Stuttering in children: causes and treatment. What to do if a child stutters: various methods and treatments

After the parents discover that their child has begun to stutter, they panic, as many believe that the speech disorder cannot be cured. This is a common misconception, since there are a number of therapeutic measures that are aimed at restoring the patient's speech center. In this article, we will provide information on why a child stutters, what types of disorders are distinguished in medicine, what to do when characteristic symptoms are found, and why treatment should be carried out at the age of one year or at 5-6 years old.

What is stuttering

If a child stutters, this means that he develops a pathology with a complex speech disorder. Usually it depends on psychophysiological factors that can lead to some disturbances in the reproduction of sounds or words.
Stuttering in children usually occurs over the age of 3 years. It is rather difficult to detect violations in a year, since newborns cannot yet consciously reproduce speech.

Pathology can be expressed in the broken integrity of the reproduced words, incorrect pronunciation, which is difficult to correct. Speech does not come out smoothly, but is constantly pronounced in jerks, as well as with repetitions of sounds, words or syllables typical of stuttering.

Stuttering appears as a result of speech disorders in children. According to statistics, the disease is more often found in boys. The disease belongs to the group of logo-neuroses and is usually diagnosed in children who are just starting to learn to speak (at the age of 3-4 years). The second period of increase in frequency refers to adolescents around the age of 12-13 years.

What are the types

At the moment, only three types of stuttering have been identified in medicine. clonic look. This form is repetitive, when the patient tries to reproduce his speech. As a result, there is a constant and frequent repetition of certain sounds or syllables in a word (for example, “ma-ma-ma-mama”).

tonic look. In this case, it is very difficult for the patient to start talking. He tries to start pronouncing the word, then this moment constantly drags on. There is a long pause before a word is spoken (for example, first a long “Mmmm”, and then the word “mother”).

Clonic-tonic type or mixed form. With such a course of the disease, symptoms appear that can be observed simultaneously or alternately. A doctor can accurately determine the form of the pathology, but parents can guess for themselves if they carefully observe their child.

Video "How to eliminate the disease"

Possible reasons

There are many reasons that could lead to the fact that the child began to stutter. The most common causes of the disease is the increased tone of all motor endings in the speech centers in the brain. Increased tone leads to frequent convulsive contractions of the facial muscles and vocal cords during a conversation.

Causes may be the result of some consequences. An ailment can occur if chronic stresses have been found, which quite often have to be endured by a baby at an early age. At this time, the nervous system is especially sensitive.

Stuttering can appear due to a strong and sudden fright. Fear is a strong emotional shock that leads to a disruption of the nervous system. In addition to fear, emotional experiences can be associated with a lack of attention of parents towards their child. He may become withdrawn and almost not talk, which will lead to speech impairment.

The occurrence of stuttering is sometimes observed as a result of mechanical damage to the brain (for example, a concussion). Bumps and bruises of the head significantly increase the risk of symptoms of a disturbed speech center. Sometimes children may begin to mimic their peers, but after a while it becomes a habit that is quite difficult to break.

Also, the cause of the symptoms of stuttering can be an infectious disease or an affected endocrine system. If treatment is started in a timely manner, then such signs can be completely eliminated by adhering to the recommendations of doctors. Before a course of therapy is prescribed, it will be necessary to establish the underlying cause that led to the manifestation of the disease.

Initial Help

First of all, when signs of stuttering are found in children aged 3-4 years, parents should calm down and behave towards the patient in the same way as before. You can help with an illness if you follow the daily routine. Sleep should be at least 8 hours. If children begin to stutter, then you can not raise their voice, or interrupt, forcing them to repeat what was said correctly. It is very important to talk to them calmly and slowly. You need to give the child the opportunity to speak out without interrupting him.

At this time, the patient will need more attention from parents, care, affection. You should not severely punish them for minor pranks, since the key to a successful recovery lies in a good mood and activity.

It is impossible to expose sick children up to a year to fright, stress, excitement and other strong emotional outbursts, since this can affect the correctness of the speech. Fear and anxiety can only increase speech defects. In the near future after the discovery of symptoms of the disease, you should consult a doctor for advice and determine the tactics of treatment.

Treatment

Stuttering is usually diagnosed at 3 years of age, when the child begins to gradually pronounce words or short sentences. After the reason why the patient has speech defects has been established, the doctor must determine the method of treatment.

During treatment, children from 3 years old can have a relaxing massage of the neck, shoulder girdle and facial muscles. If parents decide to do it on their own, then you need to understand that the movements should be smooth and stroking. At this time, you can talk to them in an affectionate tone so that the patient feels comfortable. You can also do breathing exercises and relaxing baths.

Logarithmics will allow for more intensive treatment, but it is suitable for patients older than 6 years. If the cause of the disease was fear, then the therapy should be done by a neuropathologist. It will also help restore the nervous system under other influences.

Video “The child stutters. How to proceed?"

In order to quickly and effectively cure this pathology, we advise you not to be lazy and watch the video material that we have provided for you below.

