Pete has pretty much always stuttered, or at least since he was around 3. He didn't even start speaking until he was about 2.5, so I always just figured he was making up for lost time and it would even out. Stephanie had had brief bouts of stuttering as her language skills developed, so I just assumed it would go away for him too. Last year I mentioned it to his kindergarten teacher, who didn't feel it was affecting him academically or socially. At the beginning of this school year, I began to notice it more and more, so I mentioned it to his first-grade teacher. She had the school's speech therapist listen in on him, and the speech therapist then recommended a more formal evaluation. I said that was fine, as long as he wasn't made to feel self-conscious about it in any way. He is such a happy kid, and he's never expressed any frustration about his stuttering—in fact, we weren't even sure he was aware of it!—that I just didn't want to create an issue for him. (One day not long ago, out of the blue, Pete asked me, "Did Daddy used to stutter when he was a kid"? I said, "I didn't know him then, but he did tell me that he used to stutter." I paused, then asked, "Do you think that's maybe why you stutter?" and he said "Yeah." I asked, "Does it ever bother you when you stutter?" and he looked at me kind of quizzically and said, "No." For the record, we learned that there is some hereditary component to stuttering.)
Anyhow, today I met with his teacher and the speech therapist to go over the results of the evaluation. They're both terrific; I'm feeling very grateful that our school system in general and our school in particular offer such great services! The speech therapist said that she never mentioned stuttering to him; she just asked him questions, showed him pictures and talked about them, and so on. She said he was completely comfortable and cooperative the whole time. Her assessment is that his stuttering is "moderate" (which was how the teacher and I had both rated it) and that he could definitely benefit from weekly half-hour sessions with her. She said that she's a "generalist" and has only a little bit of experience with stutterers (I was surprised to learn that she's had only a few in all her years there), so if by December she doesn't feel he's making progress, she would suggest we go to the "stuttering guru," a woman a few towns over who is widely regarded as the best around. That would certainly be less convenient, and I don't know whether our insurance would cover it, so I can't help hoping that the free sessions during school hours work out!
His teacher said that he doesn't seem at all bothered by his stuttering and doesn't shy away from opportunities to speak, and that none of his classmates has ever said anything about it. I'm kind of surprised that Stephanie has never mentioned it, because she doesn't miss anything. As for me and Andy, we always just wait for him to get the word out when he's stuck; we never try to finish his words for him. The speech therapist also said that rather than tell him to speak more slowly, we should model slower speech for him and also pause before answering his questions so as to slow the pace down even more. He does speak very fast, so she thinks that slowing down might help the stuttering too.
Henry stuttered a bit around 3, but it was I who was the world-class stutter. Even today I can feel a stutter coming on when I'm nervous. The speech person who evaluated Henry said it was quite commom for kids to stutter and that often they outgrow it.
Posted by: Liz | October 27, 2005 at 01:38 PM
Henry stuttered a bit, but it was really I who had the stuttering issue. I still stutter a bit today when I'm nervous. I like to think we stutters are very bright and have so much to say...
Posted by: Liz | October 27, 2005 at 01:41 PM
OR he could come to CTA where I work which would be the coolest thing ever :)
Posted by: Jen | October 27, 2005 at 06:37 PM
You are handling it perfectly as far as I am concerned. I am not very familiar with stuttering, although my husband does it a bit.
Posted by: Margaret | October 27, 2005 at 10:44 PM
I really admire the way you're handling it, Karen. I've heard that when kids get self-conscious about stuttering, it only makes it worse.
Posted by: pam | October 29, 2005 at 11:58 PM
A lot of the info they gave us to read talks about parents feeling frustrated or even angry about their kid's stuttering, which is very strange to me. All I ever thought or worried about was whether PETE was feeling frustrated or angry. Here's hoping he can work through it without ever getting self-conscious.
Posted by: Karen | October 30, 2005 at 07:42 AM
Mquest Jr. has been going to a school speach therapist for about a month. At a 3.3 years of age his speach was still delayed. The school district took him in and we are seeing a world of differance. (it is also a half hour lesson each week.)
At one point we were taking him to the HMO at 25 dollers a lesson.
Our state also gave him free care at a speach center up to the ago of three.
Posted by: Mquest | November 06, 2005 at 08:44 AM
We started early intervention for Pete at around 2yo because of delayed speech too. He finally started talking at around 2.5 and we discontinued the speech therapy. I don't know whether there's any connection with delayed speech and stuttering.
Posted by: Karen | November 06, 2005 at 09:32 AM