Stuttering and Normal Dysfluency

Many young children go through a period of development that is considered "normal dysfluency." They may repeat syllables, words and phrases when they speak. They may use fillers like "um", "er" and "uh". This tends to happen between about 18 months and five years of age. The children are typically not that aware of their speech dysfluencies. This often happens while children are rapidly expanding their use of language - or learning to use language in new ways. This type of dysfluency may disappear for a time and then re-appear while language use is changing.

Dysfluency patterns that might be considered stuttering, tend to involve more sound repetitions, "blocks" where a child might be "stuck" and can't keep their voice or speech going, and tension and frustration during speaking. These would be signs that a child might benefit from being seen by a Speech -Language Pathologist.