The words get stuck in my head

[Anonymous]

What do you make if this? My son, when he gets upset, can't speak.
He can scream, cry, and grunt but he can't talk. He is 4 and it's always been this way. When he is calm, he can speak fine and he has a large vocabulary. Today we were talking about why he can't talk when he's upset and he told me the words just get stuck. What could the issue be?

[Anonymous]

I would have him see a speech therapist for an evaluation. It could be a processing issue, possibly auditory processing disorder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have him see a speech therapist for an evaluation. It could be a processing issue, possibly auditory processing disorder.

Really? Does not make much sence.

[Anonymous]

As if he can write them down instead, or draw a picture that expresses what he wants to say.

If he can draw, then someone can ask him about his drawing,

[Anonymous]

More information please, OP. Can he literally not say anything? Is he crying so hard he can't speak? Is he unable to articulate as well as normal? If he calms down for a few minutes is he okay?

Give us an anecdote. This could be neurological, it could be articulation, it could be muscle tone, it could be emotional, it could be his age. Very hard to tell from the information provided.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More information please, OP. Can he literally not say anything? Is he crying so hard he can't speak? Is he unable to articulate as well as normal? If he calms down for a few minutes is he okay?

Give us an anecdote. This could be neurological, it could be articulation, it could be muscle tone, it could be emotional, it could be his age. Very hard to tell from the information provided.

He does not say anything. What I'm really struggling with is cant vs won't. Until he told me the words get stuck, I assumed it was he was being stubborn and wouldn't talk. Now I'm not so sure. If he calms down, he can speak after about 5 min. Last night when he got upset, I asked him if the words were stuck and he shook his head yes. Then he calmed down almost immediately-- almost as if he knew that now i understood. I held him for a few more min while he stopped crying and then we talked.

[Anonymous]

My husband and son both become inarticulate when they are upset.

My husband can speak, but not nearly as well or clearly as when he is calm. He just can't get the words out.

[Anonymous]

I'm not seeing anything in your post that would point to anything that would require an evaluation of any kind. It sounds like an emotional regulation issue but that's not uncommon at this young age. You might start with just helping him learn techniques to calm himself (deep breath, movement, etc.). I know a good number of people (including my DH) that don't speak well when they're upset. With my DH and my DS, they have slow processing anyway but when they're emotionally upset, it slows even further.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have him see a speech therapist for an evaluation. It could be a processing issue, possibly auditory processing disorder.

I would see a speech therapist, but I would put money on it being an expressive language deficit. If the kid is very bright or has a fast processing speed, he can probably work around it when he isn't stressed, but when he is stressed, the cognitive load is too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would have him see a speech therapist for an evaluation. It could be a processing issue, possibly auditory processing disorder.

I would see a speech therapist, but I would put money on it being an expressive language deficit. If the kid is very bright or has a fast processing speed, he can probably work around it when he isn't stressed, but when he is stressed, the cognitive load is too much.

Interesting and it makes sense. He had an expressive language disorder as and infant/ toddler. He saw a speech therapist for a few months but then she said he was fine. Now that we are coming up on K I wanted to make sure his language was ok. I have a speech and language diagnostic scheduled for the end of March. I will mention this to them at that time.

[Anonymous]

Does he have any other speech issues? I think this is common among the young when they are upset? I would think this is more related to emotion than speech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does he have any other speech issues? I think this is common among the young when they are upset? I would think this is more related to emotion than speech.

Maybe. I'm not sure. He has a large vocabulary but when I listen to his peers he seems behind. He cannot retell a story after it's been read to him. He doesn't make up stories, there's very little imaginative play, and he says I don't know a lot.

[Anonymous]

You gave more info now. It does sound like it could be a speech issue. Being upset surely could make any issue he has worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You gave more info now. It does sound like it could be a speech issue. Being upset surely could make any issue he has worse.

Just curious... What will the SLP do to diagnoss an expressive language disorder? His original evaluation was through the county infants and toddlers program. He didn't speak at 2 years. But shortly after they started working with him, he started talking and he was released.

[Anonymous]

I am not Slp. I have a boy whose teacher reports that he can never tell his side of the story when he got into conflict with friends. He just turned five. In his case, he also had trouble speaking up in circle time in the begining of the year. In his case, my gut feeling is he is just shy and maybe anxious. But the teacher talked about processing issues and speech eval. Though that was nixed as the year went on and DS got more comfortable with the teachers.