Dear parents, hello! Who among us does not rejoice at the success of our children? We teach them everything from early childhood. When attending matinees, we watch with tears of joy as a child chants a poem in front of the Christmas tree. When teaching at school, we hone the skill of oratory so that the student is interested in listening.
But it also happens: when talking, children swallow not only syllables, but also entire words, they may stumble and get stuck on some sounds, and they cannot reach the end of the phrase. In such cases, and they occur in about 1% of the world's inhabitants, they speak of the presence of stuttering.
Why does a child stutter: either nature does not want the baby to speak beautifully, or the body has taken the path of resistance and rebels, is this a life sentence or a fixable matter, is this the parent’s fault or is it unavoidable? Many questions? Let's look for answers to them!
Stuttering is different from stuttering!
For us, ordinary people, stuttering comes down to one thing - at such moments we want to help the stutterer quickly say what he is trying to say. And we don’t compare why one stutters differently from another. Stuttering is also stuttering in Africa.
Depending on the different causes and severity of symptoms, the disease varies. There are forms of speech pathology:
- clonic, when a child, due to intermittent convulsive movements of the respiratory organs, repeats syllables, usually the first. “Up to the ceiling” - this is approximately how the word will sound in this case,
- tonic, when due to tension in the muscles of the mouth and tongue, some sounds are stretched and pauses are created. For example, like this: “S...dog.”
- mixed, combining both: “Z...zz-stuttering.”
Doctors consider all these forms to be clinical manifestations.
In addition to them, there are different types of stuttering due to the nature of the pathology:
- wavy - it comes and goes, but does not completely disappear,
- constant - as it came, so it remains,
- recurrent - sometimes everything is fine, but sometimes it manifests itself again.
Etiology, or the cause and condition of occurrence, divides stuttering into:
- neurotic, arising under the influence of external factors, for example, due to psychological trauma,
- neurosis-like, not dependent on the external environment, for example, as a consequence of damage to the cerebral cortex or inherited.
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Stuttering is a problem that is not commonly talked about. Most often it “comes” from childhood. What can lead to such a problem and is it possible to insure your child against this?
OCCURS WITH AGE
2-6 YEARS
“Against the background of speech development, delayed or normal, stuttering can sometimes occur at the age of 2-6 years,” Irina Pevneva, a teacher-speech therapist, member of the International Association of Myofunctional Therapists, told rebenok.by.
How might it manifest itself?
-The child suddenly becomes silent and refuses to speak (this can last from two hours to a day, after which the child begins to speak again, but stuttering);
- the child “grasps” air before saying something;
- the child opens his mouth and freezes before speaking, and then tries to pronounce words with force, has difficulty before starting a conversation;
-says a lot of unnecessary sounds in separate words (a, and);
- repeats the first syllables or whole words at the beginning of a phrase;
-forcedly stops in the middle of a word or phrase.
Stuttering is very often confused with the so-called “stammers” of speech. This phenomenon is often found in the speech of children 2-5 years old and occurs when the development of a child’s thinking outstrips his speech capabilities. There is a high risk of stuttering in children who are emotional, very developed, and impressionable. The child repeats syllables and words during the utterance, but at the same time his muscles of the speech apparatus do not tense - this is the main difference.
Stuttering, unlike hesitation, is caused by convulsive spasms of the muscles of the speech apparatus. Convulsions come in different localizations: vocal, articulatory, respiratory. And this is a completely different problem that requires other correction methods.
STUTTERING IS A PROBLEM
NEUROLOGICAL
As soon as you hear “stumbling” in your baby’s speech, try to determine whether it is stuttering or hesitation. As we have already said, with stuttering, as a rule, there are no cramps in the mouth and neck, unlike stuttering.
Pay attention to how your child reacts to requests to speak more slowly and more smoothly. If a child has a stutter, then his speech after this request will only be worse, but for a child with stuttering, it will be better. Children with stuttering are characterized by a painful fixation on their problem, and this leads to additional deterioration of speech.
Analyze the reasons for the “unexpected” disturbance in the rhythm of speech in a child. The roots of a child’s problem with hesitation go to the area of emotions, characteristics of the nervous system, problems of child-parent relationships; hesitations are often a symptom of neurosis.
It happens that they appear when the child is especially tense (says something long, new, difficult), excited, etc. At such moments, some of the children begin to twirl their hair on their fingers, bite their nails, even blush, and children hesitatingly begin to repeat the first syllables or words.
