Stuttering Myths, Causes & Treatment

October 22 is celebrated as the World Stuttering Day. There are about 70 million stutterers today, which, surprisingly, include such famous personalities as Marilyn Monroe, Joe Biden, Emily Blunt, Julia Roberts, Ed Sheeran, and many others. What is the cause of this ailment and how to live with it? Answers to this and other questions about stuttering can be found in the article on Geniuspregnancy.com.

Stuttering

This is a communicative disorder of a biological and neurological nature, expressed in violating the smoothness and rhythm of speech. It can manifest itself in repetitions, prolongation, and in some cases the impossibility of reproducing certain sounds, syllables or words.

Reasons for stuttering

Today, the causes of stuttering are not known for certain, but studies in this area indicate the neurophysiological basis of this disorder, not without the participation of the hereditary component. According to statistics, about 60% of stuttering people have a close relative suffering from the same ailment, for example, as in Julia Roberts’ family. Both the actress and her brother, Eric Roberts, stutter. The genetic factor really determines the predisposition to stuttering.

One of the most depressing aspects of stuttering is the variability of this disorder. In other words, a person can talk without a single hesitation, and then, after a moment, he/she begins to stutter a little or sometimes even literally loses the power of speech. This does not seem to be controllable due to the circumstances that are beyond our power, and, unfortunately, cannot be regulated by the power of thought or the effort of will. For the above reasons, this disorder is associated with a number of myths that are very painfully perceived by people with the problem of stuttering.

Myth 1: Stuttering negatively affects intelligence

This is perhaps the most offensive myth that people with stutter hear about themselves. It is no secret that many hold them for foolish people. However, there is no scientific explanation to this assumption. A stuttering person knows what he wants to say, but due to neurophysiological disorders, this is not always possible to do, no matter how much it is wanted. Few people know, but King George IV, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Winston Churchill all stuttered, but hardly anyone dares to call them dim-witted or weak-minded.

Myth 2: Stuttering is caused by fear or stress

This is one of the most common stuttering misconceptions that exists today. Each person experienced extreme fear or stress at least once in their childhood, and it does not matter whether this fact is kept in our memory or not. However, these experiences did not make us all stutter.

Stuttering is not a psychological disorder; therefore, factors such as stress, psychological trauma, a person’s individual temperament, family dynamics, and environmental impact are not the cause of it, although they can easily become a trigger if a person has a predisposition to this speech disorder.

Moreover, one should not think that stuttering people tend to be nervous, afraid, worried or shy. They have the same full range of personality traits as those who don’t stutter.

Myth 3. Parents are to blame for stuttering children

Despite the fact that the exact causes of stuttering are unknown, experts are confident in one thing that no one is to be blamed for stuttering. It is not the result of poor parenting or trauma of the parent-child relationship. Neither the parents nor the child’s environment are to blame for stuttering. The child does not freely choose to stutter either.

The origins of stuttering

About 5% of all children go through a period of stuttering, which can last from six months to two years.

As a rule, this happens at the age of 3-3.5 years, during the period of intensive formation of speech and language skills. 3/4 stuttering children outgrow this ailment and completely restore speech by the age of 5-6. However, 1% of these children continue to stutter for the rest of their lives. An equal number of boys and girls stutter during the speech formation period, but, eventually, there are 3-4 times more boys among the people who have not gotten rid of this logoneurosis.

Risk factors

Whether a child can get rid of stuttering or develops it into a chronic form is affected by a number of factors. However, when taken alone, none of these risk factors is a sufficient basis for diagnosing a chronic problem.

Genetic predisposition

The risk that the child is actually stuttering rather than experiencing age-related loss of speech fluency increases, if one of the family members still suffers from this ailment. If a close relative developed stuttering in childhood, you most likely have no reason to worry.

Age

The children, who acquire this speaking problem by the age of 3.5 years, will most often develop stuttering. Those who began to stutter at 5 are likely to continue to do so in the future.

Symptoms duration

In 75-80% of all children, stuttering usually disappears on its own within 12-24 months. However, this ailment is more likely to develop in children who stutter for less than 6 months. After 12 months of stuttering, the risk of its getting chronic increases.

The child’s gender

Girls overcome stuttering more often than boys. This is due to the fact that in early childhood there are innate differences between speech and language skills in boys and girls.

Stuttering treatment

The modern market for medical services offers many different methods that promise to eliminate stuttering once and for all: hypnosis, singing, medical treatment, silence retreats, speech therapy sessions. However, the effectiveness of these methods, applied individually, has never been scientifically proven. As for drug treatment with sedatives, this method is considered not only ineffective in the West, but even dangerous and the one that can lead to even more dire consequences.

Stuttering is a chronic speech disorder, so it is impossible to completely get rid of it. But thanks to an integrated approach to the problem, it is possible to significantly improve the quality of life.

In order to understand where to start the therapy, specialists at the American Institute for Stuttering suggest that this ailment should be presented as an iceberg, most of which is under water. So the violation of speech dynamics as such, is only the tip of an iceberg. Its core is hidden from prying eyes and consists in escaping behavior, self-derogatory thoughts and negative emotions that often accompany a person with stuttering.

In a metaphorical language, the open part of the ice can melt under the influence of air, while its base remains invariably solid. Similarly, any treatment aimed only at relieving the symptoms of stuttering is superficial and partially ineffective.

To achieve maximum results, the therapy should be aimed not only at increasing fluency, but also at improving the quality of life of a child or an adult who stutters, mitigating conversation-related fears, reducing prevention behavior, and increasing confidence in communication ability.

The best modern practices in the treatment of stuttering are concentrated on the triad “Impact-Behavior-Consciousness”. While many people try to cope with stuttering by studying only physical strategies for producing sounds and words, effective therapy should also solve the problem of negative emotions and thoughts that tend to accumulate like a snowball and first cause fear of communication and public speaking, and later force a person to isolate themselves from society.

For this purpose, stuttering therapy should be conducted in all three areas, taking into account the individual characteristics of each person and often with the participation of a psychologist.

Practical advice for parents and educators

• Do not ask your child to “speak slower,” “just relax,” or “take a deep breath before talking.” This is extremely ineffective and only undermines the child’s self-confidence
• Do not end the child’s words and do not speak for him/her
• Speak and listen in turn. It is much easier for any child, especially someone who stutters, to be uninterrupted while speaking and to be listened to carefully.
• Expect the same quality and amount of classroom activity and homework from a child who stutters, as well as from someone who does not.
• Talk to the child slowly, with frequent pauses
• Show the child that you are listening to what he is talking about and do not notice how he is talking
• Talk with the stuttering child in private about what conditions he needs in the classroom. Respect his needs, but do not indulge.
• Do not imagine stuttering as something to be ashamed of. Talk about stuttering just like any other topic. Call a spade a spade.