Stop Stuttering

Speech disorders abound worldwide and yet one of the most common and least understood of those disorders, stuttering, remains largely a mystery today. In spite of the fact that stuttering can be traced back centuries, it’s root causes have been widely misunderstood and misdiagnosed and it’s cure remains elusive. Stuttering is a speech disorder whereby the pattern of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions, prolongations or even total stoppages of speech. It may also be accompanied by rapid eye blinks or other unusual facial or body movements.

The Stuttering Foundation of America has identified 4 causes of stuttering. There is a strong genetic link to stuttering, so a previous history of it may be in the family’s gene pool. Secondly, stuttering is a developmental speech disorder that begins in early childhood and generally goes away without treatment, but for approximately 1% of the population, stuttering continues into adulthood and may affect them their entire lives. Thirdly, another type of stuttering is Neurogenic stuttering where stuttering occurs when there are signal problems between the brain and the nerves or muscles. Lastly, family expectations can also be attributed to stuttering when too much emphasis is placed on a child’s academic achievements when they do not have the aptitude for it, and consequently the pressure can lead them to develop a stutter.

Older therories suggested psychogenic stuttering occurs when an individual has undergone an extreme emotional or physical trauma and was widely considered to be the cause of most stuttering until recently. It has now been shown that psychogenic stuttering is actually quite rare.

The most common form of all stuttering is developmental stuttering. An estimated 5% of children will go through a period of stuttering that will last anywhere from 6 weeks to a few years. Boys are twice as likely to suffer from it than girls but only 1% of adults will carry it with them throughout life.

Perhaps the biggest problem an individual with this disorder faces is not the actual stutter itself but rather the discomfort and anxiety that can accompany it. Stuttering can have a tremendous effect on a person’s functioning and emotional well-being. Stressful situations or certain activities may increase the likelihood of stuttering for some people.

However, stuttering need not be a lifelong debilitating affliction. While there is no cure for stuttering at the moment, there are many beneficial treatments and therapies that can improve, if not totally eliminate, the disorder. Whichever route an individual chooses, keep in mind that stuttering need not be a lifelong debilitating challenge. You can still live a full rewarding life.

If you have a strong need to stop stuttering you can have a look at the techniques listed on my website. There are many stuttering treatments that you can take to help you deal with the situation.

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Elmer Fudd may get a laugh every time he hunts for that “wascally wabbit”, Bugs Bunny, but speech-language disorders are not laughing matters. It can be painful to not be understood or to be ridiculed for voice problems. It is estimated that 5% of school-age children have some type of language disorder. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association breaks disorders into two types, speech disorders and language disorders.

Information To Help You Understand Speech Disorders

There are a number of struggles and areas of concern that fall under the speech disorder category. They include the following: slurred speech, pitch problems, articulation, vocal quality, and stuttering.

Language Disorders - What Are They?

Language Disorders are broken down further into two categories: expressive and reception. Expressive people have trouble saying what they desire. This is difficult because expressive language disorders are based on a struggle of putting words together, using their language skills appropriately, and building vocabulary. Whereas the receptive language disorder is more of a struggle in comprehension or understanding what is said (language).

Help Is Available If You Seek It Out

Speech and language disorders may require treatment by a professional speech-language therapist. These therapists are trained to identify communication problems by using specialized testing methods.

Therapist Can Help…But How?

Often the therapist will work with the individual on a one-to-one basis, using techniques that have been proven to improve the person’s speech, language, voice and cognitive abilities. Some of the treatments a therapist may use are teaching correct pronunciation through modeling, repetition, and exercise. It’s best to start treatment early and continue until the therapist and patient feel that maximum results have been achieved.

Who Can Be Helped?

A speech therapist can help with speech and language problems caused by many things. Areas that typically are treated by speech therapist are as follows: cleft palate, hearing impairments, weak oral muscles, brain injuries, and autism.

If you want to get started, Karen Barta is a Speech Therapist in Denver, Colorado. She provides services to help with slurred speech and so much more!

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