Dear parents, hello! Who among us does not rejoice in the success of children? We teach them everything from early childhood. Visiting matinees, with tears of joy we watch how a child mints in front of the Christmas tree. When studying at school, we hone our skills so that the student would be interested in listening.

But it also happens like this: when talking, children swallow not only syllables, but whole words, they can stutter and hang on some sounds, they can’t reach the end of the phrase in any way. In such cases, and about 1% of them are observed among the inhabitants of the planet, they speak of the presence of stuttering.

Why does a child stutter: either nature does not want the baby to speak beautifully, or the body has taken the path of resistance and rebels, is it a sentence for life or is it fixable, is there parental fault in this or can it not be avoided? Many questions? Let's look for answers!

Lesson plan:

Stuttering stuttering strife!

For us, the townsfolk, stuttering comes down to one thing - at such moments you want to help the stutterer to quickly say what he is trying. And we do not compare how one stutters better than the other. Stuttering is also stuttering in Africa.

Depending on the different causes and severity of symptoms, the disease is different. Forms of speech pathology are:

1. clonic, when the child, due to intermittent convulsive movements of the respiratory organs, repeats syllables, usually the first ones. “To-to-the-ceiling” - this is how the word will sound approximately in this case,
2. tonic, when due to the tension of the muscles of the mouth and tongue, some sounds are stretched and pauses are created. Here, for example, like this: "S ... dog."
3. mixed, combining both: "Z ... zz-for-stuttering."

All these forms are considered by doctors to be clinical manifestations.

In addition to them, stuttering can be different due to the nature of the course of the pathology:

• undulating - it comes and goes, but does not completely disappear,
• permanent - as it came, so it remains,
• recurrent - it happens, everything is fine, but sometimes it manifests itself again.

Etiology, or the cause and condition of the appearance, divides stuttering into:

• neurotic, which arose under the influence of external factors, for example, due to psychological trauma,
• neurosis-like, independent of the external environment, for example, as a result of damage to the cerebral cortex or inherited.

Where to look for the causes of stuttering?

Most often, stuttering, or in a medical logoneurosis, is observed in preschool children, and children under five years of age are usually prone to pathologies with speech. At this age there is an active speech development. If a child began to stutter at the age of 7, then this is a rare precedent. In any case, there are reasons for all these disorders.

As doctors say, everyone stutters in their own way. The usual explanation for this pathology among the people is fear, but it is worth noting that it occurs only in half of the cases. 15 percent falls on heredity, and the rest must be sought in adverse emotional circumstances that trigger the process so that the already grown child begins to stutter.

Here they are, the main reasons that serve as an impetus for the child to start stuttering.

Physiology

Birth trauma, heredity and neuroinfection can cause stuttering. Physiological provocations of the body are directly related to the depletion of the child's nervous system. Such a shift can occur due to serious illnesses, among which doctors note measles and scarlet fever.

Psychology

Sudden strong emotional shock is a direct path to the appearance of stuttering. At the same time, you should not reduce everything only to fear, when, for example, a dog attacked.

By the way, the inadequate behavior of any animals is the most common cause of children's fears. Among the reasons for the disruption of the speech apparatus is an unfavorable home environment. Do you like to beat dishes in the kitchen, loudly proving your case? Think about the possible consequences!

Press from teachers, by the way, can also become an impetus for speech disorders.

Social environment

Great mental stress and overload of the child's brain with speech activities, for example, foreign languages, can cause the children's speech apparatus to fail to cope with the task.

Sometimes psychologists note that absolutely healthy children begin to stutter when they imitate and copy a stutterer in their circle. In addition, one of the impetuses for the appearance of pathology is the retraining of left-handers.

provocateurs

Stuttering attacks can be noted as single. I think you have sometimes encountered that with excessive excitement, for example, when speaking in front of a large audience, the child suddenly starts to “echo and back”, although he rehearsed at home with enviable clarity.

Interestingly, some experts have noted even an excess of protein foods in the children's diet among the provoking factors. So we're following. And they also believe that the weather can provoke an organism prone to overexcitation and stuttering: it smoothes out in spring and summer, and increases in autumn and winter.

Four steps for logoneurosis

What does the process of pronunciation look like? Two muscle groups work in concert: when one contracts, the other relaxes. In a stutterer, this work loses coordination and as a result we hear either clonic repetitions or tonic spasms occur. The formation of a stable reflex stutter is like a ladder with only four steps.

1. On the first step, stuttering appears in episodes. Difficulties arise with the first words in sentences and with short parts of speech - conjunctions, prepositions. At the same time, the child is not yet shy, but communicates on an equal footing.
2. At the second step, the initiative of communication is replaced by silence, as stuttering becomes chronic. Smooth speech is rarely heard, and polysyllabic words do not lend themselves to the first time, especially if you try to speak them quickly.
3. At the third step, muscle spasms are fixed, but the child is already beginning to notice that his speech is very different from what others say. Difficulties with words are already clearly visible. A young stutterer begins to look for a replacement for complex words, up to gestures.
4. Having moved to the fourth step, the child sharply perceives the differences in his speech, he expects stuttering and internally prepares for it. Convulsive manifestations in the speech apparatus always happen, not only in exciting situations.

