Monday, January 08, 2007

Why kids start stuttering when their sibling is born.







Anonymous said...

This has nothing to do with this precise article, but the link may be interesting. It's about a new device for stutterers:

Anonymous said...

Jerome, this device isn't so new so. It already has 5 years and its efficiency is still controversial (look here:

And Tom, congratulations for the text. Your argumentation is perfect. I always found very strange this history of stuttering that appears after the birth of a sibling.

Tim Weldon said...


I'm responding on behalf of my 4yr old son, Theo, who first started to stammer at about 2.5 years old. He has a sister 6yrs older but I'm wondering whether the fact he was a prem baby (by 5 weeks) could have any bearing on it. When he stammers, he gets stuck on the first syllable of the word eg. mmmmmmmmmmuuuuummy , rather than m-m-m-m-mummy.

We're trying to find a speech and language therapist for him but I just wanted to ask anyone on this blog for any advice / best practise on how to move forward.

Best Rgds, Tim

Anonymous said...


When I look to my history I began to stutter when my mother has a miscarriage.
As you said there will be no first order relation.. But the born of a sibling as well a miscarriage is an emotional event.
Do emotional events within the familiy have a relation with the starting of stuttering?

At this moment I'm reading some theory of system constellations.
See also This site is setup by a stuttertherapist and systemconstellations coach / trainer.

Tom Weidig said...

Hi Tim,

for advice you can go to the website, they have a lot information on stuttering and therapies.

Hi Henk,

I am not saying that emotional events do not have an impact, but I am saying that there must be some inherent weakness present for an emotional event to have a lasting impact on speech. Emotional events might well make the stuttering worse, and then you notice it more.