processed
in different parts of the brain and this might interfere in the necessary alignment with the
muscles controlling speech.
For more interesting articles like this, visit All My Children Daycare.
Author: Rob Starr