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Happily Chatty Toddlers Who Start To Stutter
Happily Chatty Toddlers Who Start To Stutter
to Stutter
What happens when kids stutter, and 12 things you can do
about it.
Posted October 30, 2016 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma
It’s terribly worrying, but not at all uncommon, for children who start talking
early to experience a period of stuttering sometime between 18 months and 4
years of age. It can start all at once, and usually ends just as quickly a few
days, weeks, or months later.
What’s Happening?
With some toddlers, the stuttering (also called stammering) is mild—a few f-f-f-
false starts every few sentences. With others, it’s more severe, happening in
most sentences, preventing effective communication, and leading to the
child’s speaking less frequently.
Some little ones show signs of anxiety about the stuttering, blinking their eyes
rapidly, raising the pitch of the voice, or looking worried. Being tired, excited,
worried, angry, or upset usually makes stuttering worse.
For little ones with very active brains, their thoughts and ideas can be racing
ahead of their physical ability to make the words. Or as one mom wrote,
“Intelligent kids’ brains work better than their mouths.”
“When your child is in the midst of a great jump in his language skills, it's
natural he should have difficulty putting his sentences together in a fluent way.
His brain is like a computer, desperately trying to pull up the right words in the
right order. While the computer is searching, his mouth may go into a pause
(translated: repeat) mode.”
When a child who’s previously been a good talker begins to stutter, many
parents blame themselves or worry about other aspects of the child’s life. If
that’s you, stop looking for someone or something to blame. Stuttering in
toddlers is very rarely caused by environmental stressors. Instead, it is usually
a transient phase in the development of language skills. The child who was
previously a great talker will most probably become that again before too long.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/going-beyond-
intelligence/201610/happily-chatty-toddlers-who-start-stutter