What to do if a child stutters - why a child stutters, how to cure it

What is stuttering

Medicine defines the problem as a speech disorder in which a person often repeats certain words or syllables, pronounces individual sounds in a drawn-out manner, without being able to pronounce them fully. Smoothness, rhythm, and tempo of pronunciation of phrases suffer. Doctors define the disorder by the term “logoneurosis.” According to statistics, it occurs in approximately 2-3% of people, that is, quite common.

Physiological reasons include spasms and convulsions of the muscles responsible for speaking. These disturbances negatively affect breathing, the strength and pitch of spoken sounds. The physiology of this process is similar to hiccups.

At what age does the problem appear?

Most often, a child encounters stuttering at the age of 3-4, when the speech apparatus and psyche are formed. However, logoneurosis can manifest itself at a later age - up to adolescence. The occurrence of a problem in adulthood is an extremely rare occurrence, as it is associated with the formation of the nervous system and speech function of the brain. And this period occurs at the age of 3-6 years. It is noteworthy that the disorder occurs much more often in boys, since the cerebral hemisphere responsible for speech develops more slowly in them.

What can cause a child to stutter?

Organic causes

A number of reasons are associated with problems of early development and organic lesions of the nervous system:

genetic predisposition;
injuries during childbirth;
intrauterine development disorders;
infections that the mother suffered during pregnancy;
diseases associated with metabolism in a pregnant mother;
frequent ENT diseases of a child in the first 3 years of life.

In these cases, curing stuttering in a child is problematic. After all, it is caused by physiological abnormalities in the development of the nervous system. Children may have impaired reflexes, a tendency to seizures, and surges in intracranial pressure. Problems can be corrected with the help of medications that are selected by the doctor.

Acquired reasons

Basically, they are associated with stress and neuroses, due to which the child may begin to stutter. Most often this happens at 4-5 years of age, when the nervous system is most susceptible to external factors. Doctors include these:

strong and frequent quarrels;
life changes (for example, starting kindergarten);
unfavorable atmosphere in the family;
sharp fear;
excessive intellectual stress;
emotional turmoil;
disordered life, child's daily routine.

Often, a child begins to stutter during the period of mastering his native language, when parents begin to intensively engage in its development. The brain does not have time to perceive the entire mass of information, especially if learning a foreign language is also added to the native language. Therefore, during any intellectual activities with your baby, it is important not to overload him. Particular attention should be paid to emotional children.

According to statistics, more than 80% of stuttering cases have acquired causes. Such children do not have any physiological abnormalities, and speech disorders can be corrected quite well.

Forecast

Stuttering in children usually goes away completely if treatment and recreational therapy is organized correctly. Sometimes relapses may occur during school and puberty.

Of course, overcoming stuttering depends on many conditions, primarily on its mechanisms, on the timing of the onset of complex influence and the completeness of its application, as well as on the age of the child. If stuttering develops due to congenital complications or acquired as a result of previous illnesses, the prognosis is less favorable. In most cases, the prognosis for stuttering is favorable and social adaptation of stutterers is achieved to a fairly high degree.

How can you tell if your child has a speech disorder?

The easiest way to treat stuttering is when it is discovered at a very early stage, before the brain has yet “fixed” the speech defect, before it turns into a reflex and affects the child’s psyche. Therefore, when he turns 3-4 years old, we recommend paying attention to the following points:

when pronouncing phrases, the child stops, breathes quickly, as if gathering strength;
stammers, repeats the same syllables and words;
pronounces additional sounds before the phrase (i, a, e);
refuses to speak at all, becomes abruptly silent;
becomes withdrawn.

Any of these symptoms is a reason to consult a doctor. The sooner you do this, the faster and without consequences the problem will be solved.

Treatment of stuttering in children

Getting rid of stuttering requires patience and persistence. It is important to follow the recommendations of a speech therapist in order to develop correct speech skills and eliminate pathology. But we also don’t recommend overdoing it: if your baby is sick or doesn’t feel well, postpone classes. In this state they will be of no use.

Treatment of stuttering in children is complex, using several therapy methods. Below we will talk about them in more detail.

