Speech Update

Pete's stuttering disfluency is getting more severe every week. He's stopped stuttering per se ("d-d-d-dog"); now he just gets completely blocked on a word and can't get it out. He's started doing all those weird facial contortions we've all seen before, complete with grimacing and neck tension and strange tongue positions. Sometimes he says an entire sentence perfectly; other times he gets stuck on nearly every word. Three weeks ago we started with Matt, a private speech therapist who comes to the house every Thursday to work with Pete for an hour. He addresses the problem head-on rather than dance around it, which I think is a good thing. We still hadn't really noticed anything that would suggest that Pete was overly affected by his problem—until today. In the car on the way to camp, out of nowhere, he said, "I wish I was just like everyone else." I didn't even know what he meant, but he said, "I wish I didn't stutter." My heart just broke for him. I told him that I could imagine how frustrating it must be for him to get stuck on words and that I can understand why it makes him feel bad. But I also assured him that he's not the only one with some sort of problem, so when he says he wants to be like everyone else, he could be like Steph (with colitis and daily meds) or like Julie (with eye surgery and bifocals) or like a kid with asthma or diabetes or whatever. I was just trying to show him that everyone has something going on, and he's not the only one. But at the same time I wanted to make sure he knew that it's OK to feel bad about it and to tell me. I told him that's why we hired Matt to come and help him out. Matt reported that Pete said he gets most frustrated about it when he's playing games with his friends and he gets stuck. Pete is just the sweetest, most easy-going kid imaginable, and it kills me to think of him worrying about something like this. All I can hope for at this point is that Matt can give him the tools he needs to deal with this as it gets more pronounced and does indeed start to impinge on his life.

Comments

[Susan Barr]

I also have a son Pete who was also a serious stutterer. Of course, the more they worry about it the more they stutter. My Pete got to the point that he would stop mid-sentence and seem to be trying to untie his tongue. I suspected that part of his problem was continued exposure to a particular adult who seemed to have borderline stammering problems. At any rate, my Pete's stuttering was just about as bad as it could get and he grew out of it! I think he was about sixteen when it abated and it was entirely gone within that year.

[Karen]

THANK YOU SO MUCH for telling me that! :-)