My child has a stammer

My 19-month-old has very limited speech

Question

My son has started to stammer. Sometimes he doesn't stammer at all, whereas other times he cannot get past a word.

It's been eight weeks not – will he grow out of this, and if not what actions should we take?

Answer

Some young children go through a phase of stammering when they are learning to talk.

It's as if the child's brain is working so fast that the mouth can't keep up, and they may stammer over particular sounds or phrases before finally being able to get out what they want to say.

My older son was like this as a toddler but by the time he was four the stammering had completely disappeared.

If your son has only been stammering for the last eight weeks, and if the problem is not occurring all the time, I think you can probably afford to simply watch and wait for another couple of months to see what happens.

If your son seems to stammer when he's hurrying to tell you something just encourage him to slow down a bit.

If the stammering doesn't seem to improve over the next few months you could discuss it with your GP or health visitor to see if they feel it would be worthwhile referring him to a speech therapist.

Yours sincerely

The Medical Team

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