Speaking Life Into Motherhood ~ Routines, Time Management, Holistic Health, Self Care, Autism, ADHD, Neurodiversity, Special Needs, Disabilities

25 Stuttering in Children: Why You Shouldn't Wait and See (Christian Mom's Guide)

• Season 1 • Episode 25

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Are you wondering if your child's speech disfluencies are normal or something to be concerned about?

Do you feel like your doctor keeps telling you to "wait and see" while your mama heart is telling you to seek help now?

Are you struggling to know how to support your older child who continues to stutter despite receiving speech therapy?

In this encouraging episode, I sit down with Briann Morbitzer (Ms. Bri), a speech-language pathologist who specializes in stuttering therapy for all ages. As a mama of four little ones under four and owner of Superior Speech Therapy in St. Paul, Minnesota, Briann brings both professional expertise and heart-centered wisdom to our conversation about supporting children who stutter.

We dive deep into early warning signs, when to seek help (spoiler: don't wait!), and holistic approaches that support the whole child - including sensory regulation, sleep, and even the spiritual aspects of being present with our children in their difficult moments.


Connect with Briann:


Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

  • Sensory integration occupational therapy
  • Craniosacral therapy
  • Chiropractic care
  • Hippotherapy (equine therapy)
  • Mindful breathing techniques
  • Myofunctional therapy and tethered oral tissue evaluation
  • Natural allergy management (saline sprays)
  • Sleep hygiene importance

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While you're here, please leave a quick rating or review! I pray this episode blesses you! Remember, you don't just have to survive mama- you can thrive!

Connect with the host: Elyse Scheeler


Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and hosts and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Speaking Life Into Motherhood. None of the advice or discussion on the podcast is medical advice. Always consult with your medical provider before using any supplements, essential oils, or therapy methods.

Bri Morbitzer (00:00)
after five years old,

the percentage of recovery, if that's the right word, it might not be the right word, but that percentage gets really, really tiny. And in fact, by like ages six and seven, especially closer to seven, the chance of recovery is only 5%. So we're talking about the brain, we're talking about neurons that fire together, wire together, and we're also talking about emotional impact as we get towards the child who is seven or school aged, because they're aware

and they probably are frustrated and it might start to cause some unwanted behaviors and emotional reaction.

Elyse Scheeler (01:39)
Welcome back everyone. Today I am excited to have Breanne Morbitzer with me. Breanne, or Ms. Bre to her clients, is a speech language pathologist and an imama to four little ones, and she just told me four under four, ⁓ my gosh, in St. Paul, Minnesota. She mostly works with people who stutter of all different ages. She has a part-time private practice called Superior Speech Therapy, and she founded and facilitates a social conversation group for adults who stutter called the Minneapolis St. Paul Stuttering Group.

Breanne, thank you so much for being here. Welcome.

Bri Morbitzer (02:11)
You're welcome. I'm equally grateful to be here too.

Elyse Scheeler (02:14)
Wonderful. Well, awesome. Well, I'm super excited to have you on. We kind of talked before we started recording that I'm really wanting to be able to provide our listeners with more, like specific types of interventions and resources and maybe other things related to therapy for their kids or maybe even for themselves. So,

you wouldn't mind, could you just tell me maybe a little bit about what kind of brought you to this place and if you've seen you know God's hand and kind of bringing you into being a private practice owner and also having that mama role.

Bri Morbitzer (02:44)
Sure. Well, I got into the field because I was at a small college that I thought I was going to be at for my four years. And I ended up not really fitting in great. I wasn't really hitting the things I wanted to be doing at the school anyway. And as it happens, I had an advisory meeting with someone who was a substitute. My normal college advisor was gone. And so a substitute that I had never met stepped in.

And he mentioned that he had his wife at the neighboring state university, much larger university in Minnesota, that was a speech language pathologist and she was a professor there. And I might really like talking with her and learning more about speech therapy. And that's the direction it went. I transferred schools and got into speech language pathology at Minnesota State University, Mankato. And from there, I had some really rich experiences with

highly skilled clinicians. was really fortunate, blessed to be among people who really understood, especially stuttering. And I got into private practice because when I started into life with family, life with kids, and it coincided with life with COVID, people adjusting to life with COVID, I realized that it would be important to offer virtual sessions for my time and the world's.

you know, safety and comfort. So all of it sort of happened at the same time, although I had started my private practice as a side hustle before COVID and before kids anyway. I had a lot of capacity in my younger years, in my younger years of clinician life to spend a lot of time. And so I'm really, I see God's hand because I had time and I had great human guidance and I had a lot of feeling of worth.

