Very Verbal 3-Year-old Suddenly Stuttering!

My son did the same thing when he was 3 years old. His brain just seemed to be going faster than he could form the words. It lasted two months and disappeared. I did talk to my pediatrician about getting a referral to a SLP but the problem resolved itself before the appointment came around.

My sister's son who will be 3 in March is going through the SAME EXACT thing! The pediatrician is not worried and neither is my sister. Apparently sometimes children go through this and it is probably just a phase...

I have a 2 1/2 year old grandson and he too spoke well, one day to another he started to stutter. My thought is he had a scare of some kind at the place he stayed for 2 days. It was his first time to be away from parents and my understanding was he cried a lot.

Your post reminded me that my son did the same thing, and I had forgotten all about it. He has always been extremely verbal, started speaking very early, and to this day talks just for the sake of talking. He went through a stuttering phase too at age 3. I was worried for a while, but it just went away on its own. I'm sure your daughter's stuttering will too!

Dear, relax. Her little mind is working faster than her mouth can. She must be a clever little girl.
I cannot see it as a huge problem if she does it only when tired or excited...sounds pretty normal to me.
These abrupt changes can be stress causing I know.
But she will go through many such abrupt changes for the next several years.
Dont correct her, or speak about it to her. Maybe , "slow down honey, Mum cant understand you when you talk so fast" is the most I would do. That would give her the chance to finalize her thoughts more clearly.
DONT WORRY.
Tincture of time and she will catch up to herself.
Best wishes and God bless
Grandmother Lowell

My very, very verbal daughter did the same thing just after she turned 3. She is 3 and a half now and barely ever does it. My perception was that her thoughts were getting ahead of her ability to speak. Like in your example she was already ahead and thinking about being at Gymboree, so that was distracting to her ability to finish the sentence. This phase coincided with a time when her imagination was really strengthening which is why I have the connection. It might sound silly, and could be incorrect in your daughter's case, but that was my read on it. She has already grown out of it and does it very rarely now, but she definitely did it all the time for a few months. I did wonder a bit about what was going to happen, or if she was developing a problem, but I delayed my panic and just watched her. Then it just went away as quickly as it came. Trust your instinct though, and have it looked into further if you think there is a need, piece of mind is worth a lot. Good luck, K.

I know you've already gotten a ton of advice, but we had the exact same thing happen with my very verbal daughter when she was three. It stopped as suddenly as it started after a few months, but was frustrating for all of us when it was happening.

One thing my speech pathologist friend suggested was to engage her in "turtle talk". While playing calmly together - like play doh or something - start talking slow and steady like a turtle. You can have whole conversations in turtle talk, and it will encourage her to slow down her regular speech pattern.

Another thing that worked for us was having her sing or whisper what she wanted to say. Having to think about speaking in a different way forced her to slow down so her mouth could keep up with her thoughts.

And when she does get frustrated, she should have the ability to express that. I think it's ok to talk to her about how sometimes her words get stuck, and it's frustrating, but it's ok, too. My daughter used to stop, sigh, and say, "My words are sticky again."

Most likely your daughter's mouth will catch up with her vast vocabulary within a few months, and you'll look fondly back on these days. I think if it's still happening after 6 months, or gets worse rather than better, you should ask her pediatrician about it. Good luck!

Hi M.,

My 3 year old did that too when she turned 3!! Same story...amazing vocab, spoke clearly, etc. She started to stutter one day and I just freaked out. I think what was happening was that her brain was thinking faster than she could articulate verbally. I would tell her to slow down and breath when she would start up and that seemed to help a bit. It took about a week and the stuttering stopped. Trust your instincts though...if you're not comfortable with this then take her in to see the peda. Hope all is well with you.

HI M.,
I had a very verbal toddler too (he is 18 now) and I noticed that the stuttering popped up when he had a real jump in vocabulary or made some of intelligence jump. It always passed but it clearly had to do with developing a lot more words. It should pass in a few weeks.

Good luck,
Clare W

Just watch it for now. Don't make a big deal out of it or point it out, just be patient as she tries to say what she wants to say. If it doens't go away on its own in a couple of months then have her evaluated, but it's pretty normal for kids to go through a brief stuttering period.

