Talking Troubles

Is your toddler stuttering?

Originally published March, 2007

By Tim Johnson

Laura Hartenberg’s toddler son, Peter, was coming out with new words and phrases all the time. And then, just before his third birthday, she heard something that gave her pause – it sounded like a stutter. “He would repeat short words and phrases. Things like, ‘Can I, can I, can I have a cookie?’ or ‘I, I, I want to go to the park,’ ” says the Peterborough, Ont., mom of two. “I noticed it the most when he was really excited or when he didn’t have my undivided attention.”

Peter’s “stuttering” was actually a very common speech problem known as normal or transient disfluency. It occurs in many children between 18 months and five years, and it’s not real stuttering, which, in persistent cases, can last into adulthood. In fact, it’s normal for toddlers to display hesitation and unevenness in their speech, and also to repeat syllables, words or combinations of words, particularly when they are feeling hurried, tired, stressed or excited. It can also happen when they’re trying to articulate more complex ideas. Repetition usually happens two or three times, but can increase under certain circumstances. “In a stressful situation, it may manifest with three, four or even five repetitions, or the child may refuse to speak altogether,” says Dr. Henry Ukpeh, a pediatrician in Trail, B.C.

True stuttering is much less common. It’s thought to be a problem involving the timing and coordination of the physical functions of speech. Disfluency, on the other hand, is something we all experience when we use “um” or “ah,” or struggle to find a word. It’s common in toddlers because of the whirlwind of developmental processes taking place, says Deborah Kully, executive director of the Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Besides, learning to talk is a complex process that involves everything from muscle coordination to encoding thoughts into words. At the same time, kids are also making significant cognitive, emotional, social and other developmental strides. “Think of your child’s brain like a computer, which has a finite amount of memory to handle various programs. As more programs are run simultaneously, the demands on the memory system increase and you have a higher likelihood that you’re going to have little moments of freezing and glitches,” says Kully.

Penny Welch has seen this happen first- hand. Her son Luke’s disfluency began when he was two, and, she says, it peaks when he’s in a large group. “The worst thing we can do to him is to say, ‘Hey Luke, come and tell Grandma what you did at school today,’ ” says Welch, who also lives in Peterborough.

These repetitions and other little language quirks will most often go away on their own. (For signs that there may a bigger problem, see “Warning signs,” below.) In the meantime, there are things parents can do to help. Hartenberg, whose son outgrew the problem a little before his fourth birthday, found it helpful to get down to Peter’s eye level and show him she was listening. Parents can also slow their own speech, which will encourage kids by example not to rush their words. And never hurry children when they speak, Dr. Ukpeh says. He also adds that, as with all parts of healthy development, a secure home environment helps a great deal.