Elyse Scheeler (04:23)
Same, same.

Bri Morbitzer (04:38)
and possibility and growth from him. So I was doing bigger things than I realized I was setting up for this time now where I am a mom mostly. I treat and have my private practice very part time, but it works. And it sounds like a lot, but it works because when I think any of us are aligned with the father's heart, our dreams become his dreams and then he just keeps pulling us forward.

into a capacity that we really can handle. You we really can. So I encourage you as you get going in your, in now leaving school and being fully into this life, you're here because you're meant to be here.

Elyse Scheeler (05:09)
Absolutely.

Yeah, it's amazing once when God starts pulling you all of a sudden you're like, this is snowball, like I'm kind of like going to go and then all of sudden things are just happening, but it continues to be a good thing in that way. So I love that so much for you. So tell me a little bit about, stuttering. So maybe we have some parents who have little ones who aren't really sure or maybe they're not talking yet. What are some things that as we're looking at early childhood will start

with development that parents should be aware of with stuttering like maybe what to be concerned about maybe what not to be so concerned about.

Bri Morbitzer (05:52)
Yeah,

well stuttering is mostly something that's seen in development. So as a child begins to talk, that's when stuttering might be noticed. And it's also important to say upfront that to have disfluency when a child is starting to talk is very common. In fact, most kids do have a moment or a time in their growth that it does sound like they're repeating themselves.

Especially when they get started talking, that's a huge area that would be called like initiation. But when they want to start saying something to mom or dad, that's when you hear a lot of disfluencies coming out at the front of the sound or the whole word. So it's common, but some kids do persist with stuttering and some kids don't. And that's kind of the piece that makes things a little scary for parents because

We might be here and listening and noticing, and we don't know what's going to happen next.

Elyse Scheeler (06:54)
Yeah, absolutely. So as we're going, like I'm thinking of a couple things that I look at. But, as that kiddo gets a little bit older, are there things, especially specifically, I'm thinking about like some of the physical attributes that maybe sometimes come along with stuttering that might be indicators for at least, you know, maybe to have some professional eyes look at a kiddo.

Bri Morbitzer (07:13)
Sure.

Yeah, unfortunately, I think it's unfortunate that a lot of times a physician will say just to wait and see. But there is a window of time and it's about, you know, six months that if a child is persisting in stuttering or what kind of sounds like stuttering longer than that, they really should be seen because at that point it is kind of unclear if it's something that's going to persist or not persist. And so some

Some things that I would suggest are if you're noticing it and the child seems frustrated or the child seems like it's just actually pretty difficult to get out. Like that could be that it seems to take them a while. They seem to kind of be using effort. They're running out of breath. And if there is like some sort of tension somewhere at, you know, the face muscles or they seem to be blinking or closing their eyes.

Those are things that I would say I would start to look into speech pathologists and start to get on someone's list because I don't think it's wise to wait and see. I think it's wise to kind of wait and start doing something because the treatment and the time with a speech pathologist, as long as they are a speech pathologist who knows about stuttering treatment, it will be a positive experience for the child anyway. You know, we're talking about

Elyse Scheeler (08:24)
Mm-hmm.

Bri Morbitzer (08:38)
building language and having fun talking. So those are great things to be doing.

Elyse Scheeler (08:44)
Yeah, absolutely. One of the other speech pathologists that I had on, she said the same thing. A lot of times, the doctors want to wait on XYZ and they want to wait and wait and wait. Okay, wait to Medicaid. I get that. Wait to have a surgery. I get that. But waiting on therapy that is completely non-invasive, that you're going to get a set of professional eyes on and professionals, we can say, this is something that maybe we don't need to address right now or it's something that we do or here are some things that you can do, mom and dad.