Working with a speech therapist

Treatment of stuttering in children by a speech therapist can be carried out in a kindergarten, in a community clinic or in specialized institutions.

At the first stage, a speech therapist or speech pathologist conducts a survey and examination, identifying the cause of stuttering. Examinations are prescribed: MRI, electroencephalography or rheoencephalography. After this, an individual correction scheme is drawn up. Parents need to follow this plan to get rid of stuttering.

Working with a speech therapist is the key to successful correction. Even if you practice at home on your own, you need to regularly see a specialist. He evaluates the dynamics and, if necessary, adjusts the lesson plan or supplements them.

Working with a psychologist

To help get rid of stuttering, a psychologist or psychotherapist conducts classes in a playful way. The purpose of such activities is relaxation, distraction, and development of emotional stability. Both individual sessions and group work are possible.

When the cause of speech impairment is conflicts in the family, stuttering can be eliminated only by improving relationships within the family. In such cases, psychotherapy is also indicated for parents. It is necessary to create a calm environment and improve relationships between all family members. It is important that the child knows and feels that he is loved and appreciated.

Drug treatment

Drug treatment of stuttering in children is aimed at normalizing the neurological state and emotional background. Prescribe sedatives and drugs to relieve muscle spasms.

Usually vitamin complexes are also included in the treatment regimen. Folk remedies are also effective: herbal decoctions, baths, inhalations. Remember that any medicine is prescribed only by a neurologist, even herbal medicines. He takes into account the results of the examination and the cause of the child’s stuttering. Self-medication is fraught with worsening of the condition.

In complex cases, when there is damage to the central nervous system, hospital treatment or the prescription of other groups of drugs may be necessary.

Hardware techniques

Physiotherapeutic methods are used. Electrosleep and electrophoresis with sedatives are effective. You need to complete the course of treatment completely. Most often, several of these courses are prescribed, with breaks.

Computer programs have also been developed to help eliminate stuttering. Check with your speech therapist to see if they are appropriate for your situation. And remember that no program can replace comprehensive measures and independent work.

Speech therapy massage

Speech therapy massage plays an important role. It relaxes those muscles that tighten when pronouncing phrases and relieves spasms of the speech apparatus, thus helping to eliminate stuttering.

A therapeutic massage of individual parts of the body is also carried out: head, neck, shoulders, chest. Various techniques are used, including acupressure. In this case, the specialist influences the speech center through reflexogenic zones.

One of the advantages is the ability to perform at home. The first sessions are conducted by a specialist, showing the movements and correct placement of hands to the parents. In the future, the mother or other relatives perform the massage themselves. This is convenient when several courses of treatment are indicated.

Breathing exercises

The technique allows you to correct shallow, incorrect breathing and normalize the tone of the muscles involved in articulation. After classes, a preschooler masters diaphragmatic breathing, normalizes speech breathing, learns to regulate the respiratory rhythm and rate of speech, and strengthens the muscles of the anterior abdominal wall.

The specialist also teaches parents this technique so that they can perform the movements at home, since regularity of exercises and continuity of the course of therapy are important.

There are various techniques, for example, you can use Strelnikova’s exercises. They help create the correct air flow needed to pronounce words and phrases. The exercise complex is performed in various body positions, at rest and during movement. Gradually the tasks become more difficult.

You also need to train your voice. Logorhythmics classes are useful. You can get rid of stuttering by reading poetry out loud or singing it. You can even sign up for choral singing. This trains your voice and breathing.

At home, you can invite your child to blow soap bubbles, blow a cotton ball off the table, or blow up regular balloons. It is useful and fun to make boats and race to “drive” or blow them from one end of the basin to the other. Try practicing with toy wind instruments: pipes, trombone, saxophone.

Which doctor treats stuttering?

Speech therapist

If no physiological abnormalities are found in the child, the next step is to contact a speech therapist. This specialist specializes in the correction of speech defects and will help the child learn to correctly pronounce sounds that he cannot comprehend. The speech therapist will determine the nature of stuttering - it can be tonic (drawn-out main sounds) and clonic (stammers on consonants). And then he will choose the optimal treatment method.

