My 4 year old son!!!

[Heaton]

Hi guys and gals,

i'm hoping you can help me before you ban me (i'm don't have a stutter/stammer) but before you do please hear me out.

I have 3 kids 9, 7 and 4. The 2 eldest are fluent in both English and Welsh. My youngest also speaks both languages but has all of a sudden started to stammer in English but not in Welsh. It is sometimes few and far between and on certain words, 'me' being the main one.

I hope i'm worrying over nothing but i've been on various websites but all i get is "go see your GP" or "read a leaflet", but they dont seem to answer my Q's.

I know lots of kids can go through this stage and grow out of it, but has anyone heard of this situation with the different languages?

Please don't get me banned (i've seen the other threads about non-stuttering people on here), i'm just a worried parent who wants help from real people not "SPECIALISTS"!!!!

Thanks :)

[JR123]

i don't think that your son stutter, he might not be so good at english so he might not have a normal flow of words in that language, but he's only four! so not being perfect in speaking is normal, but to be on the safe side take him to a speech therapist and have him tested, and if he do stutter, let him have speech therapy, the earlier he started it the better and faster for him, imagine him going throw speech therapy as a teen/adult, it would be much frustrating, and don't let him skip therapy, trust me, he'll thank you when he grow up.

[Nemo]

Not being a person who stutters will surely not ban you. Many parents have posted here. Regarding your son: speaking more than one language definitely adds more speech-related pressure on a child, particularly on a child who is still learning to speak. Learning two languages at the same time, for a young child, doubles the language demands on him. Such a child has to learn TWO sets of vocabularies, TWO different grammars etc. (I should know, I grew up in a bilingual environment which, I believe, was an important factor in developing a stutter :mad:.)

It may be a good idea, if possible, to only speak Welsh to him at this stage and to "protect" him against English as much as possible, as his speech system is obviously vulnerable to language-related stress. Then, at a later stage when his Welsh fluency is firmly established, English can gradually be introduced.

3/4 of all stuttering children fortunately do outgrow the problem; those who do not, become chronic stutterers. Hopefully your son will outgrow it.

Whether to take a pre-school child for speech therapy or not is a matter of some debate. Many young children have been treated with success, but they might have outgrown it anyway.

My own son started stuttering at age 3, but the stuttering was very variable and intermittent, with long periods of fluency. So my wife and I didn't do anything, hoping that he would outgrow it. However when his speech actually became worse at age 9, I intervened and taught him the fluency techniques which I myself use (slowed syllables, and passive airflow before speaking). He's now 17 and OK, has even joined his school's debating society :).

[Sssophie]

Hmm. I have absolutely no idea why that is but I speak three languages and stutter mostly in my first language. When I speak the other language, until I'm used to it again, I hardly stutter at all. Maybe the brain takes some time to get accomodated to speaking another language before it comes naturally and is somewhat preoccupied with doing that, so there's no place for stuttering? I have no idea but that's my two cents on that ;)

[Bill Hargis]

A child that young can usually be cured. your nearest university will have a diversion program just for young children. I know several cases where youngsters have been cured if treatment is started immediately after the onset of stuttering or stammering.

[Heaton]

thanks for all your replies, i think at the moment it is just a case of keeping an eye on him to see if it gets any worse, sometimes there's nothing and other days we tend to notice it a few times.
he needs to speak both languages as i'm english and so are my family, yet living in wales he goes to a welsh school along with the fact my wifes family are welsh.
our other 2 children haven't suffered with learning both at the same time so i hope this is just one of those things that he'll grow out of over the next couple of months.
once again thanks for the replies.

[danyleb]

Hmm. I have absolutely no idea why that is but I speak three languages and stutter mostly in my first language. When I speak the other language, until I'm used to it again, I hardly stutter at all. Maybe the brain takes some time to get accomodated to speaking another language before it comes naturally and is somewhat preoccupied with doing that, so there's no place for stuttering? I have no idea but that's my two cents on that ;)
I speak three languages too, i either stutter in all or none.