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Jeremy's speech and language developed more slowly than that of his older sister. He didn't start to speak until he was two; until then, he would point to what he wanted. When he started to speak, he was difficult to understand. Jeremy's parents often had to ask him to repeat what he said. His speech became a little clearer at age 3, when he was using 2 3 word sentences. But at about that time he began to repeat initial sounds of words and soon he was prolonging sounds and opening his mouth extra wide when he couldn't get sounds started. Jeremy's cousin had also been late in developing speech, but never stuttered, so Jeremy's parents assumed he would just outgrow it in time. Unfortunately, the stuttering worsened. Soon Jeremy was saying "um" several times just before a word to get it started, in addition to using facial grimaces and wide mouth postures when he got stuck. When he made several attempts to get a word started without success, Jeremy would say "Oh, never mind" and give up. He was gradually becoming more and more reluctant to talk.

By this time, Jeremy's parents became concerned enough to ask their family physician for advice. After talking to Jeremy, the physician referred them to a speech-language pathologist in a local pre-school program. The speech clinician soon determined that immediate treatment was needed and worked with Jeremy and his family in their home for a year with good initial success. Following this, Jeremy entered first grade and was seen twice a week by the school speech clinician and continues to make good progress. Although he still gets hung up on a word occasionally, his language development is normal and he participates fully in class and in social situations.

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