So that is like one of the main reasons that I started the podcast was to help parents advocate for themselves and especially those Christian moms who, you know, sometimes get it from both sides where it's like the doctors say, wait, you know, and I'm not saying everyone says this, but like sometimes from a Christian standpoint, it's like, just pray about it, which like, great, please pray, please pray. But that may not, you know, sometimes God is saying, yes, you prayed and I'm providing you with the person that you need. Right. It's like that the person who's on the, he's in the flood and he's on the roof and it's like, no, I

praying waiting for God and God's been sending all of this help. you know, really, really encouraging. I love that you are encouraging those mamas and dads to pursue that. And just because the doctor says wait does not mean that you have to have a referral either, right? How do you get most of your clients? Like, how are they finding you to, you when they have questions about stuttering?

Bri Morbitzer (10:00)
Yeah, most people find me through word of mouth. Stuttering isn't something that a lot of people treat specifically. So when people are doing Google searches, especially in Minnesota, I would imagine are finding me, I'm physically located in St. Paul and I offer in-home speech therapy. So how convenient, but how loving and inviting and welcoming to physically be in someone's home.

the kids and the family, it would be great if we all were on the same page anyway. So that works really well when we're not in an office to be somewhere within earshot where mom and dad, and especially siblings, can hear and understand what's happening too.

Elyse Scheeler (10:41)
Yeah, absolutely. So let's fast forward a little bit. Let's say we have parents who maybe have older kids where now, you know, their stuttering is persisting. Maybe they've gotten some speech therapy.

you know, they're feeling frustrated, you know, or maybe that they're feeling like they've plateaued. But sometimes, you know, in our mama hearts, we go, but have they really, you know, isn't there something more? What would you say to those parents? And maybe, you know, maybe it is that they've plateaued. But like, I came to you, and I was like, I have a 12 year old, the stuttering continues, like, I just feel like there's more that we can do. What kinds of suggestions might you be able to provide?

Bri Morbitzer (11:15)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I want to go to talk about the prevalence and I want to talk about like the incidence of children who persist in stuttering and those who don't. So stuttering is neurodevelopmental and when a child is so busy growing and developing there's other things going on at the same time too as far as growth and development. So for that child if they aren't coming through

the biggest leaps and bounds of talking and the stuttering is going away, I would definitely see someone. And like I said earlier, that could be like six months of hearing talking, but it is a risk factor to be stuttering longer than a year. So I hope that if a child starts talking at two or at three, they are seeing a speech therapist if the stuttering is persisting when their child is like three and four.

under the age of five, there is a good chance of the stuttering going away with treatment. There also is a good chance of stuttering just going away on its own. And that's very common, but it's hard to know what's going to happen. And there's a lot of other things that go into this, like does the child have other speech or language challenges? Or is their temperament pretty sensitive?

you know, things about them and their ability to grow and develop might impact if stuttering is going to persist or not. again, it could resolve on its own. And in fact, it's pretty likely that stuttering would resolve all on its own within a year. If it doesn't, there still is a good chance under the age of five that it will become resolved. However, after five years old,

the percentage of recovery, if that's the right word, it might not be the right word, but that percentage gets really, really tiny. And in fact, by like ages six and seven, especially closer to seven, the chance of recovery is only 5%. So we're talking about the brain, we're talking about neurons that fire together, wire together, and we're also talking about emotional impact as we get towards the child who is seven or school aged, because they're aware

and they probably are frustrated and it might start to cause some unwanted behaviors and emotional reaction.

You know, it might be frustrating. It might feel shameful. You know, maybe mom or dad never said that this is bad. However, if they noticed in body language that this seemed concerning, the stuttering might be perceived as the child as bad. And that does affect our internal state. I mean, adults who stutter are actually

the place where I learned the most, I think. And our internal state, the way we view ourselves impacts the way the world views us. And these are holy moments too, because in these moments that we can't look to ourselves and see who God calls us to be, who he has designed us to be, we should be asking for him to affirm us. Like, please tell me who I am. Like, please tell me that this does not matter.

And those are big things for adults, but adults were kids. They were kids at five and six and seven. you know, parents, I think it's really important to notice and even write it down. Write down if you notice I'm stuttering and write down if you had the thought that the child is still stuttering, because that could give, you know, could give some good details for the therapist about what to do in therapy.

