speech question | Autism PDD

what is it called when they pause and search for a word? DD developed stuttering last month and now pauses looking for the word...even starts to say the beginning sound but stops and struggles to find the word. I think this would simply be a processing disorder.

Stammering?

Very common when thoughts get ahead of words! Especially at 3.

DD 6 does this and she sort of goes in and out of phases of it.

I believe it is stammering...and it may actually be a sign of a good thing.
Your dd realizes that the words are coming to fast, or she pauses to think of
the right word. My dd will jumble words together, mix them up (like my
little pony is pony my little, builder the bob, etc.), or say the wrong word or
things that don't make any sense (either jibberish or out of context). So,
this may actually be a really great thing for your dd to be doing. Also--with
her stuttering have you or her ST worked on 'slowing down'? My nephew
stutters, but stammers more now, from prompting of being told to slow
down when he talks. I was thinking "word retrieval".

Maybe the term you're looking for is a "developmental stutter" or "normal disfluency" (which many young kids normally go through because their brain goes faster than their language ability).

Here's a "checklist for referral" from the Stuttering Foundation, which tells you what to look for to determine if it's a normal developmental stutter, a mild stutter, or a severe stutter that should be referred as soon as possible.

http://www.stutteringhelp.org/Default.aspx?tabid=99

Here's one interesting thing they didn't mention but which I found out on a couple other websites:

If it's developmental stuttering, the child will presumably not stutter while singing, whispering or reciting a memorized passage.

It seems like it's also worthwhile to note where the breaks occur (in the beginning, middle or end of the word) and on what kinds of words the breaks occur. If it's a developmental stuttering, the breaks will supposedly be on content words (nouns, verbs, etc) rather than function words (conjunctions, prepositions).