Everybody stutters, at least a little bit. Dysfluency (stuttering) becomes a concern when higher percentage of a child's speech consists of stuttered words or if the stuttering impacts a child's interaction with different people in different environments.​ If your child has started stuttering, contact us and we can determine a treatment plan based different factors including: time since stuttering started, the types/amounts of stuttering present, family history, other speech-language issues, etc. Not all children who stutter will need treatment. A speech therapist knows when to monitor, when to educate and when to treat. Below are some concerns that might mean it is a good idea to start therapy:

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• type of stuttering: prolongations (heeeee is playing), blocks (I ____ want a toy), and repeated words/sounds (I-I-I am happy) or (s-s-s-sometimes I play outside) are considered more severe than interjections (I, um, want to, um, go to the, um store),  restarts (I want the- He wants the green one) and phrase repetitions (We went to, we went to school). 

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• time since onset: if a child has consistently stuttered for 6 months or more

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• age: children older than 5 are at risk for being persistent people who stutter

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• secondary behaviors: these are things that happen when a child stutters such as hard blinking, facial grimacing, clicking, squeezing their hands, nodding their heads, etc. 

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• family history: children who have family members who stutter are more at risk for stuttering to persist

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• other speech or language problems: children who also have speech delays or language delays have been known to be persistent people who stutter

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