Elyse Scheeler (14:34)
Yeah.

Bri Morbitzer (14:57)
There are some intensive therapy programs that parents are expected to help with because a lot of the things need to carry over into home. And that's really, really powerful when the parents feel like they know how they can help their kid.

Elyse Scheeler (15:14)
Absolutely. I love that. Can you talk a little bit about like maybe what would be some alternatives? So one of the things that I like to talk about on the podcast would be, you know, things that maybe are not that they're, you know, we're not putting our tinfoil hats on, but you know, like things that maybe parents haven't heard of necessarily, or that are going to be, you know, you are very specific to stuttering. you know, that's even there's even stuff for me within like the myo and the feeding world where like

I talk to other speech therapists and they're like, I have never heard of that. And you're like, this is actually really common. You know, maybe what would be some things for somebody who's been working with a speech therapist, you know, but maybe that's not really their area of expertise. Are there any specific like things to try or treatment interventions? Or I know we had talked about, you know, looking at, you know, tethered oral tissues and tongue tie releases before recording. Are there any things like that, that maybe families could start asking more questions for if they're feeling like, okay, things are continuing to persist and I'm just not, you know,

I'm feeling like we need to maybe ask some more questions.

Bri Morbitzer (16:13)
Yeah, so I've worked with this for 11 years, so I still have a lot of growing and learning to do, but I have had really close experiences with parents, and I still do host and facilitate the Minneapolis St. Paul Stuttering group of adults who stutter, and that's not a therapy group, but that's just a conversation group. So I hear a lot about kind of what...

else, the question you're asking is like what else are they doing besides speech therapy? So especially in children ages, I want to generally share that the parent could get curious about what is going to reduce demand and what is going to reduce irritation. What's going to make the child feel more regulated and more free? And so regulation is huge. We're talking about sensory regulation.

It's very common for a child who stutters to also see an occupational therapist who is well-versed with sensory integration. So being regulated matters a ton because that is how the brain is best primed to do something new. And that might be doing the new thing with talking that is more free and contains less repetition or less block.

So I have had parents try reducing allergens. I've had parents taking their kids to the chiropractor. I've had parents taking their kids to, is it called hippotherapy when they ride horses for therapy?

Elyse Scheeler (17:49)
I'm not sure what it's called, but I understand.

Bri Morbitzer (17:51)
Something

very similar to that word. And then just like generally noticing, my kid needs more sensory input today. Let's go swimming. Let's go outside. Let's go on a walk right now in this transition. Let's play with Play-Doh. All different things that help the body touch and feel and squeeze and move left and right, literally on a walk. We're moving left to right. Let's sing.

Elyse Scheeler (18:00)
Mm-hmm.

Bri Morbitzer (18:18)
When we sing, we are calming our vagus nerve. I mean, all of this is about stuttering, but it's mostly about being regulated. And mindfulness and mindful breathing does have a place in all of speech therapy, but especially in stuttering in adults and in children alike, it's really important for children and adults to be in the present moment. And that's a holy thing too, because that is where

Holy Spirit is. You know, if we are concerned about a past experience with talking and that's causing some nervousness, that will impact or it's likely to impact the moment of the moment of talking. And if we are anxious about what will happen, that probably will impact the moment of talking too. But those two places, like the future and the past are not where God...

calls us to be, like he does design us to be in the present moment because he wants us to be with him. And this is where he is, like just in this moment. So mindfulness and mindful breathing is something I want to do with every client of every age. We have to know where we are. We have to know how we feel. And we have to be able to tolerate this moment too and give it space. Sometimes the moment's uncomfortable.

Sometimes we have just stuttered quite a bit and we notice things in our body like, wow, I think my heart rate's really fast. Or my breathing is really shallow, it's way up in my chest. I wanna bring it to my diaphragm. All of these things are important, but really it only takes about six fantastic cycles of breath or about like 60 seconds to really get regulated again.

And that matters because the child or the adult who stutters cannot know what's happening. And if they don't have attention to the way that they're speaking or to the moment and how they're feeling, they won't be able to make any adjustments. You know, we all, this is a lesson like I've learned for more than just stuttering. We all cannot change what we're not aware of.

