Stuttering: Causes and How to Remedy it

Don’t fool yourself into believing that staying quiet and angry because people make fun of you or because you feel insecure about how you talk.  If you stutter, or your child frequently odes, consider that this condition has a solution if you just look at certain important points.  There is no reason for stuttering to be a problem.

Distorted or interrupted speech is known as stuttering or stammering.  Stuttering is a speech disorder in which saying something is frequently interrupted by repeated words or syllables, as well as prolonged sounds.  A lot of times these interruptions are accompanied by certain tics like eye squinting or a tremble in the lips, agitated breathing, faces, etc.,

People who stutter find it difficult to start a word or phrase, and it is difficult for them to finish what they were saying.  This should not be confused with other speech disorders like disorganized speech schizophrenia or spasmodic dysphonia, which is a voice disorder.

A lot of people could suffer from this condition, including people who are seen publicly or as very composed and successful (like Marilyn Monroe or Bruce Willis).  They could suffer from this problem in spite of the fact that speaking in front of strangers or being in front of people could accentuate the stutter.

What causes people to stutter?

Stuttering depends on two things: one emotional, the other biological.

The emotional cause is related to a lack of security or confidence in an individual, which causes excessive nervousness or tension when they want to express themselves.

This nervousness could be caused by the person growing up in a demanding or highly critical environment.  It would be difficult for them to express themselves because more than likely, deep down, they are not very sure if what they are going to say will be accepted by others, or if it is correct or not to say it.  They are not sure if their words will cause rejection or judgement, or if they will be humiliated.

Biological causes of stuttering

Speech is produced through a series of precisely coordinated muscular movements.  These movements include breathing, the voice box and articulation, using the throat, the tongue, the lips, and the teeth.  

All of these factors must be well coordinated and controlled by the brain, as well as supervised by the sense of hearing and touch, so that the words come out smooth and clear.  When these factors are weakly coordinated, stuttering is produced.

Who suffers from stuttering?

Stuttering affects individuals of all ages, but primarily small children that are developing speech, and a few adolescents.  Stuttering is more common in men that in women, yet the majority of people who suffer from it overcome this disorder.  Very few adults frequently suffer from stuttering, although it is not impossible.

How to stop stuttering

A lot of times, this remedy comes with maturity of certain speech aspects.  Other times, the individuals’s insecurity or lack of confidence must be considered.  We should clear up that a lot of times, the individual can be very secure in some areas of their life, while insecure in others.

Stuttering remedies for children

Stuttering occurs in children when the child is looking for the correct word, but this problem is easily overcome when the child’s speech matures.  In some other occasions stuttering in children is caused by the parent or parents frequently being very demanding, imposing, authoritarian, or critical.  This causes the child to feel intimidated to speak fluently.  They constantly feel judged or disapproved of by authority and this could cause strong anxiety to express what they feel.

In a lot of occasions, children stutter while internally they debate over what they want to say and what the adults want them to say.  While lying or disguising words is when they frequently stutter.  But in this case the parent should help them observe themselves, as no therapy will help the child if the cause is not removed.  If the child continues in this emotional environment, a lot of times the problem can persist into adolescence or adulthood, even when the parents are not close by.  The child will have absorbed the mental or emotional pattern from childhood.

Types of stuttering

Neurogenic stuttering consists of problems in the signals that are transmitted between the brain and the nerves or muscles.  It can sometimes be fixed with neural therapy or other rehabilitation therapies for the nervous system.  A lot of times this type of stuttering is caused by accidents that affect the nerves and muscles related to speech.  The magnitude of the problem must be determined, along with its possible solutions.

Psychogenic stuttering is created in the mind or brain activities like thought and reasoning.  It can be treated through emotional work and thought coordination with speech.  Therapies with reflexology, bioenergetics, acupuncture, or neural stimulation could be of great help.

Revised by: Dra. Loredana Lunadei on 11/10/2014

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