It was the unfortunate preschool experience every parent hopes to avoid, but this time it served as the catalyst for something more. DeAnn and Tommy Dean left 3-year-old Carson in the church nursery while they attended service at a different time than usual. The service ran long and Carson was taken to a “late room” that he’d never been to before with people he’d never met.
“We heard him screaming before we ever got into the children’s section,” remembers the Frisco mom. “From that moment on, it triggered anxiety with him and he hated to be left anywhere. It was awful. And then once the anxiety really hit, that’s when we started noticing the stuttering.”
Stuttering tends to emerge during the years of rapid language skill development from ages 2 to 5, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). About 5 percent of all children stutter anywhere from a few weeks to several years. Boys are twice as likely to stutter as girls and three to four times more likely to continue to stutter into adulthood.
Tricia Krauss-Lehrman, a board-certified speech-language pathologist in Dallas who specializes in stuttering, points to a handful of signs that suggest your child might need immediate evaluation: repetitions or disruptions in speech that frustrate your child; signs your child is physically struggling to get words out, such as increased eye blinking or extra movements; a significant increase in the amount of stuttering (10 to 15 repetitions rather than two or three); or problems that persist longer than six months.
Experts previously blamed emotional difficulties for stuttering. But four years ago, researchers from NIDCD succeeded in isolating three genes that are linked to stuttering.
“We’re more certain than ever that the brain functions differently in these individuals,” Krauss-Lehrman notes. But genetics don’t paint the entire picture. Stress and anxiety often seem to play a part, Krauss-Lehrman adds. And when a child is genetically predisposed, stressful experiences like Carson’s can open the door for stuttering.
The dangers of wait and see
Because researchers don’t know exactly what mix of factors causes stuttering, a definitive cure may not be possible.
“We don’t even use the word ‘cure’ when we talk about stuttering,” Krauss-Lehrman says. Instead, she focuses on resolving stuttering so it doesn’t present an ongoing issue for the child.
The best chance for resolving stuttering depends on early intervention by therapists, while language skills are still plastic.
But all too often, parents miss that window of opportunity on the advice of doctors and others who mistakenly advocate for a wait-and-see approach. “I have seen many children ages 6 and 7 where parents are now kicking themselves because they wanted to come at 3, but the pediatrician said wait and see,” Krauss-Lehrman says.
For Kathryn Weaver, a Dallas mother of three who chose not to pursue early therapy when her son Liam began mildly stuttering as a preschooler, coming to grips with having missed that window has been difficult. Weaver says Liam’s stuttering kicked in with a vengeance when he was 6.
“He would lay in bed and cry and cry and cry and cry,” she recalls. “And he would pray for God to help his stuttering. Talk about ripping a mama’s heart out.”
It took about six months of speech therapy before the boy’s parents made peace with not having been more aggressive sooner.
“We [had] thought that we could just fix it or that over time he would just grow out of it,” Weaver says. “It killed us.”
Readily available resources
The good news is identifying and treating stuttering doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Children can receive speech evaluations and therapy through their public school systems at no cost, even as preschoolers.
If you suspect your child needs an evaluation, go to your school district or look for a certified speech-language pathologist with experience in treating stuttering. Your child could need speech therapy, a holistic process that involves speech techniques to help kids overcome or function through stuttering, as well as tools to cope with self-esteem and negative thinking.
Much of stuttering therapy is actually aimed at parents, teaching them how to coach their children through specific speech problems and create a non-stressful environment at home. Jeff Miller, a Colleyville father of three, including two who stutter, says Krauss-Lehrman advised him to take the pressure off his kids.
“Once we started doing the speech techniques, I became a speech techniques storm trooper. ‘Use your speech techniques!’” he ruefully recalls. Today, Miller says he’s learned to make home a place where the kids can relax without worrying about employing the skills they’ve most likely been working hard to use all day at school.
“Parents sometimes feel that their child who stutters is broken and needs to be fixed,” Krauss-Lehrman says. “And what we try to convey to them is: ‘He doesn’t need to be fixed; he’s not broken. He communicates differently and we’re going to help him learn to manage that.’ Even if your children persist in stuttering, they do not have to be limited by it.”
