Question:
:my daughter has just turned 3 yrs. old and I have been noticing that she :is starting to stutter, mostly when she trys to say "you". Is this :something that I need to get looked at or is it just a phase? Please :e-mail me direct because I don’t read this newsgroup much. Thanks. :Rosemarie I would definitely check it out. I suggest checking with a child psychologist, as well as a medical doctor.
Response:
>:my daughter has just turned 3 yrs. old and I have been noticing that she >:is starting to stutter, mostly when she trys to say "you". Is this >:something that I need to get looked at or is it just a phase? Please >:e-mail me direct because I don’t read this newsgroup much. Thanks. >:Rosemarie >I would definitely check it out. I suggest checking with a child psychologist, >as well as a medical doctor.
From everthing I’ve read, and I’ve read tons of parenting books out of paranoia over things just like this, stuttering at age three is very common. Here is what Penelope Leach writes in Your Baby and Child: " The pre-school child’s ideas are bigger than his vocabulary. He finds it difficult to express his thoughts smoothly, especially when having to search for the right word holds up the flow of what he wants to say. When he is excited or upset, he wants to pour something out but the words keep hiccuping. Jerky uneven speech happens to almost every pre-school child somethimes but only rarely does it turn into a real stutter or stammer which lasts. The important thing is to stay calm yourselves…and remain completely accepting of the way the child talks. If you can avoid making him nervous or self-conscious about speaking, he will almost certainly talk his way out of this phase. If you are trying to decide whether a pre-school stutter is turning into a real problem, consider the following points before you seek the speech therapy that will certainly make him aware of it: *Does he deliberately try to control the muscles of his face, lips and tongue so that he grimaces whenever he stumbles? If so he is already conscious of some difficulty with speaking. *Does he speak fluently to himself when he is alone? If so his stuttering when he speaks to other people is almost certainly due to anxiety caused by too much pressure. Reducing stress in every area of his life and providing extra, warm, fun companionship for a while may produce an easy flow of talk again. If not, ask your doctor to refer the child to a speech therapist so that he gets help before lack of confidence in this new skill of communication saps his confidence in all his other skills as well." My 3 1/2 year old son went through a stuttering period a while ago. In watching him and listening to him I could see that his mind was just working too fast for his mouth, and his limited vocabulary didn’t help as he would struggle to get the correct word out. His speech is fine now, but he will still have an occassional spell of stuttering if he is especially excited and having a hard time finding words to express himself. I wouldn’t worry just yet. Kathie
Response:
my daughter has just turned 3 yrs. old and I have been noticing that she is starting to stutter, mostly when she trys to say "you". Is this something that I need to get looked at or is it just a phase? Please e-mail me direct because I don’t read this newsgroup much. Thanks. Rosemarie
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