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Expert Q&A
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| By Mindy Hudon Speech and Language Pathologist | ||
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My 2-year-old has been talking very well for several months. He can use five- and six-word sentences, express feelings, etc. Suddenly he started stuttering and saying ôNoö over and over before moving on to the rest of his sentence. Should I be concerned?
Your son appears to be going through a normal developmental process called "normal nonfluency." Normal nonfluency looks like stuttering, but is usually temporary. When children are developing their language skills they often try to organize their language and process information quickly resulting in repetition of sounds or words. Don't be concerned at this time! Don't comment on it or draw attention to it! The best thing you can do is slowly model back language and give him time to express his thoughts. For example, if your son says, "No, no, no, no more carrots," then you should repeat back slowly, "No more carrot." Additionally, if you have other children it is important that you give them all equal "talking time" so that your son knows when it is his talking time and he has your undivided attention. Otherwise he may try to compete with his siblings to get your attention."
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