Solving Stuttering
In our daily activities, we often encounter people who have speech disorders. Stuttering is the most common among these speech impediments. It is a condition which is caused by anxiety and stress starting from the person’s early developmental stages. Nowadays, more studies show that there are a growing rate adults and kids that suffer from this speech impediment. There is a proliferation of stuttering simply because it is not addressed properly during the early stages of its growth.
Stuttering becomes a problem especially for kids who have this when they are growing up. This disorder hinders their normal communication with other kids or other people not within their age bracket. This develops into more serious psychological problems. They become so withdrawn from the outside world that they are afraid to even open their mouths to speak. They start to develop a form of defense mechanism that will protect them from rejection.
Day-to-day struggle due to stuttering
Stuttering is indeed a very serious problem for young and old people. With stuttering problems, simple daily tasks like saying their names when somebody asks for it, answering the telephone for a call or making a phone call, giving out directions for people asking, asking for specific instructions, and even ordering a meal from a fast-food store can be hugely disappointing and frustrating.
Stuttering is a very serious problem for kids and adults who are covered by the pressures of the real world. Simple tasks become a major source of disappointment and frustration. Some of the daily routine tasks that will challenge their situation are the following: Answering a phone call, making a phone call, introducing themselves in public, asking and giving instructions, etc.
Just because of this speech disorder a number of stutterers experience a lot of rejection and humiliation in the society. This inability of expressing one’s self to can actually irritate the people they converse with. When they get the feeling of indifference, they tend to isolate themselves from normal people. Studies have been conducted in schools. The results show that ninety percent of kids who do not have this speech impediment tend to bully kids who stutter.
Kids are kids. Their level of maturity is still inconsistent. Kids, who have this speech disorder, experience the harsh treatment of bullying inside the classroom, in the canteen, washroom, any single nook within the campus. There’s no escaping the constant humiliation inflicted by insensitive and ignorant kids. They think this condition is funny and it’s funnier if they make fun of the involved stutterer. The bullying continues even outside the campus.
An adult who has this condition are experiencing harsher scenarios in the workplace. Their inability to express themselves fluidly harbors more rejection from insensitive colleagues. The rejection pushes them to be introverted. It’s a domino effect. An unhealthy adult stutterer will not be able to enjoy the comforts of a normal adult in the workplace. This may also hamper their need to move up the corporate ladder.
What the society can do
Parents and siblings are the major components of the society. The understanding and acceptance should come from them unconditionally. Proper education of this condition can immensely help in the early acceptance of the stutterer’s condition. If a child has a healthy environment, it will be easier for him or her to cope with this condition.
Parents should constantly reinforce that they love their child unconditionally. No Ifs and no Buts. They should focus on the child’s special talents and skills. Let their child realize that he or she can always overcome this speech disorder. Instill to the child that dreams are free and that he or she has the same opportunity to actualize them. Encouragement plays a key role to their child’s success. Motivate them properly and their child will be impervious to any form of outside rejection.
For teachers, they should always make the child feel secure and understood whenever he or she is inside the classroom. They should avoid pressuring the child who is stuttering because the more pressure he or she feels the bigger room for mistake there is. Teachers should always act as the second parents of children in school, providing them all the support, care, and understanding they need.
The society at large can also greatly help people who are suffering from stuttering by giving them proper respect and treating them as normal people who equally deserve the rights and freedom they enjoy.
Teachers should represent the child’s parents the best way possible. A child spends a lot of time in school and without their parents’ protection; the teachers should be their source of this needed support system. Teachers should educate other kids about stuttering. Knowledge is power. The dissemination of information to other kids will greatly help in the understanding of a stutterer’s condition. In this manner, bullying will be easily eliminated.
The society can definitely help curb the rate of rejection and humiliation experienced by stutterers. The government together with private and non-government organization should promote campaigns that will help disseminate information about stuttering. If autism gets attention from the society, stuttering deserves the same kind of attention as well.