So for kids under the age of five, I don't expect them to know that they're stuttering, but we do help them notice how the feeling of talking free feels different than the talking moment of being bumpy or stuck.

Elyse Scheeler (20:50)
Mm hmm.

I love that. Yeah, I think that that's something that we can all benefit from is really having that sensory regulation conversation because with the world, everybody is dysregulated, it feels like, right? And so having that first...

Bri Morbitzer (21:04)
Yeah.

Elyse Scheeler (21:05)
level of awareness. And I think what I hear you saying too, is you're really helping to provide, you know, for those older, you know, kids and adults, a little bit of ownership in like, I have something that I can do to calm my body down. And then you're also giving the parents a tool that they can use to feel better about it. Because when you know, anytime that there's anxiety, you know, or stress, everybody's tense. And then the more tense we are, you know, as a person who might be stuttering, you know, that is obviously going to make it much

difficult to have smooth to have smooth speech through that. So yeah, I absolutely love everything that you are saying. The other thing and I know you don't you haven't didn't have direct experience with this, but I would also just based on some of the research that I have done, you know, really encourage parents again, if you're to the point where like, okay, you know,

we're getting a little bit stuck with things is really looking into having a speech therapist maybe in coordination with that. speech therapist who has some myofunctional therapy, tethered oral tissues experience as well because there is more and more research coming out too that that tightness that can happen with some of those tethered oral tissues can also be connected with stuttering. And I think that it's good to look at the big picture. It's not, know, there's typically, well, there's never one answer, right? There's for anything.

autism-suttering, whatever it is, feeding, there's never one single answer, but you know, kind of having that bigger global picture. And I think looking at some of the structures in, you know, that oral-facial complex can be really helpful as well.

Bri Morbitzer (22:36)
Yeah, it makes me think that, you know, I need to share I have never treated a child and co-treated with oral facial myology for the purpose of stuttering. I have had young children or like maybe she was like seven go and get tonsils and adenoids removed because that just was coming up for her and she does stutter and she and parents reported that she stuttered less after she had healed and recovered. And I think that goes back to my

original thing about like the what else, if there is something that irritates or something that is adding demand to speaking or breathing, that really could be tethered oral tissues because if we are paying attention to the breath, the breath is important for the moment of speaking, of course. The breath is also important for your body's best health. I mean, we're talking about sleep. And if your child has

severe allergies, I would work with an allergist on that. Or at minimum, lots of people can do a natural saline spray every day and just feel a little more clear in the face. And you know, I don't know for sure that getting tonsils and adenoids removed is going to help. You know, I've had one parent say it didn't make a difference, but it is something that clears the airway. And if we are sleeping better, we might be better.

during our daytime too, because when we sleep, we're healing. And so sleep is important. I ask about sleep with parents on their first intake, but also throughout working with them is do they seem well rested? Do their covers seem really rustled around? Like they toss and turn quite a bit. There is such a thing, I'm sure you're aware, it's called allergy shiners, but kids can have dark circles under their eyes, and that might be a sign of how they're sleeping. And sometimes kids...

Elyse Scheeler (24:03)
Yeah.

Bri Morbitzer (24:31)
look like they have ADHD, but really they just aren't getting enough sleep and they feel dysregulated during the day. And it is really hard to pay attention or finish a task because they just don't feel good. And it makes more sense to move on to the next thing because this is not fun or not serving or not engaging the child. So I think sleep and breath is really important.

I would never be opposed to a parent wanting to try something like that for their kids. Craniosacral work and chiropractic work also seems to be something that's valuable for kids who stutter. And then we're just talking about kids in general. They're going through a lot of development. They're taking on so much new stuff, more than you and I are now. I read somewhere that the brain does 80 % of its growth under the age of five. So we...

We honor them for what they're doing and we want to help and support them with, you know, whatever we have resource to, whatever we can in the moment. If it's just going for a walk, that's really great too. ⁓

Elyse Scheeler (25:37)
Yeah,

I love that. And I think that is a theme in many of the with the guests that I have is that like it's not a one. I think sometimes we have medical professionals who are like, I'm the one who can solve your problem.

