What is Stammering / Stuttering ?
Stammering or Stuttering is a speech problem which
occurs when the speaker is not able to maintain a
smooth forward flow of speech and experiences
recurrent blocks in the production of speech sounds
in conversational speech, particularly when excited
or under psychological stress. A person who
stammers often has difficulty in smoothly
coordinating breathing exhalations during speech
caused by lack of synchrony between his thoughts
and his speaking machine. Most persons who
stammer attempt to avoid or substitute particular
words and situations. The problem has both physical
and psychological overtones. Stammering is not a
disease but an undesirable speech habit with causes
havoc with the sufferer’s self-confidence.
Is Stammering different from Stuttering ?
Stammering and Stuttering mean exactly the same
condition. It is called ‘Stammering’ in England while
Americans call it Stuttering. No difference
What is the incidence of stammering?
Stammering is said to affect approximately 1% of the
global population and occurs uniformly regardless of
race, culture, education or socio-economic status.
Does it affect only males?
Stammering is predominantly a ‘male’ condition and
80% of all persons who stammer are male. It is
usually known to affect the first-born male child.
Is stammering inherited?
A significant majority of persons who stammer (65%)
have a family history of the disorder; usually the
father who stammers or speaks at a rapid rate.
Nearly always, stammering starts before the child is
5 years of age. If left untreated, it peaks in severity
around the age of 10 to 18 years.
What is the real cause for stammering?
A person who stammers knows precisely what he
wants to say but cannot, for the moment, say it
because of an involuntary repetition, prolongation or
cessation of the speech sound.
Research suggests that the disorder might be caused
due to a ‘neurological mistiming’ during the act of
speech which leaves the person who stammers
confused about when exactly to say the word he
wants to say.
Speaking is not merely the movement of the tongue
but involves a fine coordination of both mental and
physical processes. Like all other physical actions,
the act of speech is the result of neuro-muscular
coordination which involves the transmitting of
electro-chemical messages from the brain to the
appropriate muscle groups. For everyone of us, this
neuro-muscular system sometimes trips and fails
especially during moments of inadequate emotional
control. Haven’t we all found the quality of our
speech delivery changing with our feelings as we
experience thrill, anger, fear, joy or other such strong
emotions?
For the person who stammers, this ‘tripping’ occurs
much more frequently than it does for normal
speakers. Whenever he faces what he perceives as a
‘feared’ situation, the person who stammers adopts a
mind-set which triggers off spasms of speech-blocks.
Such fears can also center around certain speech
sounds or even certain people.
Dr. Edward Conture, Professor of Speech Pathology at
Syracuse University, New York, talks about what causes
stammering :
“Things that cause stammering may be, and probably are,
quite different from the things that keep it going, aggravate
or worsen it. For example, if you mishandle a knife, you may
cut your finger. The knife causes the cut and initial pain. Salt
rubbed into the cut makes the pain continue or even worsen it
but the salt does not cause the cut”. Dr. Conture says, scientists
“…still haven’t found the ‘knife’ that causes stammering.
However, we do know something about the ‘salt’ that keeps it
going, makes it worse or aggravates it”.
These are aspects which can be changed through
self-therapy to help the person overcome his
speaking difficulty.
Why can persons who stammer sing without
difficulty?
One more of the unusual facts about stammering is
that even the person with the severest stammer can
sing fluently without any speech blocks. This is
because when we sing a song, we know exactly when
to say the words and there is no ambiguity in our
minds about this timing. In conversational speech
however, we cannot bank on any such cues but as
normally fluent speakers, most of us do not need
these cues. However, without these cues, the speech
of a person who stammers becomes disoriented,
because of his ‘wrongly tuned’ neurological speech-
timing system. He experiences difficulty in
maintaining a smooth forward flow of words in feared
situations.
What are these ‘feared situations’?
Actually, all persons who stammer have periods of
fluency when they are emotionally relaxed but revert
back to dysfluent speech under stress. Answering the
roll call in class, speaking on the telephone, talking to
someone in authority, speaking in a group, attending
a job interview, etc. are some such pressure
situations which might cause an increase in
stammering behaviour.
So is stammering a psychological condition?
Frequently repeated, experiences of stammering
arouse fear in the mind of the child who stammers.
With growing years, these fears keep snowballing
until the person who stammers begins to experience
tremendous frustration, anxiety, shame,
embarrassment, even guilt every time he opens his
mouth to speak. He begins to recoil from speaking.
The smirks on the faces of his listeners which his
speech sometimes elicits, do nothing to help his self
confidence. In every other respect, except speaking
ability, the person who stammers is a completely
normal human being, as good or bad as the rest of
us. In fact most persons who stammer are sensitive
and intelligent people.
So the psychological repercussions of his
stammering can very well keep the problem alive by
catching him in a vicious circle. The more he is afraid,
the more he stammers and that in turn increases his
fear of speech. Any treatment-plan must consider
this aspect carefully.
Isn’t there any medicine for stammering?
