My heart is breaking for my son

amother

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 7:02 pm

My four year old son started stuttering about five montsh ago. I spoke to his pediatrician and a speech expert who said to give it six months before treating. Today, at PTA, his Morah told me that she keeps stopping them but kids are making fun of him and he's hanging on her because he's afraid to socialize.

I'm sitting here crying. I'm going to call a speech expert tomorrow but the internet is not being very reassuring about therapy helping anyone. It said something about it helping 1 percent of cases. I'm so scared he's in for years of bullying and hard times. Kids can be so cruel. Sad

Any helpful advice?

mommyW

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 7:14 pm

It surely is heartbreaking to see your child suffer and you can't be of help.
My nephew had that at around age 3. He was stuttering badly. The Dr explained to my sister that at this age it happens a lot by the smart kids. It's cause their minds run faster than their mouths. He said the best thing to do about it is to ignore it and not to make the child award of it. Bh after around half a year it disappeared. I wish you the same luck as by her.

Maybe you can have the teacher talk to the class about it when he is not there to explain to the kids that it's not nice to make fun of kids when they don't talk clearly. Good luck!

amother

Burgundy

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 7:15 pm

amother [ Blush ] wrote:

did you check for strep/pandas?

This. This is how our pandas presented at age 4. bh we haven't seen the stutter in a long while since we started treating. Our pandas specialist said stuttering falls under the tic category.

amother

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 7:17 pm

mommyW wrote:

Thank you for sharing your sister's story. I did hear that that might be the cause-his speech might be behind his brain. The teacher is doing her best. I'm just so distraught that he's suffering.

amother

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 7:18 pm

amother [ Burgundy ] wrote:

This. This is how our pandas presented at age 4. bh we haven't seen the stutter in a long while since we started treating. Our pandas specialist said stuttering falls under the tic category.

Definitely will check. How?

avrahamama

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 7:19 pm

My son stuttered a bit at that age. It stopped as suddenly as it started. In high school I directed a school play and cast a stutterer as my lead. He was so good and eventually he barely stuttered it was amazing. Doing that play and getting the lead really helped him. I imagine singing songs and nursery rhymes might be helpful for your son as well. Kids can be mean. So he needs tools and strategies to help him deal with that regardless of his current speech situation. BZH he should grow to only speak holy, kind and pleasing words to give us all nachat.

amother

Burgundy

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 7:21 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Definitely will check. How?

Aso and anti-dnase b blood work will tell you if strep titers are elevated, but this doesn't rule pandas in or out. The best test honestly is an ibuprophen and/or antibiotics trial to see if it resolves that way.

allthingsblue

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 7:21 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Thank you for sharing your sister's story. I did hear that that might be the cause-his speech might be behind his brain. The teacher is doing her best. I'm just so distraught that he's suffering.

That is truly heartbreaking. I hope you find the proper shaliach for healing.
Meanwhile, perhaps try to invest extra effort in helping ds find good friends- kind, not wild boys who won't tease him. Perhaps buy an extra cool game or toy (train set? Lego? Musical instrument?) that they can play with in your house and arrange play dates.

amother

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 7:28 pm

amother [ Burgundy ] wrote:

Thank you everyone for your responses. They're very comforting.

I will make an appointment with my pediatrician tomorrow and see if I can get antibiotics prescribed.

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 7:42 pm

I also had one child who suddenly started stuttering, at 3 or 4? I don't remember, and it went away on its own and I was also given the advice to ignore it and it can be completely normal. The advice you got to wait it out really might be borne out of this common enough occurrence as developmentally kids sometimes take leaps that their entire systemic body is not ready for and not necessarily an indication of a true problem. The problem in your case though is the teasing, that's horrible, and I hope the teachers really work on stopping that -- at 4 years of age, it should be something the teachers can deal with. My child is now a teen, I almost forget this stage ever happened. And yes, very bright kid.

amother

Babypink

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 8:08 pm

amother [ Rose ] wrote:

It's common at this age when their brain moves faster than their mouths. Try working with him to pause and think about what he wants to say before rushing to speak.

This.
Also could it be anxiety related? I've seen that too.

amother

Emerald

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 9:00 pm

That must be so hard Sad

Try to set him up on playdates with classmates hopefully if he plays with them at home it will carry over to school and they'll play together there. so even if some kids still tease him he will have a group of friends to go to to play with so it would be easier for him to ignore the others and hopefully they'll eventually get bored of teasing him.

Also when you have playdates/classmates at home, you can read them a book about how everyone is different and then casually give examples after like - Chaim (playdate) has glass and dovid ( your son) sometimes takes some time to say words.... everyone has things that are different about them....
You can even do this by playing mitzvah kinder or Playmobil with them - at some point in middle of playing you can say, my character has glass like Chaim to help him see and this other one takes time to say words like dovid, how do he feels when that happens? If your son's comfortable with this you can ask - what can we do if this boy (the mechies) friends make fun of him? Allow them to answer (ex my guy can take him to play something else, tell the other boys to stop, tell morah....)

amother

Azure

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 9:14 pm

I'm a speech therapist and the advice you got about waiting ~6 months was correct. But now that it's been that long and still hasn't resolved on its own, you'll want to start seeing a speech therapist who specializes in fluency. The fluency specialist where I work uses the Lidcombe program when working with preschoolers. Many times the stuttering goes away after working on it (no guarantees, but if you don't have a family history of stuttering and you implement the strategies you learn, the odds of your kid overcoming the stutter are pretty decent).

A couple of helpful links:

http://www.lidcombeprogram.org/?page_id=296

https://www.asha.org/public/sp.....ring/

Dolly1

Mon, Dec 16 2019, 9:22 pm

Op, my heart hurts for u as a mom. There’s nothing more painful than watching ur child suffer.
I’m a Speech Therapist, and I would like to assure you that His stuttering could very possibly be a passing stage. Before age 5 it’s not considered abnormal. It might disappear on its own. But for now it’s important for u to give him time and let him talk and finish his own sentences, even if it takes time to listen. Tell his teacher the same.
If it makes you feel better; my son started stuttering when he was 3 years old. As a therapist I told myself not to worry yet but as a mom my heart broke and all I wanted was a quick fix. He just turned 4 and his stuttering is MUCH better b”h.
So please don’t panic. Give it time. And if ch’v his stutter doesn’t disappear on its own then just know that there are some successful approaches out there to overcome stuttering.
Hugs to u!