Stuttering is a very common problem in the world today. There are millions of people in the world today suffering from stuttering and they need our help. But to help these people—especially the kids—we must first understand how stuttering affects them. In finding out how kids are affected by stuttering then we can formulate a good way of helping stuttering kids.

Ways of helping stuttering kids

Stuttering is a very common problem in the world today. There are millions of people in the world today suffering from stuttering and they need our help. But to help these people—especially the kids—we must first understand how stuttering affects them. In finding out how kids are affected by stuttering then we can formulate a good way of helping stuttering kids.

Awareness is a must

To better help kids with stutters we must first know what stuttering is. “Stuttering″ or “stammering″ in modern medicine is described as a speech impediment that involuntarily disrupts the flow of normal speech. Normally, some words, sounds, and syllables are repeated in a specific pattern such as “li-li-like this”, or prolonged excessively such as “lllllike this”.

Oftentimes, it could also be that there are abrupt stoppages or absence of sounds of sounds and syllables at all. And in some cases, especially in kids, they usually stutter from the beginning of a word or phrase and there are also those who show difficulties at the end of the word/s.

The next step to help kids that stutter is to know what causes stuttering. Studies show that the causes of this speech impediment range from virtually unidentifiable at all to genetic and inherited reasons. More and more experts believe that genetics could cause stuttering because there are cases that this speech problem runs in the whole family.

Some scientists also say stress—along with rejection, anxiety, and other negative emotions—can be related to stuttering because these contribute a lot on how kids express themselves.

Another possible of stuttering is the stage of language development. This theory says that stuttering may be caused by a developmental recession when small children who are learning to talk find it hard to express themselves fluidly—especially when it comes to expressing their needs. But, as they grow older, many kids overcome this kind of stuttering with proper encouragement from parents and siblings as well as support and motivation from teachers and peers.

There is also a theory, which says that stuttering is neurogenic—meaning the connection between the brain and the muscles are disrupted somewhere along its path. Experts say that this can cause stuttering especially to people who have suffered from cardiac arrests, repeated strokes and even mild heart attacks. This is more applicable to older people but can appear in kids who have accidents, which can cause brain injury, and underwent medical procedures or operation.

After knowing the possible reason, you can now look for alternative—which comes in the form of therapies. Today, there are many therapies available that may improve stuttering, but at the present time there is no cure. In treating cases of developmental stuttering, therapy generally involves helping the parents to restructure the child’s speaking environment to reduce episodes of stuttering.

Other suggestions for treating kids suffering from speech impediments such as stuttering is providing a relaxed speaking environment with few distractions, practicing attentive listening, and refraining from being critical about the child’s condition. For other types of stuttering, medication may be prescribed, or electronic devices may be used to improve fluency.

Some therapies focus on relearning how to speak, or in unlearning faulty ways of speaking. To find the best course of action, it is best to consult with a competent speech and language pathologist first.

Stuttering is a speech disorder where the individual’s natural flow of speech is disrupted by frequent repetitions or prolongations of certain sounds, syllables and words. Sometimes, this makes it impossible to even start a word.

Aside from difficulty in speaking, this is usually accompanied by raid eye blinks, tremors of the lips or jaw and in the upper body. Stress makes the situation even worse when he or she has to speak to a large crowd or talk on the phone. However, this changes when one is singing or speaking alone.

What Is Stuttering

Stuttering is a speech disorder where the individual’s natural flow of speech is disrupted by frequent repetitions or prolongations of certain sounds, syllables and words. Sometimes, this makes it impossible to even start a word.

Aside from difficulty in speaking, this is usually accompanied by raid eye blinks, tremors of the lips or jaw and in the upper body. Stress makes the situation even worse when he or she has to speak to a large crowd or talk on the phone. However, this changes when one is singing or speaking alone.

This disorder is also known as stammering. It should be pointed out that this is different from two other speech disorders namely cluttering and spasmodic dysphonia.

Studies show that there are 3 million Americans that stutter. This starts at the age of 2 to 6 since this is the time that they are still developing language. This ratio between boys and girls is 3 to 1. The good news is that many children outgrow this and only a small percentage of those who suffer are adults.

To prove a point, some of the best speakers in the world that had stuttering in their early childhood include Bruce Willis, Carly Simon, James Earl Jones and Mel Tillis. You may not believe it but these people overcame this challenge.

But what causes people to stutter? There are many forms and some scientists believe that this is genetic because it is developmental. Others argue that this is neurogenic which means that signal problems between the brain and the nerves causes this to happen. As a result, the brain is not able to coordinate properly the different components of speech. This can also happen if the person suffered from a stroke or other form of brain injury.

Stuttering may also originate in the mind or what is known as psychogenic but this only accounts for a small number of sufferers.

The best person to diagnose if you are stuttering is with the help of a speech language pathologist even if it is quite obvious by how you speak. This person is trained to conduct a variety of tests so it will be easy to prescribe proper treatment.

But at present, there is no available cure for stuttering. Treatment can only improve the person’s condition given that the majority of those who stutter are “behavioral.”

The program is designed to teach the patient to monitor the rate at which they speak. They will also learn to say words slower usually short phrases first until such time that they can speak much faster and longer sentences. Follow up sessions are needed to prevent relapse making this a life long problem.

Aside from the patient, the parents should also be educated so they know what to do when you stutter. It is best that they provide a relaxed home environment that allows the child to speak. If the child should stutter, they should refrain from criticizing as this has negative effects. Parents can also help by speaking slowly and in a relaxed manner as this will also be followed.

Some doctors have utilized medications and electronic devices to treat stuttering. Unfortunately, the use of drugs often causes side effects and relying on a machine makes it hard to carry around especially when there are other people around.