Why does my baby stutter?

If your baby is developing his or her spoken language skills, you may have noticed occasional or constant stuttering, and naturally, you have concerns about it, since stuttering can become a speech disorder if it continues into adulthood.

The impairments that prolonged stuttering can cause are diverse, ranging from the social life to the emotional health of infants, so it is important to be informed about why this happens and how to assess and cope with it in our baby.

What is stuttering?

Also called dysphemia, this is a speech disorder characterized by involuntary repetition of syllables when speaking, and can be accompanied by muscle tension in the face and neck, as well as self-esteem problems, anxiety and other social and emotional problems.

Stuttering or something temporary?

Stuttering is not always linked to a speech disorder and may just be a normal obstacle for your baby as he or she learns to speak. For many infants, it's completely normal to want to express multiple emotions, desires or thoughts, and for their verbal skills to fall short, which can result in pauses, mispronunciations, and yes, stuttering as well.

But it can be difficult to tell the difference between these passing stages of stuttering and something more serious that requires attention, so here are a few differences between a stuttering disorder and normal difficulties

1. Repeating more than 4 times the same sound (P-p-p-p-p-p-p-duck). A normal difficulty is repeating the same sound twice.
2. Repeating specific letters or syllables, while repeating a couple of times the same complete word can be a hindrance in putting together whole sentences, which is completely normal.
3. Tension or physical signs of slurred speech are clear indications of stuttering that may be prolonged.
4. If speech difficulties last longer than 6 months, it may be a sign of stuttering.
5. Lengthening of sounds (I have sssssssssssssleep) is a sign of stuttering.
6. Family history of stuttering.

Why does my baby stutter?

The causes can be many, but depend largely on whether the stuttering is a temporary or an established disorder. If the difficulty is temporary, we have already seen that it may just be a disparity between what your baby wants to say and what he can say, although it may also be the result of nerves, fear, excitement or tiredness.

If it is a disorder, the causes are more difficult to clarify, as there are studies that show evidence that it is hereditary, while, in very specific cases, it has arisen as a result of traumatic events. But the truth is that today there is no proven explanation for stuttering.

What to do?

If you suspect that your baby is experiencing serious stuttering, the first thing to do is not to make a big fuss about it, to listen carefully to what he/she wants to tell you, to support him/her and not to damage his/her confidence, as this may worsen the stuttering due to anxiety. Also, the best thing to do is to contact a specialist in speech disorders or similar that can evaluate and follow up your baby, which will give you certainty, security and will give you a path to follow.