Stuttering/Stammering

Have you ever found yourself or people around you with Stuttering? A communication disorder with flow of speech broken with repetitions or prolongations. (eg. he-he-he said or thaaat way). Sometimes, there is a gap in-between words. Stuttering referred as Stammering is occurred due to varied reasons. Either Stuttering is in the family genetics, delayed development in childhood, brain deficiency or neurophysiology, fear complex and high lifestyles.

As researchers say, For 70 per cent left handers, the left hemisphere controls speech, just as it does in all but a few right handers. But for 15 percent of left handed persons, the right half of the brain controls speech. For the remaining 15 percent, speech is controlled by both right and left hemispheres. Stuttering may be more common among left handed males. One theory on a cause of stuttering is that in some left handed persons, the two hemispheres of the brain compete for control of speech. Also high testosterone levels in the male make boys react more strongly than girls to stress and perhaps causes the greater aggressiveness and hyper active at an early age. This can also be a factor in a greater frequency of left handedness, dyslexia and stuttering in boys.

It is learnt over 3 million Americans Stutter with majority in males. Most of them have the fillers like 'um' - 'er' - 'uh' thought sometimes, this is fashionable as style speech. In fact, dis-fluency includes hesitancy. We often find children in our classrooms with stressed facial muscles, struggling to narrate a story of while talking, repeating words or trying to find words and as we prompt them to speak, they find way to finish the sentence. The voice pitch raises or gets dim. Even fear grips them and they miss on words. Sometimes, parents or teachers lose the patience if stuttering increase and repeatedly and the child keeps on making efforts in vain.
Well, so what will you do to help your kids in classrooms or at home. Especially, with those children who are stuttering and have a fear syndrome with inferiority complex. Maybe, Kidsfreesouls tips may help:

1. First and foremost, slow and relax your own speech. Speak mild, polite and do not hurry with your own fluency. The child may fail to pick up faster what you say, as you think.

2. Dis-fluency is the result of stuttering. Give time. Give words. Give comfort. Give support.

3. Build the confidence. Encourage the child and stand by while he tries to speak - narrate the story or an incident. Get classroom debate and increase space. Get children involved and speak their mind, their way.

4. Build Self Esteem. Reassure and let the child reframe words. Show empathy, give hope. Instead of spanking or nagging, says words like 'I know you are trying..go on..Even I get stuck up with words'

5. Calm down expectations. Boys are boys and girls are girls. There is difference in brain connections. Seek new ways of seeing the brain.

6. Calm down Kid Stress. We often admit that kids too have stress. Too much of lessons to learn in class rooms, homework, peer group pressures, extra activities - all weigh stress for the mind to work faster round the clock. Let music fill their small world and paint their dreams at intervals. Children will respond faster when they are happy.

7. Finally, give them a cozy family lifestyle and a friendly classroom. Raised voices, fighting and bickering will fill them with fright and stuttering follows due to unhealthy environment.

Well, Artie Knapp, our Kidsfreesouls Children's Story Author (Fairyland), has launched his latest book 'Stuttering Stan Takes a Stand' - Stanley is like most squirrels: he loves nuts, climbing trees and playing with friends. But Stanley feels different from the other animals in his neighborhood, because he has a problem with words. Teased and bullied about his stuttering, Stanley refuses to let on that his feelings are being hurt, until one day he learns an important lesson from a new friend. Stuttering Stan Takes a Stand is published by the Division of Speech Pathology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, which is the largest pediatric speech pathology program in the United States. You can read Author Artie Knapp's Interview on Speechpathology here.

Find Artie Knapp's stories here for classroom Projects here. Grab a copy of the book here:




- ilaxi patel
Editor, www.kidsfreesouls.com
Newspaper for kids
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