Adults who suffer from stuttering are faced with various difficulties in their daily lives. Since most of them have poor self-esteem they are constantly struggling when it comes to human interaction. They cannot get their dream jobs nor can the present themselves properly in interviews. Their inability to express themselves hampers their career as well as their personal growth. So just imagine how kids are handling this condition. They are still developing their ability to speak and social skills and they are being judged unfairly by some people in the society.
On Your Mind
It would be bliss for stutterers to see themselves one day free from this speech disorder. That they can just talk their hearts out and enjoy the simple pleasures of talking. Currently, studies are being conducted to substantiate their claims. Once they have gathered enough proof then they can conclude that this condition is strongly connected to the brain.
Is this condition a result of someone’s active imagination? In Minnesota, researchers have proven that although emotional anxieties trigger stuttering, what strongly affects this condition are the irregularities in the anatomical function of their brain areas that are solely responsible to speech and language pattern.
Neurology, a scientific journal owned by the American Academy of Neurology published an article showing evidences leading to the conclusion that the brain greatly affects the speech patterns of people. They published the first findings about how specific areas of the brain are responsible to patterns of speech and this puts a person at great risks in developing this condition.
Different Studies
There are on-going studies and researches being conducted to find the real explanation and solution to this condition. Anne Foundas, MD of Tulane University in New Orleans conducted a study on this speech disorder. In her research, she tested 16 patients with controlled cases of stuttering and tested 16 patients with unrelenting PDS or persistent developmental stuttering. She used MRI scans to measure these individual’s brains. She found out that all patients with PDS have significantly bigger right and left temporal lobes and the shapes of their brains contain anomalies and irregularities than those who can control their condition.
Your Call
If one has a child who has a stuttering condition, one cannot just be complacent and sit comfortably at home waiting for all the studies to be completed. The results of the studies can provide enough evidence or might just strengthen the beliefs that one has on his or her child’s condition. The best thing one can do is to observe and determine other factors that can worsen his or her child’s conditions.
1. Look at your environment. Where do you usually go with your child? How do people react to your kid’s condition? People’s reaction to your child can greatly affect your child’s response to them. As parents, it is your right to intervene in your child’s social interaction. Inform your child of their condition so that he or she will be able to handle different reactions of people to their condition. In this manner, you are creating a better and loving environment to your child.
2. Always observe your child’s social skills. Make them realize and understand that in the real world there are strong personalities who might intimidate them or make fun of their condition. What you can do is to do some role plays that will help your child be more prepared and pro-active with their condition.
3. If studies about this speech disorder have not progressed yet, be open to other treatments. You might as well consult a speech language pathologist who can help you with various speech therapies suitable to your child’s condition. Never lose hope.
Stuttering
brain, Child, Children
