Late last week, Ryan mentioned to me that he thought Dexter was stuttering. Over the weekend, I started paying more attention and noticed that he really does start his sentences with a repeated sound…a lot.

I-I-I-I-I-I wanna go home.

We-we-we-we-we-we’re the going to the movies.

Y-y-y-y-you can’t do that.

It’s not every sentence and it’s not all the time.  But he does do it a lot.  He seems to do it when Theo’s talking and he’s also trying to be heard, or when he’s very excited.  But outside of those two scenarios, he still does it at other times as well.

I mentioned it to one of the providers at their sitter today and she said she had noticed it too (and probably thought I was an idiot for not mentioning it/noticing it sooner).  I know I’ve heard him do it before but I can’t pinpoint when it started.  I don’t even know if it’s gotten that much worse recently or if I just didn’t pay attention.  MOTY award coming this way.  Anyway, they watch a lot of kids that are roughly the same age, so I asked her if she thought it was fairly common.  She said no.

So I recalled and looked up an article written by my friend and Speech Language Pathologist, Mindi, and instantly felt more at ease.  Thanks to her, I’ve placed him somewhere between developmental and mild stuttering.  He’s definitely repeating sounds at the beginning of a sentence more than 2-3 times, but I haven’t noticed any facial tightening when this happens.  I’m not even sure he realizes he is doing it.  If we tell him to repeat after us, and say whatever he stuttered slowly, he’s able to say the same thing without the stutter.  I’m very optimistic that this will be a short-term problem (if you’d even call it a problem) and that he’ll soon outgrow it.

No doubt in my mind, this cutie bear’s big brain is working way faster than his little mouth is processing.

Now I’m so curious to know how many people I know who have kids that briefly stuttered around this age as well.  Anyone?

xo,
~C~