Stuttering is a neurological problem and is more difficult to correct than stuttering. It is believed that stuttering is always of hereditary origin (a great-grandfather could stutter, and a predisposition to stuttering was passed on to his great-grandson).
VISIT A PSYCHONEUROLOGIST
AND Speech therapist
In the occurrence of stuttering, a primary role is played by disrupted relationships between nervous processes (overstrain of their strength and mobility) in the cerebral cortex. That is, the main reason is the weakening of the central nervous system.
Also, factors that can cause a “breakdown” in speech include:
-reaction to some strong external irritant, emotional shock;
- various infectious diseases (measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, etc.), as a result of localized tension in the throat and respiratory system;
- head injuries;
-excessive speech load (discrepancy between the still insufficiently formed speech breathing and the mental ability to pronounce complex phrases; the mental side of speech during this period is ahead of the capabilities);
- general speech underdevelopment or delayed speech development;
- prolonged stress caused by mental depression of the central nervous system;
- violation of sound pronunciation.
If the peculiarity of speech does not disappear within two to three weeks and even tends to worsen, it is time to take action. Visit a psychoneurologist or speech therapist. A psychoneurologist will help you with diagnostics, that is, he will identify stuttering (sometimes called logoneurosis), prescribe medications that make sense to take if the baby actually has a moderate or severe stutter. A speech therapist will help you build a system of breathing training, voice training, and explain how to organize the correct speech regime.
“GROUNDHOOD DAY”, MOLDING
AND AUDIO TALES
If a child begins to stammer or get “stuck” when pronouncing certain sounds, it is important for parents to follow some rules correctly.
1. Daily routine . Waking up in the morning, the child should know that he did not oversleep and there is no hurry, that he will now have breakfast, then brush his teeth, then go to kindergarten or for a walk. There is no need to organize developmental activities with your child later than 21.00 pm. This is a dangerous sleep disorder.
Any activity with a child (including play) is prohibited later than 20.00 pm. This is a time for relaxation and conversation. A child under 7 years of age who stutters should not go to bed later than 9:30 p.m. Do not overload with different sections and circles; it is better to choose one thing that is clearly interesting for the child.
2.Speech mode . You speak slowly, calmly, in a quiet voice, the words stretch out, as if chanted. You set the rhythm of speech that the child imitates.
Some children are advised to remain silent. The articulatory muscles need rest, and the memory needs to be freed from memories of cramps. The silent mode lasts on average 3-10 days and is appropriate at the very beginning of stuttering.⠀
Organizing a regime of silence is both simple and difficult. You have to constantly be with him, sculpt, draw, make appliqués. At the same time, the parent himself does not need to remain silent, but needs to express his thoughts competently and slowly. You can also communicate with your child using gestures, drawings, signs - in a playful way.
3. Parental behavior . You should always listen to your child until the end. You cannot finish words/phrases for him or her and point out that the child has begun to stutter. Don't ask him to speak correctly and smoothly. This only fixes the child's attention on stuttering.
4.Atmosphere around . Temporarily withdraw from educational institutions. Completely avoid noisy companies and trips to entertainment centers. Stabilize the emotional background in the family. Showdowns, shouting, and disputes within the family aggravate the situation. Do not discuss your child’s stuttering with other family members in front of the child, do not scold or correct him.
Your day should be the same as the previous one (Groundhog Day). Without emotional outbursts, both positive and negative. After all, any joyful emotion can complicate the child’s condition. Read more together, listen to audio fairy tales, and get creative.
5. Breathing exercises and relaxing massage . Teach your child to take deep breaths and exhale smoothly. By meditating, the child calms down and relaxes. You can do the massage yourself before going to bed with calm music.
Where to look for the causes of stuttering?
Most often, stuttering, or in medical terms, logoneurosis, is observed in preschool children, and children under five years of age are usually susceptible to speech pathology. At this age, active speech development occurs. If a child started stuttering at the age of 7, then this is one of the rare precedents. In any case, there are reasons for all these disorders.
As doctors say, everyone stutters differently. The usual explanation for this pathology among the people is fear, but it is worth noting that it occurs only in half of the cases. 15 percent falls on heredity, and the rest must be sought in unfavorable emotional circumstances that trigger the process so that the already grown-up child begins to stutter.
