We have been on a long journey with our youngest and speech therapy, which he has been receiving now for about 3 years. We went from pointing for things he wanted, to sign language, to one word sentences, to two word sentences, to three.. (you get the picture)...and a funny thing happened along the way.. stuttering. At first, we were told that he "would grow out of it.. " or, "that is is developmental." Well, it had/has gotten progressively worse, to the point he is frustrated in class. The speech therapy is not working, and has not solved the issue. In fact, the speech therapy, from a therapist who does NOT specialize in stuttering, only made it worse.. (gee thanks!).
Enough was enough, and today we went to CHOP (The Children's Hospital of Philly). They have a great stuttering program/speech, etc.. and we decided to have him evaluated by a professional. I kind-of thought that perhaps he was looking at a lifelong diagnosis of stuttering, that is, was not going to grow out of it, being it has been a bit more than 2 years. Well, the speech pathologist confirmed what I already knew.. bummer.. for him. Stuttering is a great bulling device I'm afraid. So, I headed over to The Stuttering Foundation.
They had some great information about stuttering, and stuttering with regard to autism spectrum disorders. So CHOP and I decided for now, since he is young, we would not apply any type of therapy at this point. Kids this young are not always able to catch themselves and apply some techniques in order to help them slow their brains down to speak. It is suggested that 3rd grade is a good time to start stuttering therapy, being the child has more self control, and ability to self correct. It was also suggested that his current speech therapy should not at all address the stuttering, as it was making it worse, but rather continue to focus on the articulation issues.
One cannot STOP stuttering, as it is a neurological issue, but you can use some techniques to help the stuttering. Some examples of what my child does, are the following; wha wha wha wha what is that? C c c c can we go now? Wwwwhhhheeeennnn (very slowly) is dinner? Hey mom, hey mom, hey mom, hey mom? If your child has had dysfluencies such as these, for at least 6 months or so, you may want to consider seeing a pathologist who specializes in stuttering.. NOT the school district speech folk... a specialist who only deals with stuttering. I am personally glad we had the evaluation.. at least now, I know what the future will hold for Tommy, and at the very least possibly some management.
Hello, my name is SPD Mom. I'm a 37 year old self-employed US.