commentr/StutterNovember 29, 2023

Content

Hey there! Sorry to hear about the little one, I know exactly what you're feeling right now and I especially know what it's like to see that look on their face when they realize they can no longer say what want. Heartbreaking. So I'll tell you this. She's five and a half now, and hasn't stuttered for almost two years. At all. Blocks, gone. Prolongations, gone. Repetitions, gone. Aside from getting lost in the her 5-year-old brain and making us wait 30-40 seconds for her to arrive at a goddamn point (one of those adorably frustrating quarks), there is zero speech impediment. None. Her friends mom is a SLP who assessed my daughter for her standard kindergarten entry assessment, and she was utterly shocked when I showed her the videos of our daughter from three years prior. She had no idea. There wasn't a single red flag on her assessment. Now her own SLP had said from the outset that the severity of her stutter likely meant she would always have a stutter. Will it come back? I have no idea. Who's to say. But it's gone. So what did we do? Early intervention. You're on that, which is huge. Make sure you're at every session, make sure you guys are there with her keeping her focused and on-task. We had to do ours all over video chat as we were right in the heat of COVID, but even then it was a MASSIVE source of her improvement. Maybe the most. They learn to elongate the words to work out every syllable, and most importantly they leave to BREATH before they speak. I'm confident enough to say this is something you can start doing with her already... if she gets stuck on a word, model for her how you can stop, take a deeeeeep breath in through the nose, and then slowly annunciate each syllable: "buhhhh -NAAAAAA - naaaaa." You don't have to do it every time, but when my daughter would get stuck on a word we'd say "Hey, can we try that again with a DEEP BREATH?" and it would come out much smoother. That's the other thing they'll teach her - the difference between "smooth" and "bumpy" speech. Very important for the kiddo to recognize the difference so they know when to try again. Socially, no issues. Her teachers were all excellent and the kids never caught wind of anything, never made her aware of it. I have to attribute it to all these things working favorably and giving her the comfort and the tools to just... come out of it. You're on the right path and even if it doesn't go away, you'll absolutely see improvement and you're doing all the right things. Hang in there!

Themes

Parent & CaregiverTherapy & Professional

Subthemes

Early Concern & OnsetPositive Therapy Techniques