It will teach you to breathe evenly so that your breathing does not falter and remains even throughout the entire phrase.
Place pauses to save speech effort and relieve muscle spasms.
Form sounds using the speech apparatus: larynx, tongue, teeth, lips.

The specialist works to ensure that the baby overcomes the weakness of the articulatory (speech) apparatus. To do this, the speech therapist will develop certain muscles, for example, the larynx, neck.

Psychologist

However, in most cases, its work alone is not enough. The causes of stuttering are inextricably linked with psychological problems. They need to be corrected no less than speech. Therefore, we recommend that you also contact a psychologist. Visits to this specialist may be even more effective than visits to a speech therapist.

Muscle spasms are often associated with nervous tension and an inability to relax emotionally. Therefore, this doctor will work with a stuttering child in the following areas:

Teaches you how to behave competently in stressful situations.
Relax and rest.
Control your emotions.
Overcome your fears.
Contact with peers.
Express yourself through creativity and communication.

There are a huge variety of methods for psychologists to work with children who stutter. For kids, this may be the development of fine motor skills, for older children - listening to recordings of their own speech with its subsequent correction.

Causes

We will list the most common causes of stuttering in children aged 3 to 5 years. This pathology can occur for a number of reasons, be congenital or acquired.

Congenital factors for the development of the defect include:

Various types of pathologies during pregnancy and gestation (oxygen starvation, infectious processes, etc.).
Problems during the birth period (injuries, early birth, etc.).
Genetic predisposition along one of the lines of kinship.
Individual personality characteristics, characteristics of the nervous system (predominance of excitability processes, hyperanxiety).

Acquired stuttering is provoked by:

Shock trauma. Death of a parent or significant loved one. Chronic stress.
Psychological trauma. Physical or psychological abuse. Bullying. Humiliation from peers or family.
Physiological processes. Features of the development of the child’s cerebral hemispheres; this reason can be exclusively an age-related feature and resolve itself as the child grows up.
Past illnesses. One of the causes of speech impairment can also be previous infectious diseases (meningitis, encephalopathy, etc.). Seasonal acute respiratory viral infections, influenza and other upper respiratory tract diseases. Speech may also be impaired due to various types of injuries, bruises, concussions due to falls or accidents. Diagnosed diabetes mellitus can also cause stuttering in children.
False stuttering. This kind of stuttering can be inherited from one of your loved ones. In this case, the child may not have true pathologies. This type of stuttering is especially typical for young children who are at the age of learning speech through copying.
Attempts to retrain a child to be left-handed. Attempts to forcefully teach a left-handed child to write with his right hand can cause severe disturbances in the child’s speech. Children who write with their left hand are quite sensitive and sensitive.
An alarming situation at home. Contemplating conflict situations between family members can negatively affect the child’s nervous system, resulting in speech impairment in the form of stuttering.
Authoritarian parenting. Violation of a child's personal boundaries, physical punishment and intimidation of a child often cause logoneurosis.
Mental fatigue. Tasks beyond the child’s strength, without taking into account the child’s age capabilities, both physical and mental. The predominance of educational activities over gaming. An overabundance of section clubs, a lack of time and free space for the child’s self-organized activities.
·Disturbance of sleep patterns, lack of sleep.

Among the causes of stuttering there are a number of psychosomatic factors that cause stuttering:

· Hysterical type: a sharp change in conditions in a social situation (for example, in the family everyone was allowed to do whatever he wanted, but when he went to kindergarten, the child was faced with prohibitions, restrictions and rules);
Neurasthenic type: humiliation of the child’s personality and characteristics, lack of praise, comparison with other children;
Psychasthenic type: parental overprotection, devaluation and lack of faith in the child that he can cope and succeed, can also lead to reluctance to speak and severe disturbances in the child’s speech.

What should parents do at home?

It is ineffective to cure logoneurosis without the help of parents at home, since the main support should come from them. Therefore, get ready for the fact that you will also have to contact a psychologist and learn from him. To correct psychological problems in a child, you need to change your daily routine and lifestyle at home. The best way to prevent stuttering is to avoid situations that make it worse.

Mode

Organize your daily routine so that periods of intellectual and emotional stress alternate with proper rest and relaxation.