I'm not a professional - so certainly ask her pedi - BUT in my experience it is the kids WITH the largest vocabularies that tend to stutter - they just have SO MANY lovely large words floating around in their brains and they are trying to pinpoint the right one. Especially when they have just had a learning spurt and have a whole bunch of new words they want to use. I wouldn't worry one bit. My nephew, who had an amazing vocabulary was just like that. He outgrew it. So, I'd say she's just brilliant and don't draw her attention to it or make her self-conscious.

Hi M.,

My daughter went through a stuttering phase about a year ago, when she was 2 1/2 years old. She was also an early talker, and she's the third of four children, so I think she was trying so hard to keep up with her older sisters. Her mind was working faster than her mouth, especially as her vocabulary was building! Her pediatrician was not concerned and told us that many children go through this phase. I read alot about the problem and found that true "problem" stuttering is almost always different from what you described above. In problem stuttering, the child gets stuck on the first letter, not the first word...as in, "c-c-c-c-can we g-g-g-g-o to g-g-g-gymboree?" But when they get stuck on a full word, it's usually not a true stuttering problem. Of course, there are exceptions to that, so my pediatrician suggested waiting it out for a bit, and if it was still a big problem after 6 months or so we could have a speech eval. My daughter's stuttering slowly got better and I actually completely forgot about that phase until I read your post!

Good luck!

Hi,
Lots of great advice.
I suggest that you not ask her to slow down, which makes her attend to organizing the pace of her message, not about the wonderful message she is trying to share. Some children have become quite self-concious of their pace, and what is now probably a developmental phase turns into a true difficulty. The 3 things I do suggest you do are:
1. Observe your own communication. It's possible that you or others in her life, are speaking rapidly and in long sentences, since you are adults! She is bright and is modelling you to the best of her ability. When she is disfluent, slow down your pace in a natural way, and use shorter sentences. This works miraculously!
2. Protect her from anyone remarking on her disfluencies. Redirect them to her message, and later make sure they know that she is working throught this and no comments are appropriate.
3. Do talk to your pediatrician and if you wish, your local early intervention unit. Even thought this is a typical developmental phase for many children (not all), each child is unique, and it never hurts to have professionals observe her.
Now, take a breath, slow down if you are talking rapidly, and enjoy her messages. This mothering is hard work, yes? Take care.

ok, especially what Rachel said. Lol. My son, same thing, huge vocab. He was very verbal, very young. At three, bam, the stutter kicked in. What helped him when he was stuck was for me just to touch him gently, at the suggestion of our speech therapist. Just hand to the head, shoulder, what ever, it broke his intensity at getting past the word, and didn't point anything out to anyone. It calmed him, and it worked. It flares now and again under stress, but not much. It was the type you describe, not a hard sound, but the word or phrase. We had speech, it helped, but it was not a typical therapy, I forget the name of it, but the Nashua School System's speech teacher is Mrs. Kirk, and she was great. The most important thing is not to mention it, it cranks up the stress level like you wouldn't believe for them. Just have patience. I forget the treatment plan, therapy techinique, but it is 95% successful. More for our type, which is for very verbal children. If I think of the name of it, I will post again.
Good luck,
D.
ps, the good news is that it is a sign of high intelligence they say!

Our son did the same thing at around 3. His brain was moving faster than his mouth. But then it stopped, without a lot of fanfare.

When he entered kindergarten, they had all kids tested for all sorts of things so they could start with a good baseline of info. He went in the room the same time as a bunch of kids but didn't come out and didn't come out. I began to get a little concerned. When he finally came out, the speech pathologist looked at me deadpan, with a little twinkle in her eyes, and said, "He won't be needing my services." She said she kept giving him more words but she couldn't stump him--his vocabulary was too big. : )

The strange thing is that when he started middle school, he started stuttering again. Two years later, he still does it when he gets excited. Truth be told, I think he's been going through a huge growth spurt again and his brain is on information overload.

I went to a workshop recently that said pre-teens and teens revert back to some of the phenomena that 2-3 year olds have. Huge bursts of growth, hormonal bursts, and emotions galore. It certainly fits our son right now, so I'm hoping this will pass as well. But I'm keeping an eye on it.

