Causes And Remedies Of Toddler Stuttering

Stuttering, also known as stammering in many parts of the world, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds.

Many children have problems with their speech from an early age. It is estimated that over one percent of kids in the world suffer from stuttering. Stuttering is typically a developmental disorder beginning in early childhood and continuing into adulthood in at least 20% of affected children. The mean onset of stuttering is 30 months. Although there is variability, early stuttering behaviors usually consist of word or syllable repetitions, and secondary behaviors such as tension, avoidance or escape behaviors are absent. Most young children are unaware of the interruptions in their speech.

There are many reasons why people may develop a stutter, it can be as a result of bullying from school, an over aggressive member of the family, a shock reaction to an event such as a car crash, or it could be passed down from another member of the family who has a stutter.

Stuttering affects people in different ways. Some people who stutter are very good at hiding it and are sometimes known as a closet stutterer. Many people they mix with may not even be aware that they have a stuttering problem. They have become so good at avoiding certain words or by finding alternative words that they can make out that they are fluent. This takes a lot of effort though and it comes as more of a shock to people when the person does actually stutter. Other people who have a stutter are unable to do this and can have what is seen as a more severe stutter.

To attend speech therapy straight away, can have a damaging affect as it can over-highlight the problem to the child and can make them withdraw into their shells. There are many types of stuttering therapy or stuttering treatments available these days. Most people would first try a speech therapist or speech pathologist. Alternatively they can attend a speech course which can be in a group or on a one to one basis. It is also preferable to have one to one stutter courses as every person who has a stutter is an individual and has their own individual type of stutter. There are also stuttering self help DVDs or stuttering self help e-books now available for people who do not feel they have the confidence to attend a speech course.

The affected kids are trained to reduce their speaking rate by stretching vowels and consonants, and using other fluency techniques such as continuous airflow and soft speech contacts. The result is very slow, monotonic, but fluent speech used only in the speech clinic. After the stutterer masters these fluency skills, the speaking rate and intonation are increased gradually. This more normal-sounding, fluent speech is then transferred to daily life outside the speech clinic. Fluency shaping approaches are often taught in intensive group therapy programs, which may take two to three weeks to complete, although there are shorter versions such as the more recent Camper down program.

Instead of being aggressive, parents or relatives need to be more understanding. Forcing the child to speak in a proper manner and making comments can have a very negative effect and make the child withdraw into a shell.

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