Here they are, the main reasons that serve as an impetus for a child to start stuttering.
Physiology
Birth trauma, heredity and neuroinfections can cause stuttering. Physiological provocations of the body are directly related to the depletion of the children's nervous system. Such a shift can occur due to severe illnesses, among which doctors note measles and scarlet fever.
Psychology
A sudden strong emotional shock is a direct path to the appearance of stuttering. At the same time, you shouldn’t reduce everything just to fear, when, for example, a dog attacked.
By the way, inappropriate behavior of any animals is the most common cause of childhood fears. Among the reasons for dysfunction of the speech apparatus is an unfavorable environment at home. Do you like to break dishes in the kitchen, loudly proving that you are right? Think about the possible consequences!
Pressure from teachers, by the way, can also become an impetus for speech impairment.
Social environment
Large mental loads and overload of the child’s brain with speech activities, for example, foreign languages, can cause the child’s speech apparatus to not cope with the task.
Sometimes psychologists note that absolutely healthy children begin to stutter when they imitate and copy a stutterer in their circle. In addition, one of the impetus for the emergence of pathology is the retraining of left-handers.
Provocateurs
Stuttering attacks may occur as single episodes. I think you have sometimes encountered that when there is excessive excitement, for example, when speaking in front of a large audience, a child suddenly begins to “buck and back”, although he rehearsed with enviable precision at home.
Interestingly, some experts noted even an excess of protein foods in the children's diet among the provoking factors. So we watch our diet. They also believe that the weather can provoke an organism prone to overexcitation and stuttering: it smoothes out in spring and summer, and increases in autumn and winter.
Why does a child start to stutter - 13 reasons
Stuttering, or logoneurosis, is a disturbance in the fluency of speech when the pronunciation of sounds is accompanied by muscle spasms.
As a result, hesitations appear, syllables and sounds are repeated and stretched out. A child who stutters has difficulty pronouncing words, and his speech is often understandable only to those close to him. In children, stuttering usually appears between the ages of 2 and 5 years, when speech is actively developing. At this age, hesitations, slurred sounds and even words are typical. Over time, this phenomenon goes away on its own as the child begins to speak better. If the stuttering persists and even begins to appear more often, it is necessary to urgently contact a child psychiatrist and speech therapist. To prescribe effective treatment, it is extremely important to correctly determine the cause of stuttering.
Causes of stuttering in children
If the baby’s nervous system is weakened initially, then the reasons for the development of stuttering include the following:
- heredity;
- birth traumatic brain injury and asphyxia;
- severe pregnancy with prolonged toxicosis;
- frequent colds in infancy, diseases of the pharynx, nose, larynx;
- severe infectious diseases: measles, whooping cough, typhus, rickets; in addition, stuttering can cause infestation with worms and exhaustion of the body.
All of these factors negatively affect the baby’s already weakened nervous system and have a bad effect on the development of speech centers. Neurological examination of such children usually shows increased intracranial pressure, convulsive readiness, and changes in reflexes.
Four steps for logoneurosis
What does the process of pronouncing words look like? Two muscle groups work in concert: when some contract, others relax. In a stutterer, this work loses consistency and as a result we hear either clonic repetitions or tonic spasms occur. The formation of a stable reflexive stutter is like a ladder with only four steps.
- At the first stage, stuttering appears in episodes. Difficulties arise with the first words in sentences and with short parts of speech - conjunctions, prepositions. At the same time, the child is not yet shy, but communicates as equals.
- At the second stage, the initiative to communicate is replaced by silence, as stuttering becomes chronic. Smooth speech is rarely heard, and polysyllabic words cannot be heard the first time, especially if you try to speak them quickly.
- At the third stage, muscle contractions become stronger, but the child begins to notice that his speech is very different from the way others speak. Difficulties with words are already clearly visible. A young stutterer begins to look for replacements for complex words, even gestures.
- Having moved to the fourth step, the child acutely perceives differences in his speech, he expects stuttering and internally prepares for it. Convulsive manifestations of the speech apparatus always occur, not only in exciting situations.
Digression from topic
Boys are unlucky in this matter: they are more likely to become stutterers. Why? It's simple. Who else but the male sex is especially active, energetic and more likely to find himself in stressful situations? Of course, restless boys! And there is more demand from them, there is less cooing, and therefore neuroses are more common. Girls who have been treated kindly are more psychologically stable, so they are in no hurry to stutter.
