stuttering

[Juliejd]

My 3.5 yr. old son has begun stuttering. For a long time now (about 6 months or so) he's been repeating words, but I haven't been too concerned about this. However, over the last week or so, he struggles to get the first few letters out. For instance, he'll ask "wwwwwhhhere's the dog?". And I've noticed it often involves the "what", "where", and "why" questions. It doesn't happen all the time. I noticed it approximately seven times yesterday. I've even noticed his eyes closing and head nodding while he's stuttering. My father has a severe stuttering problem. My husband also used to, but says he outgrew it at about 20 yrs. old.

I'm really concerned my son is going to develop this problem, as his family hx presdisposes him. He was born with a cleft lip and palate and went through speech therapy already. His speech is developmentally age appropriate right now, and he's doing great! Am I jumping the gun in terms of being concerned at this point?

[sarasejb]

My daughter just turned 4 and she also started dtuttering when she was 2 1/2 to 3.  I was worried about it but they say it is very common for kids who are learnig to put whole sentences together to stutter.  I also noticed it was when she was asking questions, it's like they are not sure how to pronounce the word to make it sound like they are asking and not just sayin.  I also heard it is more common for little boys to stutter but i think if it only stays with one letter or sound at a time then you'll be ok, give it about a year. I know that it sounds long, but my daughter is just now growing out of it.  Just watch out to make sure it doesn't become like three different sounding words in one sentence.

[debzee]

My son 27 now used to stutter he out grew it.  I first took him to his regular doctor and he said he should out grow it.  The word should scared me, what if he doesn't.  I wasn't going to take the gamble.  I went to a speech specialist, the first thing I had to learn was to kneel down and make eye contact with my son everytime he talked to me don't be in a hurry and let him understand this.  Repeat what he says to you slowly so he can hear what it is suppose to sound like.  Never point out his problem.  Never let him hear you talking about his stuttering or other children laugh.  Good Luck
debzee