Reasons Why a Child Stutters
1. Heredity – If a parent or sibling stutters, the child is more likely to also develop this condition.
2. Illness – Infections can increase stuttering, especially in children who are under five years of age. The flu, measles, mumps, and chickenpox can all cause stuttering episodes to be longer or happen more frequently.
3. Brain injury – Damage to parts of the brain due to head injuries is also another reason why a child may start to stutter. There have been cases where recovery from brain injury has reduced or eliminated symptoms of stuttering in children.
4. Stress – The pressure of speaking in front of others, or any sudden stressful situation can aggravate symptoms of stuttering in children.
5. Hearing problems – A hearing impairment may cause a child to overcompensate and try harder to make up for the loss by talking more and thus developing a stuttering disorder.
6. Learning disabilities – Children who have other learning disabilities such as dyslexia or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may develop stuttering if this is not treated at the same time as the learning disability.
7. Anxiety – Children who are anxious about speaking out loud, especially when they need to do so publicly, may begin to stutter because of the stress involved with trying to speak clearly and knowing that they will trip over words.
8. Family problems – Children who are experiencing discipline problems at home or in school, or who have unsupportive parents may begin to stutter because of this.
9. A change in speaking habits – This can include talking more than usual due to excitement about something new, trying to speak like someone else by repeating the same phrase over and over again out loud, copying words were spoken by another person or saying things backward.
what causes a child to suddenly start stuttering:
1. The child’s behavior towards others is bad
2. The words the child has to speak are not completed properly
3. The way of speaking or pronunciation of people around him/her does not conform to the manner of speaking he/she is used to
4. He had stammered when he was young but did not receive treatment for it
5. His mouth organs are not in complete harmony with each other causing his speech to be disturbed and unclear
6. He suffers from stress, depression or there is something on his mind which bothers him a lot and so, he cannot focus on what he wants to say properly thus stammering occurs while talking.
7. There is something wrong with his mouth organs such as a cleft palate or lip, etc.
8. He was born prematurely and so the normal development of speech organs that is, jaws, lips, and tongue was not completed properly resulting in stammering later on in life.
9. He has been ill in the past due to some disease that caused him to lose weight and he still hasn’t gotten completely well yet (although this reason is less common)
10. Speech organ is not developed enough which means it may be too small for the child’s age group making him/her hard to speak clearly and fluently. (Although there are kids who talk like adults when they are young as 8-10)
11. Maybe the child is underdeveloped from birth and he/she did not receive any treatment for that matter.
12. He stammered while speaking at a certain age, but then stopped doing so after receiving treatment or overcoming it by himself.
13. His ears are crooked which caused hearing difficulty in one ear making him hear voices through both ears instead of just one ear thus confusing him while talking or when listening to other people talk above his head (This reason might sound funny at first, but there was a person who told me this happened to them before).
14. His brain has different hemispheres than other children’s brains resulting in delayed speech development which will eventually cause him to stutter later on.
15. His mother suffered from depression during her pregnancy resulting in delayed development of speech organs for the child caused by hormones present in the placenta. (This does not give an excuse to people who stutter)
what some treatments are:
1. Speech therapy – This consists of exercises for mouth, lips, and tongue so that they can be trained to work together while speaking correctly. So the person will learn how to speak fluently with a proper way of pronunciation and breathing control so as not to stammer while talking.
2. Train voice with singing lessons (this is what I did when I was younger – up till now, which contributes greatly to my fluency, but doesn’t mean it’s gonna help you too)
3. Train the brain’s hemispheres by using certain games that stimulate them, or using therapies like VR Therapy (Virtual Reality Therapy)
4. Behaviour therapy – This helps to remove bad behaviors towards others for example if he/she was rude to others causing him/her to be isolated from his peer group. Also, it helps to remove negative thinking which causes low self-esteem issues and leads one to develop complexes because of this. Practicing better social interaction skills with others also helps in such cases.
5. Oral medications (pills) such as fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa), Zocor, Risperdal, Clozaril are used on some people who have stammering problems.
6. Psychological counseling sessions to remove psychological problems causing the person to stammer such as stress, depression, or other social dysphoria issues which can be dealt with by a psychologist or psychiatrist if need be.
7. Speech therapy combined with oral medication (pills)
8. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) – This is used among people who are too lazy to go through speech therapies thus causing them not to see any improvement in their fluency.
This consists of self-help books that involve hypnosis or self-hypnosis on the subject to reprogram your mind with positive thinking which leads to greater fluency.
9. Chewing gum while speaking can help if this works for you, however, some people may object due to being very conscious about others watching them chewing gum while talking!
what causes stuttering:
He could have been stressed from a certain incident that happened which caused him to stutter later on. e.g. When I was a kid, I had always dreamed of being a singer and even joined a choir group. one day our choir teacher did not show up for practice so we did some improvisations instead of learning new songs for the upcoming concert.
On the next day, when our real choir teacher came back, she was very angry at me because she thought I made fun of her by singing incorrectly while she was away! She got furious and yelled at me in front of all my classmates which made me feel ashamed and embarrassed about myself thus causing me to stammer while talking ever since then till this day whenever I talk with other people.
(Of course, it’s not the only reason why I stammer, there are other factors such as genetics and family upbringing to name a few, but this incident contributed greatly towards my speech impediment)
Types of stuttering:
1. Neurogenic stuttering:
This type of stuttering is caused by the nervous system (especially the part which controls speech) becoming hyperactive or hypoactive.
2. Psychogenic :
This type of stutter usually happens to people who are emotionally disturbed, causing them to react with panic during certain situations where they make mistakes in their speech thus afterward traumatizing themselves into permanently developing crippling stage fright whenever they need to speak publicly!
3. Organic :
A physical condition that affects how you talk such as brain tumors, stroke, mental retardation, genetically inherited traits within your family, disorders like cerebral palsy, and other similar genetic disorders that can cause this kind of stammering problem.
4. Developmental :
This is a type of stammering problem that affects people who have gone through a difficult psychological experience which caused them to develop bad habits in the way they speak later on in life. e.g. Speaking rapidly or speaking incorrectly especially when talking with other people, or becoming timid towards others whom he/she knows very well, etc…
5. Neuropsychiatric :
This kind of stutter involves many different types of medical conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other similar medical problems which can cause this kind of specimens!
6. Maturational :
This is more of a developmental issue such as brain puberty which happens during preteens and early teens. They may stutter while talking due to changing hormone levels within their bodies, sudden growth spurts, becoming more conscious about themselves, and other related issues that can cause them to stammer more than usual.