My daughter started stuttering around 2.5 yrs old. It was on and off. She would go 8 months without and it would start back up. So speech therapy was difficult that young. Drs said it was would probably go away as she got older. At around 5 it really started to stick with days where she couldn’t make a sentence at all. She’s 14 now and a person who stutters. A few tips and things to know: 1. Get her evaluated now by a speech therapist to determine if it’s a developmental stutter that she may outgrow or a true stutter that is possibly life long. (Find out if anyone on your side and your wife’s side had a family member that stuttered) 2.Get her in speech therapy immediately with a speech pathologist that specializes in stuttering. They can do the evaluation, which is probably more accurate. Even if it’s online and not in person. The school programs have a specific curriculum they have to adhere to that doesn’t seem to have a tremendous impact on stuttering for a lot of people. 3. Talk a bit slower at home. This is my opinion and was also recommended because at that age they try to mimic parents. Talking slower seemed to take some pressure off my daughter trying to talk fast like us. Not like weird slow, where sentences are blocky, but just be mindful of fast talking. (We only did this while she was really young) 4. Prepare to have her in mental health therapy as she gets older in order for her to have tools to manage daily life obstacles if it is a true stutter. 5. At her age kids are usually really kind and not judgy, so making friendship bonds is super easy. Encourage and nurture those bonds. Hopefully they will last throughout the years. 6. One thing that helped my daughter once she was in a large public school system (400 students per grade) was requesting she was in a classroom with a friend she knew. That became difficult due to school protocols. She was there k-5 through 3rd grade. We moved out of the city so she could go to a small county school because she had a strong bond with a girl that went there. (600 students K5-12th for the entire school) This was the best decision because now she knows all the kids in her grade and they know her stutter. And the school keeps her with that best friend that always has her back if someone tries to bully her. Because it’s hard to take up for yourself if you can’t say the words. Now she has a teenage girl group that’s about 5 strong and will literally throw hands if someone bullies her. (I absolutely don’t encourage or condone fighting, but I also sleep better knowing she has bonds that protect her emotionally at the very least) 7. If she does have a true stutter, you will learn that “acceptance” is the biggest treatment in a lot of stuttering communities/programs. And we adhere to the acceptance theory, but I also believe that the more people, parents, and doctors push for research that can improve stuttering through new technology, medication, therapies..will actually improve their quality of life. 8. Stuttering can affect grades in some cases, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t at the same level cognitively of other kids. My daughter’s school was concerned she was developmentally delayed because of the simplicity of her written and spoken sentences. I knew it was because she shortens her sentences to prevent stuttering blocks and that carries over to the written sentences. Her brain shortens it to the simplest form possible due to stuttering. She ended up being 2pts away from an above average IQ. So please, as a parent, remember that they may compensate in ways that may appear behind other kids, because of stuttering, it doesn’t mean they are. My kid may never get a speech grade as high as other students, but I never push for anything other than do your best. Her grades may always be average (which is fine with me), because she has other skills that are way above average outside of academics. When she’s down about school, I remind her she can round up 150 head of cattle, rope them like a champ, drive a stick shift at 11yrs old, has a sewing business, on the golf team and is kid that can nail a target 20ft away from a bow and arrows she’s made out of tree limbs. My point is, keep focus on achievements not affected by her stutter. It took me a while to cut her slack around academics. Life is better since I did. 9. Your statement about the birth of your 2nd child and the onset of stuttering hit my heart. As a parent we try so hard to figure out what caused the stutter. I spent years trying to figure out what I might have done that triggered it. I made a list of all my possible failures and reasons that could have caused it. Family would help me by saying it’s probably the screen time she had, and to do this or that. It’s not a problem we caused or can make go away. While I may still fight for new treatment, my main focus is just being a parent that takes care of and loves my kid, just like every other parent. I validate her struggles while reminding her she’s amazing and will always have an army of people that love her regardless of the fact she cant say some freaking words. 10. Do your best to help her navigate this. And it’s ok to cry. Be flexible and follow the lead that makes her comfortable. There is still a possibility she may outgrow this, and it’s ok if she doesn’t because she has you to help her help her navigate it.