Sensory Issues and sudden Stuttering?

March 18, 2019 12:42 PM

Our son will be 4 in July and has sensory issues. I felt he was really regulated the last couple of months but suddenly about a week ago he started stuttering, like, a lot. I'm going to ask our OT about it but has anyone experienced this and can maybe give some insight? Should I book into speech therapy, like right now? Or chill about it?

So basically when he starts to say something, OFTEN now in the last couple of weeks, he will say I,I,I,I,I,I want to(insert rest of statement). Or. for example, Wh, Wh, Wh, Wh, Why is.... (insert rest of question)?

He has come so far the last couple of months that this has kind of knocked me for 6 a little bit.

I don't know if I should be looking intently at him waiting for him to finish? Should I try to finish the sentence? I have no clue!

posted by catspajammies to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

Has he suddenly started using a lot more words? We went through this with my son when he was developing his sentences and using more complex words. It went away in a few months.
posted by photoexplorer at 12:55 PM on March 18, 2019

I stuttered really terribly through grade school and controlled it through speech therapy. Starting at the beginning of a sentence and repeating the first word is common among kids 2-4 years old as they tend to learn to strong longer, more complicated sentences together and they catch up with their own thoughts to make them into speech. Here's some basic info about this common occurrence.
posted by xingcat at 1:00 PM on March 18, 2019

Oh! I have a bit of hope now! I should add that he has always had a HUGE vocabulary... very verbal. We have recently (over the last 6 weeks or so) gone from reading aloud for 15 minutes a day to reading 30-45 minutes a day- maybe that has introduced a lot more language for him to process and try to use.
posted by catspajammies at 1:02 PM on March 18, 2019

Super common at this age and if he's getting out whole words that's very different from being "blocked" while trying to produce a starting sound. I wouldn't worry at all.
posted by Ausamor at 1:58 PM on March 18, 2019

In terms of how to respond to him / handle it in the moment, you don't want to draw undue attention to it, or act impatient. So I'm not sure about "looking intently at him" because that makes me feel pressured just imagining it, but more conveying with your tone and body language "it's cool, I'm not in a rush, I can wait til you get it out." It's not generally recommended to finish stuttering kids' sentences, but rather to give them time to get their thoughts out, and in answering them, to model slightly slower speech cadences.

If it were me, I'd give him another week or so to see what happens before jumping on the evaluations, though you can certainly start figuring out who you'd call, etc. As others have said, it's much less likely to be a long-term problem if he isn't having blocks or straining to get words out.
posted by telepanda at 2:07 PM on March 18, 2019

My son went through this at that age. Our pediatrician said it was totally normal and that we should ignore it - she said we should avoid making it into a big deal or source of stress for him, just let him get his words out and let his body and brain catch up to each other. The stuttering faded away on its own after a few months.
posted by beandip at 2:18 PM on March 18, 2019

My son always seems to cycle through different sensory stims, and they can be verbal at times. My guess is he's stuttering because it gives him sensory feedback he likes. I'd just wait it out a bit longer. Also as he got past 4, the stims increased.
posted by schwinggg! at 2:53 PM on March 18, 2019

Mine will be four in July too and has no particular sensory issues and totally does exactly this. I've never even thought of it as stuttering before since it's almost always the beginning of a complex sentence and/or a situation where they actually want to say/ask multiple things at the same time. I just wait without commenting on it, and if the result is utterly mixed up/needs more words, I say what I think they were going for and get confirmation. I've overheard other adults "finishing the sentences for them" but I've got to tell you, the stuff the kid comes up with is way better and those adults are missing out.
posted by teremala at 7:40 PM on March 18, 2019

Update: He has pretty much stopped! Hopefully for good but if anyone searches this question down the road, that is what happened. When he would start to stutter we would say: Stop, look at me, go slow. That helped and I guess it was a phase.
posted by catspajammies at 11:28 AM on April 10, 2019

Update: he more or less stopped, his preschool teachers technique was to make him stop, look in her eyes and slow down. We did the same thing and it worked quickly.
posted by catspajammies at 10:47 AM on November 4, 2019