And I think there's more of us who are like, no, like we need a team, right? Like I can help with this area, but there might be more and really being open to that and finding practitioners that are open to that I think is important too, because if you have somebody who says, no, you don't have to go anywhere else, I'm the one who can solve it. It's like, would question that. I would say, but can you though? Like this is your area. And there are some things where, you know, that might be the case, but I think, you know,

being open to having that collaborative approach is just so helpful in moving forward with all of that. As we wrap things up, do you have any words of advice or words of wisdom, especially for those Christian moms who are maybe trying...

Because sometimes we do this, I know I've done this with certain things with my kids where it's like, why God, why is this going on? Why is my poor child having this challenge that maybe you could help either pray them through it or help to understand some of God's bigger picture with that.

Bri Morbitzer (26:40)
Thank you.

Yeah, well, it's not meant, my comment won't be one that makes people feel pressure, but everything does matter. And I don't mean to put pressure on when I say that, but you as a mom or dad are the person for your kid. know, scientifically, you're the person that can best co-regulate with them. Societally, you're the person that protects them and nurtures them and provides for them. But

It is holy work and you are the one that shows them how to respond and you show them how to respond to the father like you show them moments where you express gratitude. You show them moments where you ask for help because we want to know how our kids are doing in order to best help them and we are the model of that. Gratitude has

tremendous place in the growing body of research, but it also has a huge place in Scripture and Jesus's posture. I mean, he gave thanks at every moment that he was about to sit down and commune with people. And we show our kids that, we show them what we're grateful for, we show them in this moment of stress in our own, in my own internal mind, I try throughout the day to

write down literally or at least make a mental note of what I'm grateful for. Even in the moment where things are pretty hectic. Maybe we're transitioning from being out to coming in the house and we got to get the rest of the next two hours set up. That feels like a lot. But in that moment, if I can stay in the present moment, I am with my creator. Like I am with Abba Father in that moment. And I hope that, you know, a parent that looks at their child who is stuttering

And maybe the child isn't really bothered by it, but maybe the parent is worried and anxious and whoa, this is a big, fantastic stutter. When is it going to be over? Is something going on in the parent's eyes or thoughts? The connection with your child matters the most. So all the time, the stressful times and the not ones, looking eye eye with your child means a ton because it means I am in this moment with you.

And that's how little babies first connect with their parents anyway, the eye contact. And especially in a moment of stuttering, it's important that parents are right there, eye contact with their kids, I am with you, in this moment. Hopefully they're getting some, you know, speech pathology advice where someone can coach them like me saying like, you know, affirm them. Tell them that you're glad they told you that because that's the father's heart for us.

is he is with us in the uncomfortable moments and he affirms us, I'm glad you're here. I like you. I like what you said. I like how you tell stories. All of it really, really matters. Like even the small moments can be profound moments of connection. And we are our best selves for our kids when we are connected to the father too. So if we can express gratitude, we stay present and we can extend that to our kids too.

Elyse Scheeler (30:01)
Yeah, amen. That was like, I was a little emotional listening to that. I think that that you've just wrapped everything up in a beautiful, a beautiful bow and a beautiful present for our listeners today. Can you remind our listeners where they can find you? Like maybe if they're in the St. Paul area and are looking for services or know someone, do you offer virtual services or consultations or anything either?

Bri Morbitzer (30:23)
Yeah, I do. All my consultations are free. That's just a phone call and we can talk over what's going on now, but we could also kind of help you strategize what might be realistic for your next year, even if I'm not your treating therapist. But my private practice is called Superior Speech Therapy. I'm in St. Paul and I do treat all over the Twin Cities area and I also treat virtually. And so especially if someone's wanting just some parent coaching.

that might be a great idea no matter where you are in the country or world because we can get together and we can talk and give you some things to start getting curious about in your home environment if you don't have access or you're not sure if you should do speech therapy quite yet.

Elyse Scheeler (31:10)
I love that and I'll make sure that I have all the links to everywhere that they can find you in our show notes as well. Well, thank you so much, Breanne, for your time. was such a pleasure.

Bri Morbitzer (31:19)
Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks so much for having me.