Can kids give THEMSELVES stuttering problems?

[ha98ed14]

Thanks, All! I'm editing because, while I am admittedly high strung, this over reaction makes me look like the raging idiot I truly am, and I'm just not ready to admit that openly. Queen, I don't blame you for laughing and San Diego, feel free to share. I posted it on a public message board, so it's hardly proprietary. Thank God no one quoted me.

[queenmama]

Is it wrong that I LOLed? Sorry, I'm just thinking I would've done the exact.same.thing. I sure hope she doesn't develop a stutter, then I would feel guilty for laughing, but I have a hunch she's going to be more careful with her speech, if anything. ;)

[maestramommy]

Aw, lol!

Laurel tends to stutter. Well what she does is get stuck on saying in the middle of a sentence, "um, um, um," over again while sounding breathless. I think her brain gets crowded and she can't make the words come out fast enough, OR she knows what she wants to say but is blanking on the word. Because other times she's completely fine, comes out with total zingers, even in the middle of a tantrum.

[hillview]

DS1 sometimes tries on a stutter (when he was younger), ignore it and it will go away. :22:

[Snow mom]

I'm fairly certain scientists don't know what causes stuttering but it isn't something a five year old could suddenly do on purpose and get "stuck". She might take stuttering on as a mannerism but real stuttering--the type of stuttering you'd worry about--is not voluntary. Saying um, um, um isn't stuttering, it's getting ahead of your brain/ talking too fast and is something that is outgrown or trained out. The type of stuttering to worry about is breaking words "I pet the ca,ca,ca...cat."

[maestramommy]

I'm fairly certain scientists don't know what causes stuttering but it isn't something a five year old could suddenly do on purpose and get "stuck". She might take stuttering on as a mannerism but real stuttering--the type of stuttering you'd worry about--is not voluntary. Saying um, um, um isn't stuttering, it's getting ahead of your brain/ talking too fast and is something that is outgrown or trained out. The type of stuttering to worry about is breaking words "I pet the ca,ca,ca...cat."

This makes a lot of sense, and I don't really think my kid stutters. I had a friend who really did stutter and it was more like what you're saying. But I remember hearing once that if your child stutters to wait patiently until they get the entire sentence out. That's what I do with my kid. Even if I wanted to prompt her, I couldn't because I have NO idea what is coming:p

[JustMe]

Dd's preschool teacher told me that it is really common for kids to stutter around 4-5. She said its when they start having lots of thoughts and sometimes their speech is not developed enough (but its normal) to keep up with organizing those thoughts into speech others can understand.

Anyway, can a child give themselves stuttering problems. No, I don't think so. Possibly for a very short time (learned habit), but they would naturally move on from this/grow out of it if it wasn't a problem that came from a deeper reason.

[mom2binsd]

I've never heard of it and I'm an SLP...I'll be seeing my former mentor/professor in a month at a big conference, he's one of the experts in the US on stuttering and I'd love to share this with him as we often talk about how parents often feel so guilty when it's out of their control...it's 99.9999999999999999999% sure NOT to cause her to stutter.

They often can't pinpoint a cause, although more and more research is showing a neurologic component. In clinic I saw some children whose parents report stuttering beginning linked to divorce, the death of a close family member, a new sibling, moving etc...but haven't heard about mom and dad yelling at them to not play stutter as a link...:wink2: