Stuttering & Managements

Stuttering: What It Is, When to Seek Help and How Our Fort Myers Speech  Therapists Treat It - Focus Therapy

 

The concept of the neurological disease….

Many people believe that stuttering affects you mentally because they believe that, because of stress and anxiety; that people psychologically tend to have a speech motor defect or behavior that affects someone’s speech. But the thing is, stuttering is a neurophysiological problem. This is due to the fact that stuttering is a physical disorder and not a mental disorder because it doesn’t focus on  psychological problems but primarily focuses on it neurophysiologically. The brain regions that are responsible for speech movements are particularly affected. This may also be assisted by muscle tension which will deliberately cause you to struggle while trying to speak or pronunciate.

The reported incidence numbers for stuttering vary, but stuttering is most common in young children (approximately 5%). Approximately 0.5% to 1% of adults stutter. (1) These numbers indicate that most children (about 75%) recover from stuttering naturally, although obviously not all do.

  • Abnormalities in speech motor control. Some evidence indicates that abnormalities in speech motor control, such as timing, sensory and motor coordination, may be involved.
  •  
  • Genetics. Stuttering tends to run in families. It appears that stuttering can result from inherited (genetic) abnormalities.

Currently, no foolproof indicators exist to determine if an individual child will naturally stop stuttering or not; however, gender and family history of natural recovery appear to be predictors of natural recovery.

 

frontal gyrus (IFG) in green on sagittal T1 MRI

Two of these areas are the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), which processes the planning of speech movements, and the left motor cortex, which controls the actual speech movements.

 

Symptoms

Stuttering signs and symptoms may include:

Difficulty starting a word, phrase or sentence
Prolonging a word or sounds within a word
Repetition of a sound, syllable or word
Brief silence for certain syllables or words, or pauses within a word (broken word)
Addition of extra words such as “um” if difficulty moving to the next word is anticipated
Excess tension, tightness, or movement of the face or upper body to produce a word
Anxiety about talking
Limited ability to effectively communicate

The speech difficulties of stuttering may be accompanied by:

Rapid eye blinks
Tremors of the lips or jaw
Facial tics
Head jerks
Clenching fists

 

What are some stuttering managements or ways you can treat your stuttering disability?

 Certain programs or parent – family based therapy treatments that will help us to better evaluate our progress. Due to this we will be able to gain new skills, techniques, and improve speech production. 

multifactorial, operant, speech restructuring, and anxiolytic approaches

  • Multifactorial and operant treatments are designed for young children who stutter. 

Multifactorial and operant treatments are designed for young children who stutter. Both of these approaches involve parent training and differ primarily in their focus on reducing demands on the child (multifactorial) or in their use of response contingent stimulation (operant conditioning). 

  • Speech restructuring and anxiolytic approaches are used with adults who stutter.

Speech restructuring approaches focus on the mechanics of speech production, and anxiolytic treatments tend to focus on the symptoms and social and vocational challenges of stuttering. 

 

Insight

 I myself, Franck Sygney suffer from a speech impediment, where I tend to overly stutter due to a defect in my speech. I just highly dislike stuttering, having to repeat a word or sentence because it didn’t come out correctly or clearly the first time. When I get nervous I also tend to forget certain things and jumble up the words in my sentences, making me feel a little bit embarrassed. I need to improve my ability to be able to speak publicly without having any deficiencies.

What I can do, Is develop an adequate sense on the topic. This will help me gain knowledge and be more consciously aware about the topic, doing so will help me construct a series of ideas that will relate to one main point. I can use various alternatives to find better ways I can develop more approaches to utilize more effective ways in treating stuttering and becoming stutter-free.

 


 

Reference(s)

Dove Medical Press Limited

Mayo Clinic

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *