I haven't written an update on Pete's stuttering in a while; last you all knew, we had a private speech therapist coming to the house once a week all summer. That worked out great; he and Pete got along well and, more importantly, we saw real progress. By the end of August, Pete's stuttering was pretty much nonexistent. We knew not to assume that the problem was "cured," but we were very happy to say the least.
Then, in the first week or two of school, we started noticing it again, but just a little. I still don't think it's the case that he stutters more when he's anxious—or even that he was anxious about the start of second grade. I think it was just a time of major transition from lazy summer to busy school year: back to soccer and homework and Sunday school and schedules and all that. When the kids were little, I read Berry Brazelton's book Touchpoints, and what always stuck with me was the notion that when kids (particularly little kids, but I think it also applies to big ones) are about to make a big developmental leap, they often regress in another area. So, for instance, if your toddler is learning to walk, he might start having disrupted sleep. Or, when your kid starts kindergarten, she must start wetting her bed. It's just a case of too much for the little one to handle; kids can accommodate only so much and then something has to give. I think in Pete's case, his stuttering crops up again.
It's not as severe as it was last spring and early summer, when he used to get stuck on nearly every word, but it's definitely noticeable. He doesn't seem bothered by it; when he was speaking smoothly in August, I made a point to talk to him about it and to say that he shouldn't worry if it starts again, because now we know that it can go away. He has a group speech therapy session each week at school, and the speech therapist said he always speaks smoothly there (the other kids have different disfluencies; he's the only stutterer). So again, I think when he concentrates on his speech, he can control it pretty well.
I was reminded about this when I was listening to an old episode of "This American Life" yesterday. It started off with a hilarious piece I remembered very well, about an infamous phone message that made its way around the Columbia University campus in the early '90s. But the next piece I didn't remember, probably because I wouldn't have been paying as much attention to the issue of stuttering. It's really well done, and only a little bit heart-breaking. And, speaking of which, "This American Life" is finally available via free podcast! Yippee! The episode I'm talking about is here.
I am so glad that you caught that American Life piece. I was going to tell you about it...and then I forgot!
Posted by: Charlotte | October 23, 2006 at 08:19 PM