Stuttering is a disease characterized by a speech disorder in which a person makes involuntary pauses, stretches some sounds, often repeats individual syllables or interjections. Stuttering is usually manifested due to the convulsive state of the muscles of the speech apparatus. In the medical literature, there are also such names as logoneurosis and logoclonia.
This ailment most often affects children, although it can develop in adulthood. About 1% of the adult population of the planet suffers from a violation of the speech rhythm (according to other data, about 3%). By the age of 30-35, stuttering can go away without any special treatment.
CAUSES OF STUTTERING
There is an opinion among the people that stuttering provokes a strong fright. In fact, the emotion of fear itself has little to do with speech impairment. Human speech is a very complex process, in the formation of which three brain centers take part at once: Broca’s, Wernicke’s area and the associative center. If the work of at least one of these centers is disrupted, the result is manifested in the form of speech defects. And since the brain is responsible for many other processes, any pathology of the central nervous system and even excessive mental load can affect the formation of speech.
TYPES OF STUTTERING
Stuttering can be divided into two types, depending on the process of its occurrence.
Stuttering caused by a congenital defect of the nervous system.
The nervous system of a child may be damaged or incorrectly formed due to a difficult pregnancy, birth trauma, or if the baby was often and a lot sick in the first years of his life. Neurological examination usually reveals increased intracranial pressure and convulsive readiness in such patients.
Stuttering with an initially healthy nervous system.
But just this kind of stuttering is often considered “stuttering from fright”, although it’s not about fear, but about severe stress or overwork. One situation rarely traumatizes the psyche enough to cause severe and prolonged stuttering. Usually, a predisposition to logoneurosis is formed over a considerable period of time, and fright (or any other stressful situation) acts as a catalyst for disorders.
The weakening of the nervous system can also be triggered by a disease: chronic sluggish pathologies or complications after infectious diseases (measles, encephalitis, meningitis, etc.).
In addition, there is also a classification of stuttering by its form:
tonic stuttering (when the patient makes logically unreasonable pauses and stretches words);
clonic (characterized by the repetition of individual sounds and words);
mixed form (when there are extra pauses and repetitions in speech).
STUTTERING IN CHILDREN
Stuttering is considered by many to be a “childish” disease. Indeed, speech disorders most often begin to suffer from children aged 2-5 years, and after growing up, the pathology may disappear. There is a simple explanation for this. It is at preschool age that speech is formed in children. The mechanism becomes especially vulnerable when the child learns to speak in phrases. During this period, any, even the most “minor” injury affects the speech function.
According to statistics, boys suffer from stuttering 3-4 times more often than girls. Relapse may occur in adolescence, but in this case, stuttering is associated with the development of neuroses, and not with the formation of speech.
THE MECHANISM OF STUTTERING
The mechanism of stuttering is very complex. The pathology is based on the violation of processes and their interactions in the brain. This violation causes a failure in the transmission of impulses to the speech reproduction zone. Due to the incorrect transmission of nerve impulses, convulsions occur in certain parts of the speech apparatus, and its various organs work out of sync. Physically, it looks like stuttering.
METHODS OF CORRECTION OF STUTTERING
Since the mechanism of stuttering is very complicated, treatment cannot be reduced to one or two procedures, therapy should be comprehensive. In each case of stuttering, an individual approach is needed. The cause of stuttering should be treated, not its external manifestation. For example, for a child with a serious psychological trauma, classes with a speech therapist without the help of a psychotherapist will be useless.
Treatment of stuttering can begin with an examination by a therapist (or pediatrician) and a neurologist, and those, in turn, can refer the patient to a speech therapist, psychologist, psychotherapist and other specialists.
