Stutter

General characteristic of a disease

Stutter represents disturbance of the speech of which frequent repetitions or prolongation of words, syllables or sounds are characteristic, also symptoms of a disease are frequent stops or the indecision in the speech leading to a rupture of its rhythmic current.

In other words, stutter is the disturbance of smoothness and a rhythm of the speech causing difficulties in oral communication.

In order that was the diagnosis "stutter" is made symptoms have to be considerable. Hitches and failures in beat of the speech of normally speaking people differ from this frustration in feeling at the stammering muscular tension, loss of control over speech bodies, emergence of sense of shame and fear.

Stutter, as a rule, begins aged from 2 up to 5 years and can last for months or years. Boys, than girls are more subject to this alalia, cases of this disease at several family members were recorded at once. Stutter at children, unlike adults, can spontaneously pass.

Practically ability to speak smoothly when they are emotionally keen is characteristic of all stammering, read with someone unanimously, sing, there are one or when breath, the voice change a manner to speak.

Stutter begins to be shown at communication in difficult situations when, for example, the performance before public is necessary, in a hurry, in the aspiration to get approval or at concentration on itself and the disturbance of the speech.

Extension or repetitions of initial syllables or sounds are characteristic of the majority of halts at stutter, the full stop on the beginning of a syllable or the word is also possible. Besides, in parallel with halts such "secondary" symptoms as the involuntary movements of muscles of extremities, necks, persons or inserts of foreign sounds or words can be observed. The first symptoms of stutter at children are shown in the form of not fluent and uncertain fluent speech, frequent repetitions of words, the visible tension of the child, sometimes there are cases of silence and full refusal of oral communication.

Stutter reasons

Stutter at children can be provoked by defects of a nervous system or to become result of neurosises.

In the first case genetic predisposition, hard proceeding pregnancy, an injury can be a cause of infringement of the speech at childbirth or frequent diseases at infantile age. In spite of the fact that externally such children look quite healthy, neurologic inspection can reveal at them the increased convulsive readiness, change of reflexes, the increased intracranial pressure.

Stutter in children in the second case is caused by the neurosises caused by a stress, strong overfatigue, a fright. Nervous and impressionable children are most subject to disturbances of the speech of this kind, at the same time symptoms of a disease can amplify at a psychological tension or contagious excitation.

In rare instances the stutter reason children can have an aspiration of the child to imitate the stammering relative, a forced reeducation from the lefthander in the right-handed person or transferring of an infectious disease.

Stutter at adults arises rather seldom, as a rule, to it the severe mental injury precedes. In certain cases adults have the stutter reason a fear to speak (logofobiya) which at first is shown directly during speech communication and then is transformed to the fear accompanying even thoughts of the forthcoming conversation.

Stutter mechanism

Effective correction of stutter and its treatment assume understanding that represents this disturbance in the physiological plan. Stutter at adults as well as at children are myotonia of organs of articulation (a mandible, a soft palate, lips, language) which arise periodically.

So, the clonic stutter representing involuntary repetition of separate syllables and sounds is caused by several short-term reductions of muscles. While tonic stutter (a speech delay) causes long strong reduction of muscles. Sometimes myotonia of organs of articulation are followed by myotonia of extremities and persons.

In a brain there are voice, acoustical and associative centers which harmonious work creates a speech circle. Stutters are the cornerstone ruptures of a speech circle which result from periodically different speed of work of the speech centers. For this reason most often there is stutter at children at the age of 2-5 years when synchronous communication between centers only forms.

The modern medicine explains the mechanism of stutter as follows. Changes of a nervous system lead to overexcitation of the voice center (Brock's center) which speed of work increases that provokes temporary disconnection of a speech circle. Overexcitation is moved to the sites of a cerebral cortex responsible for a physical activity therefore there are muscular spasms. After the fact of stutter the voice center relaxes to norm, and the speech circle becomes isolated again. Stutter arises most often on consonants as nervous impulses at overexcitation according to the frequency characteristic are close to these sounds especially deaf.

Treatment of stutter

The question of how to get rid of stutter, is put practically always when one of family members faces this speech frustration.

Today it is impossible to call treatment of stutter unambiguous as specialists disagree concerning therapy methods. In order that correction of stutter was productive, usually apply the integrated approach combining several techniques from which distinguish:

• psychological;
• psychotherapeutic;
• logopedic;
• logopsikhoterapevtichesky;
• sotsioreabilitatsionny;
• physiotherapeutic;
• medicamentous;
• nonconventional.

Techniques of correction of stutter were developed by authors on the basis of their understanding of the reasons of this disease. One treat stutter as difficult neurotic frustration to which led failures of nervous processes in a brain. Others see the reason of this difficult neurotic frustration in the recorded reflex of the wrong speech which resulted from speech difficulties of various origin. For the third treatment of stutter represents elimination of disharmonious development of the personality, and also a speech and general dizontogenez. The fourth see the stutter reason only in organic lesions of the central nervous system.

Today there is a set of techniques of treatment of stutter, however any of them does not give an absolute guarantee. In certain cases the question of how to get rid of stutter, can not arise if in time to warn a disease, having created to the child the quietest and sparing living conditions.