DS (2yrs) has been stuttering lately. More so when he is excited. He never strains his facial muscles or struggles to get the words out. It's more of a repeat of words type thing. Like when he says he wants something its "I-I-I want to wear my spiderman shoes".
We have been working with him on slowing down and making him repeat his sentences (i.e. using one "I" instead of three).

I looked it up online and I guess it can be pretty common. Here is what I read:



Patricia McAleer-Hamaguchi, pediatric speech-language pathologist
It's normal for your 2-year-old to go through a phase of stuttering, especially when you consider the fact that between the ages of 30 months and 5 years, kids are undergoing extremely rapid growth in their verbal abilities.

Technically, most kids this age don't have a true stutter — instead, they either hesitate when talking or repeat whole words or the first syllable of a word. Your child has these lapses when his brainpower outstrips his verbal dexterity. He may be extremely excited to tell you what's on his mind, or he may be tired, angry, or upset, so he can't get his words out easily. His rapidly developing brain is trying to pull up the right words in the right order. The result may come out something like this: "Mommy, Mommy, look at — look at that." If your child's stuttering continues to get worse, to the point where he's tensing his jaw or grimacing in an effort to get the words out, talk with his pediatrician.

That was good news for me. I will still mention it to his ped. when we go in for his well child check.

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Our oldest stuttered in the same way when he was little. His doctor told me that same thing. He did grow out of it. I think some of his younger siblings did the same thing. By then we knew it wasn't something to be overly concerned about, so we never made a big deal out of it. Now, none of them stutter.

My kids used to whisper words or parts of sentences to themselves, as if practicing how to say them. They also grew out of that.

My oldest DS had the same problem and I took him to the doctor more than once. We were at the point where the school district was doing the evaluations on him and he quit stuttering. Occasionally he will do it when his mind is slower than his mouth but he gets through it quickly.

Give it some time. Remind him to slow down and look you in the eye when he talks. Don't try to finish his words for him. They will start to get concerned between 4-5 yrs old if it is happening all the time.

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I stuttered as a child and pretty much grew out of it. I did have some speech intervention (but not much because my parents could not afford it) and it improved by about 3rd grade.

If your child is still stuttering when they start school, I would highly suggest speech therapy. I was terrified to read out loud in class for a long time. I learned to slow down my words and that I get stuck on certain sounds. Still as an adult, I have learned to feel when I am going to get stuck on a word and quickly use another word with the same meaning instead. I do it so quickly that people don't notice and are surprised when I tell them I used to stutter. Only my Mom notices.