Dream

Children must sleep at least 8 hours a day, so you need to organize your daily life, home space, and sound atmosphere in such a way as to ensure this minimum.

Intonation

The baby should feel the confidence and calmness coming from the parents, so you need to address him slowly, quietly, calmly, without interrupting him. It is important to explain to loved ones that this is exactly what needs to be done.

Praise

Develop your baby's self-confidence by praising him for any success. Create situations in which he could show his best side. However, praise for success should not be confused with pampering.

Situation

In family relationships, quarrels should remain prohibited. It is impossible to cure a child and prevent stuttering in an aggressive and tense atmosphere. The same applies to visiting noisy companies or places.

Leisure

Limit watching programs, movies, cartoons or games that cause emotional overstimulation. Leisure should be calm, aimed at developing creative abilities.

Communication

Gradually and delicately expand your child's social circle by inviting him to visit public places that do not evoke strong emotions. Introduce him to interesting people. They will help him adapt to the outside world.

Activity

Dosed physical activity has a positive effect on the nervous system, as well as muscle development. Therefore, physical education, swimming, running, just walking, playing in the fresh air should become the norm.

Restrictions

Under no circumstances use punishments that can have a negative impact on children's emotions (punishments should also be calm, no matter what offense the child commits). It is strictly forbidden to leave a child alone in a dark room.

Severity

When assessing the severity of the pathology, the severity of symptoms, their impact on the child’s communication with other people, and the presence of concomitant disorders are taken into account.

Highlight:

mild degree - it is characterized by rare, unexpressed hesitations that do not interfere with talking and communicating. But even with this degree, parents need to contact a specialist in order to begin correction in a timely manner before the deviations become entrenched;
medium - hesitations are more noticeable and make communication more difficult;
severe - speech impairments are pronounced, they make communication almost impossible. Other symptoms also appear.

If stuttering is not eliminated, the cause of the pathology is not eliminated, then it gradually progresses, and very quickly.

What should adults say?

To prevent relapses of speech disorders (and they may well occur), you as parents need to change or carefully monitor your own speech. This applies to your conversations with each other. Children actively perceive the conversation around them and unconsciously imitate it:

Speak clearly, intelligibly, without mistakes and without rushing.
Try to pronounce the phrase a little slower than usual.
Avoid complex words that are incomprehensible to the baby.
Various “scary” topics of conversation are taboo.
It is not recommended to speak in syllables or sing phrases.

Try to get your baby to make friends with balanced children who have well-developed speech. If his speech activity is too high, artificially limit it by giving him the opportunity to silently play alone with himself for some time. Try to get your child to listen more than talk.

What to do to get rid of stuttering

Many celebrities have overcome stuttering. It is now difficult to believe that Elvis Presley, Bruce Willis, and Winston Churchill suffered from this defect. You can get rid of it forever. Your child can do this, no matter what speech defect he or she has. However, this requires serious effort, perseverance, and patience.

Here are the elements on which your success should rest:

Emotional calm.
Correct speech construction.
Organization of the child's daily life.
Thoughtful daily routine.
Regular sessions with a speech therapist and psychologist.

The main thing is to practice regularly and not lose control of the problem.

How we work with stuttering

To successfully eliminate stuttering, it is necessary to identify its cause and, if possible, eliminate the factors that provoke and support this speech disorder. Therefore, it is necessary that the child receives consultation not only from a speech therapist, but also from a psychotherapist and psychologist. Based on the results of diagnosing the child’s current condition and the suspected causes of stuttering, various diagnostic and therapeutic measures are prescribed (for example, a Neurotest blood test, EEG, pathopsychological and neuropsychological diagnostics).

In the treatment of children suffering from neurotic stuttering, in addition to speech therapy sessions, psychological correction and psychotherapy are mandatory and basic. Various relaxation techniques, art therapy, sand and play therapy, MIM therapy, and group therapy are used. For neurosis-like stuttering, supportive drug therapy is prescribed.

At the reception, our specialists will create the most comfortable atmosphere for the child so that the classes are most effective. And using a combined therapeutic approach will allow you to achieve lasting results!

The specialist will also determine the need for family-parent consultations, help analyze family relationships and see something very important, something that cannot be seen while inside the family system.