I was brave enough to go to the stuttering website. And it is actually a great resource. It even has a handy-dandy checklist of 7 things you can do to help children who stutter.
As I was going through the list, I was like YEP I fail at that. YEP, also fail at that.
Talk to your child slowly? Fail. I always talk fast.
Reduce the number of questions you ask your child? Fail. I thought I was supposed to be asking questions!
I was starting to feel really bad, like maybe I'm contributing to the problem. Or maybe I caused the problem. I mean, what the hell do I know about raising kids? Then I hit point #5.
"Help all members of the family learn to take turns talking and listening."
IT'S ALL NATE'S FAULT!
(You know I'm kidding, right?)
12 comments:
If talking fast caused stuttering, everyone in my family would be stutterers :)
Good luck...I hope all goes fine. Some stuttering can be a normal part of speech development (I'm sure that's why your pedi is having you wait to assess).
How about multi-tasking. what damage does that do to your child? My guess is that any issues now are going to work themselves out.
BTW I know who to put you in touch with in our local school system as you get closer to starting school, like 2 years from now :-) if you want testing done. It is a little known free service for parents to have initial testing for any academic or psych issue on the county dime.
This is why you are a RockStar parent....not a failure! Because you do the research and want to help your kids. And you are able to make light of hard situation at your own expense!
Fun Post, even tho I know the stuttering is not so fun right now.
Keep it up - my baby brother (youngest of 4) went to 2 years of speech therapy as a toddler. He'd had 15 ear infections his first year and 2 sets of tubes in his ears. He NEVER talked, and when he did, no one could understand him. Turns out the DR. thought part of the problem was because the rest of us did all his talking for him! He never talked b/c he never had to.
Now he's 25 and we can't get him to shut up. He's an artist and contributes his talent to "having to fight to be heard from a very early age." Apparently he learned to be a comdedian along the way too.
I think sometimes stuttering at this young age is the bodies response to a brain that works faster than the mouth can go ! This too shall pass - go easy on yourself ! Alex & Josh's BeBe
I have heard that a lot of it is normal just like previous commenters stated.
Don't you just love how the "mommy guilt" never ends and then as if you need a little more the professionals heap it on! :)
You are an awesome mom btw from what I read anyways ;)
You are an awesome mom...very loving and attentive to Alex & Nate's needs. In my book a failure is someone who fails to try and you are doubly trying daily! I never had children of my own...have 2 step children...but I believe just raising one kid is a challenge and you are doing 2!!! Cut yourself some slack. Take a breathe and just keep doing what you are doing. In the meantime I will pray this nervous stutter of Alex's goes away. Hugs
haha:) Luke went through a stuttering phase right around turning 3, it was the strangest thing, one day he was fine then all of sudden he started stuttering. He was so embarrassed by it that he would just put his hand over his mouth and not talk. I was so worried and we tried everything to calm him down and then a few weeks/months went by and it just disappeared. I know all kids are different, but it could just be a phase around this age in which their minds are working at a much higher speed than their mouths. You are doing a fantastic job by gaining the knowledge, but also try not to get yourself too stressed out.
You are so not a failure. Get that in your head! ;o)
Hilarious. My boys were big stutterers around 3. Now they are over it, but they still talk all mushmouthed and it's hard to understand them. Finally I looked online and discovered it's all my fault because I think their mispronunciations are cute, so I was speaking to them in their native dialect, therefore reinforcing their mushmouthed pronunciations. Whoopsie.
Thanks for your comment -- I'm happy to have found your blog. I noticed you referenced "effed up heads" and I laughed because one of my boys has weird corners on the back of his head, and my husband and I are bitter that no pediatrician ever suggested a helmet for him before it was too late. Oh well. Maybe one day his triangular head will get him a good job at a circus.
J has a mild stutter, too. The ped said it was nothing to worry about, but he gets frustrated sometimes when he starts stuttering and will say, "I keep messing up the words!" It breaks my heart. I am also a really fast-talker, and thanks to being a twin I have a problem with talking at the same time as other people...hopefully he'll grow out of it.
If asking too many questions is a problem, I'm sure I'm guilty of that. I really don't think this is your fault. You are such an awesome mom.
Thank you for the link to the stuttering site. One of my daughters stutters, and their speech therapist said that it was because she was thinking faster than she could talk. It comes and goes, so that seemed to make sense, but I am going to ask the pediatrician at their four-year-old check up next month. In the meantime, I'm going to check this site. I've also noticed that it happens more when she and her sister are talking at the same time. If Isabel doesn't start to stutter and try to talk over her sister, she will stop talking. So I've tried to ask them specific questions one at a time, making sure to give Isabel her own time and her own turn to answer. That also seems to help.
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