Speech is one of our body’s strongest habits and
stammered speech is also a habit. Stammering is not
a disease and therefore, it cannot be treated through
medicines. The stammering child or adult has to be
helped to develop a new, more fluent manner of
speech through an intensive re-orientation program
which focuses on modifying his physical manner of
talking as well as changing his mental attitude
towards the problem. With the greater sense of
emotional and intellectual balance that he gains, the
person who stammers finds his attempts to develop
speech getting successful results.
In their desperate search for fluency, many in India
subject themselves to a myriad of so-called
treatments ranging from swallowing vile concoctions
to allowing themselves to be pierced with needles
and cut with knives. Actually, such treatments hold
no relevance to the problem of stammering and are
only placebos which cause greater frustration in the
long run by corroding the sufferer’s faith in a real and
long-lasting cure.
Do tranquilizers help?
Some psychiatrists might prescribe tranquilizers in
the belief that relieving stress would help speech
fluency. Such drugs usually complicate, rather than
resolve the issue and are strongly de-recommended
for the treatment of stammering by most speech
pathologists.
Dr. Peter Rosenberger, M.D., Director, Learning Disorders
Unit at Harvard Medical School, Boston says “Since the
increase in stammering during anxiety is a common
experience, it might be assumed that drugs that relieve anxiety
would be beneficial. However, minor tranquilizers have been
tried many times without success”.
What about hypnosis?
Hypnosis has also shown unpromising results in the
treatment of stammering. A few persons who
stammer who might become fluent while under a
trance invariably return to stammering when out of
the hypnotic state.
So what is the treatment that works?
In the final analysis, stammering can be overcome if
the sufferer seeks scientific, professional guidance
and is ready to work towards achieving speech
fluency through regular practice of therapeutic
techniques. It certainly cannot disappear by
ingesting some magic potent!
Children who Stammer:
When their 3 to 5 year old child begins to hesitate/
stammer or stutter, parents naturally become
worried about this and may unknowingly handle the
problem incorrectly resulting in increasing rather
than decreasing the stammering. Here is a typical
case-history:
“Mu..mmm..mum..mummy! We wa.wa.wa..won the
mmm..mmmatch!” Mrs. Sharma’s body tenses up whenever she
hears her 10-year old son stammering. She becomes desperate
herself, when Amit gets stuck on a word and struggles so hard
to speak it out. His young-er brother speaks absolutely
normally which makes it even more difficult for Amit. Mrs.
Sharma : “Sometimes, a class-mate might tease him and that
makes Amit feel as if he is abnormal. Last year he used to come
home crying. He speaks quite well with everyone at home or
with some of his friends. He has no difficulty when he sings or
recites from memory. But when the teacher asks him to read in
class, he breaks down into severe stammering. The problem is
especially noticeable when he is excited or angry. Talking on
the telephone is also difficult for Amit. From the time he was 4
years old and had started stammering, we had mentioned it to
our pediatrician but he advised us not to worry because it
would disappear when Amit reached 6 years of age. Now, 4
years later, the problem is in fact increasing. I feel helpless.”
– Mrs. Sharma, New Delhi.”.
Children who have a case background history similar
to Amit’s need to be handled with special gentleness
and support from parents. Feeling increasingly
concerned about their child’s speech problem,
parents employ a variety of corrective methods
ranging from scolding or even beating the child (in
extreme cases) to frequently correcting him or
promising him rewards if he is fluent to getting angry
or upset with him. All these techniques only indicate
the degree of the parent’s worry and need to be
changed. Continued parental counselling is provided.
This forms half of the therapy plan. Alongside, the
child is given certain simple therapy practices to help
him time his speech better and to develop habits of
easier breathing patterns.
How do you treat children/adults with unclear
speech? If a child cannot pronounce the Ka or
Ga sounds or when someone cannot say the R
sound correctly?
The tongue is a pure muscle and speech clarity
depends upon the placement of the tongue as it
contacts the teeth or lips to form most speech
sounds. Sometimes a small surgical procedure is
needed to release a tied tongue. This 15-minute
surgery is done by a qualified plastic surgeon in
Pune. Dr. S.G.Pandit, M.S., M.Ch.
So our goal is to first identify sounds which come out
unclear in spontaneous speech, then grade them
according to complexity and start practicing the
sound repeatedly once it is learnt.
How should non-stammerers (i.e. normally
fluent speakers) react when they encounter a
person who stammers?
In India where even today, stammering is considered
funny; where the comedian in our films still
stammers in search of cheap laughs, one of the
primary goals of The Speech Foundation is to
disseminate correct information about this baffling
speech condition and suggest ways to overcome it.
About Stammering
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Op i am sure u didn't read dis b4 doing ur ''COPY AND PASTE''
summary is d best form of making ur reader comprehend wat ur tryin 2 say.

Thanks,ur piece is very educative & interesting. The person above me is not a stammerer & has no close relative that stammers,he does not understand.

I know that most of them get angry easily and they are hot-tempered.