Stuttering===any ideas on helping this?

[Ottakee]

My 14dd has a terrible time with stuttering/word finding. She is mentally impaired (actually has a very low IQ but functions higher than her IQ would suggest). She can read on a 3rd grade level.

 

The biggest issue she has is her stuttering/word finding/fluency, etc. Nothing we have tried seems to help at all. This is a HUGE thing socially as others can't understand her very well but if she could say what she is trying to without the stuttering, she would do quite well.

 

She has been in and out of speech therapy since she was 2 1/2. We have had private therapy, rehab hospital therapy, school therapy, a summer camp program therapy, etc. The therapists can't really figure her out.

 

The fluency is somewhat transient, meaning that some times it is worse than others. Anxiety might play a roll in this but yet she isn't a high anxiety kid.

 

We did have 3 weeks of TOTAL fluency when we added a new seizure med to her mixture 7 years ago. Even though she is still on that med and we have adjusted the dosage, we can't get that back. It was a dramatic change for the positive and then suddenly as we were eating lunch she started stuttering again and has never been that fluent since.

 

We have done MRIs ("normal"), EEGs (again "normal" even though the neurologist is sure she has seizures deep), etc.

 

The older she gets the more this affects her socially as normal kids/teens often don't want to take the time to listen to her as it can take a long time for her to communicate what she is trying to say.

 

We have also tried gluten free, wheat free, dairy free, sugar free, etc. diets with no change in anything.

 

Any other ideas?

 

Her diagnosis include 3 forms of mitochondrial disorders (only known case in the world with these 3 forms in combination), seizures, bipolar, mental impairment, hypo=thyroid, ADD, growth delay, IgA and IgG deficiencies, mild CP, and likely more. Even with all of this, the stuttering is the worst thing and I would keep the rest if we could just get rid of this stuttering.

[Lovedtodeath]

Is she repeating the same sound or is she repeating the same word?

[Ottakee]

Is she repeating the same sound or is she repeating the same word?

 

It varies. Often it is a filler sound between words or even within a word. This is NOT typical stuttering and maybe I should call it dyslfuency instead.

 

Basically she has baffled all of the speech therapists she has ever seen.

[VinNY]

It varies. Often it is a filler sound between words or even within a word. This is NOT typical stuttering and maybe I should call it dyslfuency instead.

 

Basically she has baffled all of the speech therapists she has ever seen.

 

Is it a word recall issue? Like a planning problem..organizing her thoughts and trying to retrieve the information? Maybe an OT can help. My dtr made great strides in intelligibilty w/OT and we continue at home with Brain Gym type exercises. My dtr has dyspraxia so anything that helps her get organized is a boon to her speech production. Just a thought.

Virginia

[EKS]

I've heard that omega 3s help stuttering, and they seem to have helped my 8yo who has some mild stuttering issues, but I seem to remember that you already do this.

[Rosie_0801]

Singing a lot will often iron out things with me.

 

Rosie

[Laura Corin]

How's her breathing? Hobbes has been taught some techniques to help him to work past his stutter ('smooth talking') but the thing which makes it worse is his tendency to snatch breaths. If he breathes properly (like a singer, from the diaphragm) then he doesn't stutter.

 

Laura