By Emma 
A speech disorder characterized by prolongations, hesitations, or repetitions of speech sounds or words, developmental stuttering or stammering affects nearly 5% of children.
A neurological condition, stuttering makes it (physically) difficult for a person to speak.
Like most other neurological conditions, stuttering covers a spectrum. Kids and adults stutter differently and in varying degrees.
Developmental stuttering is the most common form of stuttering that occurs in young kids when they are still developing their speech & language skills.
Studies have shown that approximately 80% of stuttering children recover on their own, without requiring any professional intervention or formal treatment for stuttering.
Others need support from professional speech therapists, speech therapy phone apps, electronic aids, stuttering support groups, etc.
When kids at the age of 4 or 5 years exhibit signs of developmental stuttering, it is possible that their stuttering may become persistent and continue into adulthood, especially if they do not outgrow it by the age of 7 years.
Therefore, parents ought to know about potential signs of developmental stuttering in kids aged 4-5 years so that necessary interventions can be made on time.
Here in this post, we will discuss exactly that.
Presence of Risk Factors
If a child exhibits some signs of speech dysfluencies, it is advisable to consider the top risk factors that place kids at a higher risk of developmental stuttering.
As per the Stuttering Foundation of America, a child is at a higher risk when:
- There is a family history of stuttering; the risk is higher if a parent, sibling, or immediate family member stutters.
- Stuttering has lasted more than 6 months or a year; most children who start stuttering, show improvement within 1 to 2 years without needing any assistance.
- It’s a male child; boys are at a higher risk of developing chronic stuttering in comparison to girls. The male-to-female ratio in older kids and adults can be as high as 4: 1.
Early stuttering diagnosis is recommended if your child is at a greater risk of stuttering as an adult.
Speech Errors make it Difficult to Understand What Your Child is saying
A child who makes a limited number of mistakes while speaking is more likely to outgrow stuttering in comparison to a child whose speech errors make it hard to understand him.
A high frequency of dysfluencies e.g. more than 10 stutters in a two-minute-long speech is indicative of persistent stuttering.
You should consult a speech therapy professional for diagnosis if your child is frequently substituting sounds or missing some sounds in words.
Stress Caused by Stuttering as a Potential Sign of Developmental Stuttering
Identifying the stress caused by stuttering and the symptoms that follow is easy.
You need to look for the following symptoms:
- Your child’s eyes start blinking at a much faster rate when he speaks
- There’s visible tension in the upper body and the face when he is talking to you
- Your child pauses (longer than usual) or hesitates before he starts speaking
- There’s noticeable tension in your child’s voice when he speaks
- Your child frequently rearranges words in a sentence to convey his thoughts
- Your child refuses to talk or prefers to talk very less
- Your child frequently interjects extra words or sounds into sentences when he speaks; some common interjections include ‘um,’ ‘er,’ ‘mm,’ ‘like,’ ‘well,’ etc.
Language Characteristics
Children who continue to stutter as they grow old, tend to alter the balance between types of speech dysfluency.
How this balance changes can be a sign of whether stuttering will recover or persist.
Beyond the age of 12, for instance, children with persistent suttering experience fewer dysfluencies in ‘function words’ such as conjunctions, pronouns, propositions, quantifiers, etc.
However, they experience more dysfluencies in ‘content words’ such as nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc.
‘Function words’ generally have simpler phonetic characteristics and complement ‘content words’ in a sentence.
When Your Child Complains of Bullying
Many children get bullied at school and elsewhere on account of speech disorders such as stuttering. Deliberate, vindictive, covert, or overt, bullying can reduce self-esteem and induce feelings of shame in kids.
If your child tells you that his classmates pick on him for getting stuck on a few words in the class, do not ignore it as a one-time occurrence.
It is possible that your child stutters more often in a stressful environment than he does at home.
Besides addressing the root cause of the problem, parents also need to work on preventive and reactive measures.
Getting Help
If one or more signs of developmental stuttering are present, it is advisable to have the problem diagnosed at the earliest.
A speech-language pathologist specializing in stuttering diagnosis can evaluate whether your child is struggling with persistent stuttering.
Stuttering is no doubt a complex disorder as each child stutters differently. Early diagnosis and treatment, whether through assisted speech therapy or self-therapy, can significantly reduce or even eliminate a child’s stuttering.
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