- Also called:
- stammering or dysphemia
- Related Topics:
- speech disorder
stuttering
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What is stuttering?
Stuttering, also known as dysphemia or stammering, is a speech disorder marked by involuntary sound or syllable repetition and disrupted speech fluency. Approximately 5% of people experience stuttering at some point, with childhood being the most common time it appears.
The exact causes of stuttering are not fully understood, but genetics, stress, and excitement have been identified as potential factors. There is no definitive cure for stuttering; however, therapeutic approaches, such as psychotherapy and behavioral techniques, can help improve speech.
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How does stuttering affect the way someone speaks?
Stuttering, also known as dysphemia, is a speech disorder that disrupts speech's rhythm and fluency. It is characterized by involuntary sound or syllable repetitions, along with the blocking or prolongation of sounds and words. These disruptions can affect an individual's confidence when speaking and impede communication. People who stutter have difficulty with words that start with consonants, the first word in a sentence, content words, and multisyllable words.
There are three primary forms of stuttering: developmental, neurogenic, and psychogenic. While the causes of stuttering are not definitively known, genetics and environmental factors such as stress or excitement may play a role.
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What are some common signs of stuttering?
Stuttering, also known as dysphemia, is a speech disorder marked by disruptions in rhythm and fluency. Common signs include involuntary sound or syllable repetitions, as well as blocks or prolongations of sounds and words. People who stutter may have trouble with words starting with consonants, initial words, content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives), and multisyllabic words. These disruptions can impact a person's confidence when speaking. Stuttering is most prevalent in childhood, and is more likely to affect males. While the causes of stuttering are not fully understood, genetics, stress, and anxiety may contribute.
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How can stuttering impact a personās daily life or feelings?
Stuttering is a speech disorder that affects the rhythm and fluency of speech, characterized by involuntary sound repetitions, as well as hesitations that interrupt the flow of speech. Stuttering can affect an individualās confidence when speaking. The condition can be triggered by excitement, stress, or anxiety.
Speech therapy, a relaxed speaking environment, and slow speech may improve an affected personās speech. Many adult stutterers anticipate difficulty with certain words based on past experiences and avoid their use by relying on word substitutions and revisions.
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What treatments or therapies are available for people who stutter?
For persistent stuttering, a speech-language pathologist can diagnose and treat the condition, even when disfluencies are minor. Speech therapy, like controlled fluency with self-monitoring, is a frequent treatment. Parental involvement is also important; a relaxed speaking environment and slow speech can play a supportive role in therapy.
Psychotherapy, learning or behavioral theory, and other techniques can also improve speech. The patient must better adjust to life's problems and develop a technique for controlling symptoms and fears. Instead of focusing on underlying causes, therapists aim to make the patient symptom-free through symptomatic therapy.
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stuttering, speech disorder characterized by involuntary repetition of sounds or syllables and the intermittent blocking or prolongation of sounds, syllables, and words. These disruptions alter the rhythm and fluency of speech and sometimes impede communication, with consequences on the affected individualās confidence when speaking. About 5 percent of people stutter at some point in their lives, with stuttering most prevalent in childhood. Only about 1 percent of adults stutter. Male children are twice as likely to stutter as their female counterparts. By adolescence the ratio of male to female stuttering increases to four to one.
Overview
Those who stutter consistently have difficulty with certain types of words: those beginning with consonants, initial words in sentences, content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives; as opposed to function words, such as pronouns and prepositions), and words of several syllables. Since these are also the types of words that produce hesitation in many speakers, there seems to be some link between stuttering and more typical forms of disfluency (pauses, repetition).
The causes of stuttering are unclear, although various factors have been implicated. For example, stuttering tends to run in families, indicating that genetics may contribute in part to its development. Researchers suspect that persons who are genetically predisposed to stuttering may be more susceptible to environmental factors, such as stress or excitement, that trigger stuttering than persons who do not have a family history of the disorder.
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Forms of stuttering
Three primary forms of stuttering have been described: developmental, neurogenic, and psychogenic.
Developmental
Developmental stuttering occurs in young children and typically manifests when a child is first learning to speak but lacks the speech and language skills necessary to express himself or herself through speech. In this instance stuttering may be precipitated by excitement, stress, or anxiety. For most children developmental stuttering is temporary, with recovery occurring within four years of symptom onset.
Neurogenic
Neurogenic stuttering is defined by abnormalities in signaling between the brain and the nerve fibers and muscles controlling speech. This form of stuttering is associated with structural damage in the motor speech area of the brain. Damage to this area may occur as a result of stroke or other forms of brain trauma or in rare cases as a result of congenital disorders of the brain.
Psychogenic
Psychogenic stuttering is a rare condition that appears to occur almost exclusively in individuals who have experienced severe emotional trauma or who have a history of mental disorders. This form of stuttering is characterized primarily by the rapid repetition of initial word sounds.
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Recovery
Between 75 and 80 percent of children who stutter recover spontaneously. Recovery is probably the result of increased self-esteem, acceptance of the problem, and consequent relaxation. When stuttering persists, the condition may require diagnosis and treatment by a speech-language pathologist, who is trained to discern even minor disfluencies in speech that may underlie stuttering. Treatment frequently entails speech therapy, such as controlled fluency with self-monitoring of stuttering. Parental involvement, particularly with regard to ensuring a relaxed speaking environment and slow speech, plays an important supportive role in stuttering therapy.
Most adult stutterers can predict many of the words they will stutter in reading aloud a given passage. Supposedly taking their cue from past difficulties, they anticipate difficulty with certain words and avoid their use, instead relying on word substitutions and other forms of speech and sentence revision.
Famous figures who stuttered
Throughout history a number of prominent individuals, including writers, orators, and actors, have been affected by stuttering in either childhood or adulthood. Included among these individuals are English novelist Lewis Carroll, King George VI of the United Kingdom, humanitarian and founder of the American Red Cross Clara Barton, and American actors Bruce Willis and James Earl Jones.