Is it just my family?
Olivia did the same thing when she was three. I’m glad because I don’t have to wonder if Benjamin’s will go away.
For both of them, when they turned three, their little minds started working faster than their tiny tongues could carry out thoughts-turned-words.
Just another patience building exercise for this Momma.
As I listen to an overly excited little boy try to tell me where he found his long-lost toy car….
“I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I found my-my-my-my-my-my car! It-it-it-it-it-it-it-it was in the-the-the-the….”
…I refuse to let my mind wander and my mouth form the all-too-familiar “Uh-huh…. mmm-hmmm… that’s nice!”
It was in a basket. In the toy room closet.
So just in case your three year old sounds like that, too, don’t worry. It’s normal.
Or at least it is in this family.
My first two did this, and my second child did it the most. It isn’t called a stutter, apparently, because they use the whole word instead of the first sound. I *thought* my children did it because I finished their sentences for them, wanting them to talk faster. I don’t know if you do that, but it convicted me enough to slooooow down and listen to everything they had to say, and it eventually went away. I think that it is caused also by the thoughts moving faster than the motor function of speaking. None of my next 3 did that at all. Weird. You actually made me remember it. Very thankful the other ones didn’t do that!! I don’t know yet about the 18 month old because his vocabulary is definitely too small to tell yet. :o)
A great web site to learn how to react when your child stutters and how to determine if and when he/she needs intervention with a speech therapist is http://www.stutteringhelp.org. The Stuttering Foundation has been helping parents of young children who stutter since the late 1940s. They are a non-profit group that is there just to help those who stutter and parents of children who stutter (teachers and employers, too!). It is amazing to see how many people stutter as adults, and it is nice to have professional information to make sure our children get help right away.
I have four children, ages 3 – 14, and they have ALL stuttered. Didn’t know that was statistically possible!
.-= allison´s last blog ..found my old blog. seems the more things change… =-.
My 5yr old did/does something similar, but with whole parts of sentances instead of just words. So your example would become something like “I found.. I found..I found.. it was.. I found.. my car! I found it! it was.. I found.. I found my car in.. it was in.. it was in the cupboard.” Although sometimes he just gets frustrated/distracted and stops, going off to do something else.
He sounds like a broken robot.
Oddly, I’ve found the only way to help is to guess at what he’s trying to say and help him out. “You found your car? Where was it?” “Yeah! I found it in the cupboard!”
Also, the more times I’ve writen ‘found’, the more wrong it looks.
That’s not stuttering. I know a lot of young children who repeat words like that, including my own. It’s truly their minds working so hard to think of the next word they get stuck on the one they have. We as adults do the same thing when we read. Speed readers have learned not to get stuck on a single word but take in the information as they read. Normal readers actually read a single word repeatedly causing them to be much slower. Little children do this when learning to communicate. You’re right, it’s normal.
I found your comments intersting as I passed by. I have two children, one 21, the other 18. My 21-year- old stuttered like a house afire at that age–nothing ever came of it. My 18 year old did the exact same thing and it turns out he has a significant stutter as a young adult. He has been to a lot of private speech therapy, but it is something he will always have to work on. As a mom, my advice would always be: slow down, relax, but keep one eye open for any possible issues. Also, always trust your “mommy gut,” and don’t let people tell you otherwise! I too recommend the stuttering support site mentioned earlier.
One last note to the mom of the 5-year-old—in terms of “generalities” (whatever THAT means,) five is a little old for that kind of a speech pattern. You might try NOT finishing his sentences and see what happens. Just a thought 🙂 Hope you are not offended.
Not offended. I’ve often thought he was a bit old to still be doing it. If I don’t promt him, he’ll keep going for up to 5 minutes. If I promt him, something in his mind clicks and he can suddenly talk ‘normally’ again. It doesn’t happen very often. Just when he’s super excited about something
/hijacking
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..I never thought I would be so excited about my pantry. =-.