Maybe it's time to try the turtle talk thing. I liked that and I think he would, too. In fact, he just got home a bit ago, and when I went down to say hi, he was doing an exaggerated slow-motion walk across the kitchen floor. This might be right up his alley!

Hail to the turtle talkers!

My friend is a speech therapist and was a little embarraced because her daughter at 3 started to stutter but she said it was normal for some to start to stutter because they are just trying to get their words out so fast. She just thought it was ironic because she is a speech therapist! So don't panic. Don't point it out and make her anxious about it. It may take a few months to pass. Her daughter is 5 and no longer stutters. You can visit with a speech pathologist with the public school system to evaluate her, but this is normal for some kids.

Our daughter also began stuttering when she was around 3 yrs. and our pediatrician told us it was a normal phase and to ignore it. So we did. For a year and a half! Finally we decided to have her evaluated by the local school district's speech and language pathologist, who did qualify her for services. So while the advice everyone gave you is great, please do trust your instincts and if you feel the "phase" is becoming a habit (which it can, I'm told), take her to be evaluated. She might end up requiring speech therapy. I wish I had listened to my instincts sooner. Once she started speech, we could see right away that she was making progress and putting into practice everything she was learning.

The same thing happened to me when my son turned 3.

I was told by his pediatrician and his preschool teacher that it will pass. Basically, his brain was going faster than his mouth could get the words out. It lasted about 6 months - and now it's all gone.

I would still check in with the pediatrician, but I'm sure it's nothing.

Best wishes!
C.

I don't want to tell you what every one else told you & say not to worry about it. It may be nothing to worry about HOWEVER, I have a niece who like others have said her brain works faster than her mouth. It is true yes it happens to a lot of kids but with my niece it drives her crazy! She is 10 & gets aggravated with herself (she doesn't really stutter it is more not being able to get out her words, she'll do a lot of umm, umm, umm I went to um, um school today and I, well, um I fell down & everyone um, no wait, hold on, um laughed.
It is very annoying to all of us but we understand and feel bad so we are patient. But I don't think it is all that normal and she has been doing it for years! She is also very hyper but does not have ADD or ADHD as she has been tested.
So I say talk to your pedi if they are not concerned I say call Early Intervention ask them about it and see if they feel she should be evaluated by EI. Good Luck. Again she may be just fine but as a mama I would not blow it off and say oh she is fine I will not worry and do nothing. I would take further measures. She may not have a stuttering problem but yes her brain is going to fast and her mouth cannot keep up but I feel that is a real problem & fixable!!!!

My oldest did this. I used to tell him he needed to stop take a deep breath slow down and then calmly tell mommy what you need to say. Sometimes there little toungues just get ahead of their thoughts and they can't get it out right.

Almost the same thing happened to my older son when he turned three. We had our second child when my older one was 2.5 years old and moved/changed jobs/changed his daycare and started him in a new nursery school within a few weeks of each other. We were concerned about the stuttering and took him to Children's Hospital for a hearing test (although we knew his hearing was fine, that was required before referral to a speech therapist). Although it became quite severe and frustrating to him for awhile, it eventually cleared up on its own. I am quite convinced it was a result of stress that brought it on - maybe that combined with his very high level of language skills brought it out in this way. He struggled on and off with it for awhile. We were encouraged to not make a big deal about it but lovingly help him through it (not focussing on it though) just encouraging him to pause a moment to collect his thoughts, etc. if he got stuck on a word. Anyway, after a few months it was not there at all. He just turned four a couple of months ago and has no issues whatsoever now. I cannot gurantee yours is the same situation, but it did sound very similar when I read your post. Best of luck!

Hi M. - I'm a speech-language pathologist and yes, many children do go through this "phase" as they are exploding with vocabulary and advancing in their thinking and verbal skills. The good news is, she is repeating whole words rather than initial sounds, or blocking completely where it looks like she's "STUCK" and can't get out a sound. This sounds like the typical phase. I would NOT call attention to it, and just verify what she said in a calm, even tone such as, "Yes, of course we can go to Gymboree" or whatever your answer is. If you feel it begins to change more to the other that I described, or becomes more and more persistent, you could have your pediatrician refer her for a speech evaluation through your insurance at an outpatient clinic. Remind all family members NOT to tell her to stop and think or slow down, but to just wait it out, and verify the message (content) - and not HOW she said it. Good luck!

