Advice for 11 year old who stutters.
My 11 year old daughter stutters, my husband (who also had a stutter as a middle schooler) and I would like to have her evaluated but we’re not sure if we should try to request this through BUSD or just go through our insurer (Kaiser). Though from what I can glean from Kaiser’s website they may only cover speech therapy if it’s part of recovery from a stroke or injury, not sure if they treat developmental stuttering.
For some background: she stuttered occasionally as a younger kid (preschool), but has gone through periods of fluent speech. Over the past couple years the stutter has become more frequent. We’ve noticed she’s beginning to talk very fast to try to avoid it, but many times that just makes her harder to understand.
The stuttering hasn’t seemed to cause her any difficulty academically or socially- we’ve mentioned the stutter to her 4th and 5th grade teachers during the annual conferences and both were not aware she had the issue, plus she’s quite talkative even when she encounters a block. She doesn’t seem to be teased about it by other kids, but since she’ll be going to middle school in the fall we thought it might be a good idea to get her some support to help decrease the tension and struggle when she stutters, learn some effective communication skills and gain some confidence with her speech as she enters a notoriously self-conscious age.
Can anyone who has a older elementary or middle school kid who has navigated this either through their school district or a private therapist offer us advice? Have any speech language pathologist and speech therapist recommendations? Know of any fun theater or improv classes for tweens that might help with speaking in general? Thanks in advance for any recommendations and advice!
Parent Replies
I have a 13 yo who stutters, and has received services both through his old public elementary school and Kaiser (during summers). Kaiser does treat developmental stuttering, assuming you meet the therapeutic criteria. If you pursue an evaluation, you first need a referral from your pediatrician. However, my advice is that if she doesn't want to do speech therapy, it won't work. There is homework; kids have to be motivated. Your note didn't say anything about her stutter bothering *her* - so I really wouldn't make it a big deal. And in our experience, there's an incredibly high bar to speech therapy services in public school (which our child didn't meet the first year he was evaluated and subsequently did), sounds like there's a good chance she wouldn't qualify. Kaiser has a slightly less high bar but still it has to be pretty darn impeding. In short, if it's not causing academic or social problems for her, given her age I think you risk making the situation worse (ie., she will just stop talking to get you off her back).
Hello - I identify with what you're experiencing. Our son started to stutter in 2nd grade. His teacher didn't notice, so it was mild. We got referred to the school speech therapist who did notice it slightly when talking to our son. He had us record our son during normal family interactions, and he was able to identify many kinds of "bumps" in our son's speech. We were given some exercises to follow (which helped but are for elementary aged kids), and the therapist and my son met a couple of times. Ultimately the school decided that the stutter was too mild to justify talking the child out of class to work on it.
We did try Kaiser. It was awful. They charged us a boatload of money for a 45 minute conversation. The therapist noticed both the stuttering and the coping mechanisms that our son had developed for himself. They weren't keen to help, since he's so high functioning. Our insurance didn't cover it either.
We basically hit dead ends at school and with Kaiser. We tried every year with the schools to get intervention, but no teachers noticed the stutter.
Our son is going to HS in the fall. He continues to stutter, it continues to be mild, and he continues to use his invented coping mechanisms. Most people wouldn't notice it, but it's there.
I suggest speaking to the middle school counselor before school lets out to learn what help they can provide in the fall, so you can get the ball rolling right away. Best wishes!!