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From: Dale Williams
Date: 10/9/00
Time: 9:32:57 AM
Remote Name: 131.91.248.210
Nick,
As your daughter just started these unusual speech patterns a week ago I wouldn't rush to an SLP just yet. I know I stated elsewhere that the earlier the child is treated, the better and generally speaking, this is true. In my opinion, however, waiting 2-3 months will not change the prognosis should the disfluencies continue. In the meantime, there are some things you can do to make speech easier for your daughter. See Steve Hood's post on this same list for some readily accessible resources. Also, your point about normal disfluencies is an important one. In my experience, parents are quite good at identifying abnormal fluency in their children. Once the parents know it's there, however, they often start to classify every disfluency as aberrant. Excessive prolonged sounds and sound/syllable repetitions are consistent with the onset of stuttering in a 2 y/o. Other disfluencies (e.g., "special special" or "another nother") are not. The sites noted in Steve’s post should help you sort these out as well.
Best of luck.
Dale