My daughter started stuttering when she was 4.5-5 years old. She, like your daughter was/still is at 9, very verbal.

I was concerned and took her to the public school for observation, as my community has outreach for pre-school children with such issues.

I was told that due to her advanced verbal skills, her thought process was faster than the development of her mouth would allow her to speak, thus she would get stuck on her words and stutter. We were told to help her slow down, try not to make a big deal out of it and listen carefully and attend to her when she spoke. ( a task sometimes difficult as she spoke and still speaks ALL the time!)

I recommend speaking to your pediatriction or other professional to make sure there is no problem. Good luck and try not to worry.

Hi M.,

My daughter was the same as yours - LOVES to talk and did so at a very young age but started stuttering whole words shortly after she turned 3. She's my first so I wasn't sure what the protocol was (and it was just after the 3 yr check-up so it wasn't brought up at the visit) and when you were supposed to worry. At first we were just patient with her and figured it was a phase. After a couple of weeks, I was worried that this would become permanent. So we would tell her to slow down and think about what she wanted to say before she started to speak. I told her I'd be patient and that I wanted to hear what she wanted to tell me and I wouldn't interrupt her. A couple of weeks after this, it stopped. I figured that her mind was just going so fast and bursting with ideas that she just couldn't get them out fast enough but I wanted her to learn how to deal with it. Once we started making her slow down, the stuttering went away in about a month and only reappeared once in a while when she was very tired. By the way, I noticed that my daughter didn't do it and when she was playing by herself - only when she was speaking to someone older and was very excited.

Incidentally, shortly after that, I read that what I did was supposedly wrong. Apparently, her brain was sorting out right and left dominance and it said that what I did could've actually made the situation worse, last longer or become permanent. So a friend of mine had the same problem with her son right after he turned 3, she knew how had handled the situation but I also had told her how I learned it wasn't right and you're supposed to just let the phase pass. So she's just trying to ignore it and be patient and although it's getting better, he still stutters occassionally and it's been 7 months or so.

Long story short, I'm sure that it is just a phase and it is a good sign that it's whole word stuttering. However, I'm not sure that I'll do anything different if this happens to my son. Studies change all the time and usually your intuition is usually right. I wouldn't yell or be angry with my child but I don't think that it's truly wrong to tell them to just relax and think about what they want to say before they start to speak (after all, shouldn't we all practice this? :) So just be patient, encouragaging and supportive - she'll get through this...just in time for something else to start to concern you!

I know it's worrisome, but I've read this is a normal phase that some kids go through. My own daughter went through it when she was about this age. The best thing you can do is ignore it and try not to help her finish her thought. That'll just frustrate her and make her less willing to express her thoughts. I know it's frustrating, but this'll pass. Good luck!

Don't worry about it. My son did the same thing when he was little. I was so worried, but was told it was totally normal. He is now a very eloquent 18 year old! :)

watch her closely (as you are already doing I'm sure), try to see if there is more of a pattern, excitement was an issue for my daughter, as was her not being able to get a word in. The issue I never thought of, was that we are a house of fast talkers (it is New England afterall), she was trying to keep up and couldn't.
We did take her for a speech evaluation at our local hospital (Memorial in Pawtucket).... where they played games with her that she loved, and told us, yes your daughter is struggling with speech disfluency. You are also entitled to testing and treatment through your local school department, that may or may not be a good or helpful thing, depending on what district you live in.
We did speech therapy for about 6 months to a year privately with a fabulous therapist who specializes in disfluency (the school dept speech therapist was sweet, but not a disfluency specialist.
Talk to your doctor, but what they told us is to slow down all of our speech, talk about talking as being smooth not bumpy, and model that to her, with her and around her. Help her so she doesn't get frustrated, ie we had to remind her to slow down and be smooth like the turtle, not the fast and tired hare.
If it doesn't stop in the next month or so, have her evaluated. Many kids have speech issues at that age, that if they are worked through, will be time limited and not affect them later. I can still see the "stuck" spot in my daughter's speech pattern sometimes, but she knows to breathe and slow down and it works for her as a life skill now that she's nine.
Good luck. I also found many useful websites on stuttering. there is a national organization that certifies therapists and has great info. that was how we found our great therapist.