Stuttering

Recently i’ve noticed that Kory has started to stutter a little when he’s speaking. At first I put it down to his age and maybe him just trying to get his words out a bit too fast but I don’t know anyone else’s children that do this? So I thought i’d do a bit of research of my own about stuttering in children and see what information I could find.

Apparently developing a stutter is quite common between children aged 2-5 years which happens to be Kory’s age group which did make me feel a little better. It also said that stuttering is usually just a phase that children go through and that it’s not normally anything to worry about, it’s hard to determine whether the stutter would become a long term problem because that’s usually something that’s figured out further along down the line but it’s more often than not nothing that needs to be worried about.

After searching the internet and reading forums, I found out that stuttering in children can be brought on by their brain working faster than their mouth (which is what I thought was the cause for Kory’s sudden stutter initially), there’s also a few other potential causes as well but none that seem fitting… There was also some suggestions in which I can help Kory with his stuttering. I read that I can help by slowing down how I speak to encourage him to do the same, get down to Kory’s level when he is speaking to me, make eye contact with him and show that I’m listening, remain patient when he’s trying to get his words out and do not draw attention to the stuttering by saying things like ‘slow down.’ ‘take your time, you’re stuttering.’ For example. These remarks may sound helpful but really they’re just drawing unnecessary attention to his stutter and this could effect him. If I’m honest, I’d already put a few of these suggestions in place to try and help Kory so I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing and see if that helps with his stutter.

I really hope the stuttering is nothing that I need to be worried about. Kory has always been a brilliant speaker and I really don’t know how or why this stutter has suddenly come on out of nowhere but it would be a real shame if something like this was to have a negative impact on him. Kory has always been a really out going little boy, I also don’t want this to effect him at nursery, amongst his friends or have an effect on his confidence. Speaking of nursery, I’m going to mention it to them tomorrow and see if they’ve noticed anything or can help in any way. Chances are, they’ve had plenty of experience with children who stutter and will be able to help both me and Kory.

Have your children ever suddenly started to stutter? If they did, what did you do to help them with that? Any advice is appreciated!