woogle

Hi, my 2 year old daughter has just started with a stutter. I have spoken to her kindy teacher who says they have noticed it and suggested that if I was concerned I should make an appointment with a speech pathologist.
Has anyone had any experience of this in Oz ? I'm presuming I would just go through my doctor ? We don't have private medical, although we were going to arrange it next month, after we move into our house. Does anyone know if it would be covered ?
The only experience I've had was with my nephew in the UK and that took 12 months just to get him in to see someone and even then his appointments kept being cancelled or postponed. I remember my sister in law being very frustrated by it all.
Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

NickyC

One of my sons once started to stutter - not badly but I wanted to nip it in the bud. He was about three at the time. I got some advice from a speech pathologist who was a mother at his pre-school.

Basically, she advised me to not ignore it, and pretend it wasn't happening, when he stuttered. Each time I noticed it, I was to ask him to stop speaking, ask him to think about what he wanted to say, then say it again.

We did this and he stopped the stuttering within days. I know it sounds like a simplistic approach, and I don't know if works for all cases, but it's worth
trying.

woogle

Thanks for such a quick reply. I'm glad you sorted it out with your son. My daughter seems to do it more when she's tired or excited and some days she doesn't do it at all. I must admit, I was going down the "ignore it & don't draw attention to it" route, because I didn't want her to feel conscious of it, or to start using it as a way of getting attention. I will try it your way & see if that helps. I was just starting to worry, in case it was going to get worse & worse, as I'm not sure how these things progress once they start.
Thanks again.

bernieandmandy

My daughter had speech therapy. If you go public the waiting list is 12 months. The school can help you with that. In the meantime my advise is to go private, it will be covered by health insurance. if not its around $40 a time. but they don't pay it all and only cover so much per year.

My Daughter has come on so much and she now goes to a language development school.

I hope that helps

Mandy

woogle

Thanks Mandy, have sent you a PM.
Sue

Mrs Rangersman

Have pm'd you, Nicola

OzWannabee

Hi

My son who is 4 needed speech therapy as soon as we arrived in Jan as he has his own language which no-one can understand apart from his big sister. We didn't go through the doctor just went straight to the local health centre. They sent us a form to fill in and return and he was put on the waiting list. They have just contacted us with an appointment for next month which is good as he is not really any better we are just learning to understand his language!!!

Hope this helps!

Jo

northerner

Hi, as a speech therapist that is currently waiting to move to Oz I was interested to see your post, but a little concerned to see the replies given. I would advise going to see your GP and getting a refferal to a Speech Pathologist as a precautionary measure. At 2 years of age a stammer is often part of normal development and often resolves itself but without seeing your daughter I would have to advise seeking a referral. As for the advice you have already been given (drawing attention to the stammer), this is not advice that would be given by a Speech and Language Therapist in Britain at this stage of your daughters development. I hope this helps.

Nic

woogle

Thanks Nic.
I also just wondered if you have heard of any link between speech problems & a tablet called Singulair, which my daughter started taking last month,for her asthma? It's just that it seems to have started at the same time.
I'm waiting to go back to the GP's about her asthma, so I will discuss this with him as well. Just wondered if it's anything you'd come across?
Thanks, Sue

northerner

Stammers are not usually linked to medication but can be linked to a significant event that happens in a childs life. But as I said before, it is a normal part of development and children often grow out of it but i'd get it checked out just in case. Until then just ignore it, act naturally and give her plenty of time to speak! I'm not really insured to give advice without seeing a child but if you want to PM me feel free Nic

Tiggs+Graz

My 3 year old has a stammer that sort of comes and goes and he has just started seeing a speech therapist in the uk (taken about six months to get an appointment). The speech therapist told me that most cases are caused by the childs mental ability outstripping their language skills i.e. they are thinking faster/more complex ideas than they have the words to express. As the childs speech improves the stammer gets less and when their mental ability again increases the stammer has a tendancy to come back. My son is a little behind in his speech in general so we are having ongoing appointments at the mo to try and help him catch up which hopefully will solve the problem of the stammer in future.

Tiggs

jad n rich

OK youngest son was born with a cleft palate, repaired in the UK at eight months of age, very lucky no facial defects, just a small hole in palate. Luckily mild enough nobody has ever noticed, one operation so on a scale where some kids have 17 operations mild. However even these kids do not get free speech therapy.

I have in front of me what we have finally got after being here 5 years, one page with a guest user ID to a program called Extra Language Resources and some lesson numbers. The instruction we receive to teach him this is quote "follow the instructions on the page, make sure your sounds are clear" . Thats it. We also get a check up once a year at the hospital, usually a quick test with a mirror to see if air is escaping on sounds like S the one he is having trouble with.

Sorry for reality post but most likely you will pay for a specialist if you want speech therapy and even for children you pay, even kids scripts are not free here.

>Trigger<

I've had a stutter since I was about 3 years old (43 now), apparently I fell into a
river and the shock caused it.. :scared:

I had speech therapy when i was about 10,which consisted of talking rythmically
with the aid of a metronome..worked at the time but you cant carry a metronome around all day!


I have also been hypnotised and this seemed to work fine when talking to the hypnotist..but when the receptionist said the bill was $500..my reply "how ffffff****in mmmmuch!"

On a serious note.. i believe stutterers are trying to breathe in when they talk rather than breathe out..that's why i never stutter when I sing..



Bloody hell...this is probably my most serious post on here!