Digression

The boys are not lucky in this matter: they are more likely to become stutterers. Why? Yes, everything is simple. Who, if not the male sex, is especially active, energetic and more often gets into stressful situations. Of course, restless boys! Yes, and there is more demand from them, less lisping, and therefore neuroses more often. Caressed girls are more psycho-resistant, and therefore they are not in a hurry to stutter.

The child stutters: what to do?

Logoneurosis is a functional disease, depending on the characteristics of the nervous system of children. Therefore, before looking on the Internet for advice from those who know how to treat, you need to understand what to treat. Where to go if the children's speech is "broken"?

If your family has such a problem, then you should plan a trip to:

1. a psychotherapist who, together with you, will find the reason why the child began to stutter, and again, together with you, he will fight this reason,
2. neurologist - he will prescribe a course of sedative medications that can strengthen the shaken children's nervous system,
3. speech therapist - the doctor will select corrective exercises for the rhythm and pace of speech, which you will regularly practice on your own and in special lessons with a specialist.

Do not rush to shift everything onto the shoulders of doctors! A lot depends on you as well!

Agree, nothing difficult. No need to watch aside how the child climbs the ladder of stuttering to the last step. Measures should be taken immediately, then the results of treatment will not keep you waiting!

Have you had stutters around you? Tell me how to deal with it. We are waiting for comments.

We are also waiting for you in our Vkontakte group where it is very interesting and fun!

Good to you and calm, clear, smooth speech!

Evgenia Klimkovich.

From an early age, children learn to speak, get acquainted with different letters and sounds. First they try to make words out of them, and then complete beautiful sentences. What to do if the child suddenly began to stutter? How can I help him deal with this problem?

Causes of stuttering

Stuttering in children is not a common disease, and occurs in only five percent. It is believed that the physiological cause of stuttering lies in the speech muscles. It is difficult for a child to pronounce the necessary sounds, because there are difficulties with the coordination of these muscles.

Most often, these speech problems occur in children of preschool age, from two to five years. It is at this age that the child begins to stutter. Experts agree that it is impossible to single out one reason that caused stuttering. Usually there are several factors. And now we will take a closer look at them.

The first cause of stuttering is genetic. In sixty percent of cases, stuttering is inherited. If your child stutters, it is possible that someone in your family also had speech difficulties in childhood.

The second reason is the rapid development of the child. Between the ages of two and five, children experience rapid physical, emotional, and language development. All children are different, so for some it happens quickly and smoothly. And some have speech delays, and they manifest themselves in the form of stuttering.

The next reason is external factors. This category includes the influence of parents on the behavior of children. Their attitude towards children, expectations from the development of the child. Many parents want their child to develop quickly, especially when it comes to their speech. Sometimes this desire is too strong and puts pressure on children. After that, the child closes in on himself, which often causes stuttering. The atmosphere in the family also affects the development of the child's speech. Frequent quarrels of parents and criticism cause the child to close in on himself, and then manifests itself in the form of difficulties with speech.

Signs that you need professional help

There are different degrees of stuttering. There is a mild form, when pronunciation difficulties occur in some words and irregularly. In more severe cases, it is difficult for a child to pronounce most words, and this is also reflected in the muscles of the face - speech is disturbed due to their constant contractions. If a child has symptoms of chronic stuttering, it is urgent to seek help from a specialist. What are these symptoms?

6 symptoms of chronic stuttering

1. Have you noticed that stuttering appeared in a child at the age of three and a half years;
2. Speech problems have been going on for about six months;
3. The child has other problems with the pronunciation of sounds, it is difficult for him to pronounce some letters;
4. The child's speech skills develop with a clear delay and impairment;
5. Someone in the family stuttered as a child;
6. Your child is a boy. Chronic stuttering in preschool age is more common among boys.

But if you have not noticed serious complications in a child, then you can help him get rid of stuttering at home. And we will share some simple tips and exercises.

7 ways to get rid of stuttering at home

1. Speak to your child in a slow manner and when communicating, make clear pauses between words. Listen patiently to the child's phrases to the end. How will it help? Your child will see that you are not trying to rush his speech. You carefully listen to every word and are ready to wait as long as he needs. As soon as the child understands that he does not need to rush and you accept his speech as it is, he will stop rushing and worrying. From excitement, children stutter even more. Therefore, create a comfortable atmosphere for the child in which he will feel calm and relaxed. The less the child will worry and worry, the better his speech will be.
2. Don't ask too many questions. When adults ask the child questions, his excitement increases. Let your child talk more freely. When he expresses his own opinion, he feels more confident than when he answers questions.
3. Show attention to the words of the child also with the help of gestures and facial expressions. An open posture, a friendly and attentive look will help the child understand that he is being listened to. The child will feel calmer, liberated and will express thoughts without embarrassment and fear of being misunderstood.
4. Reward the child's phrases that are spoken without stuttering. Compliment him for fluent and understandable speech. For example, say: "It's great that you said this phrase without stuttering! Try saying the next sentence in the same way." Most importantly, indicate what exactly you are praising him for. Then the child will try to improve in this direction.
5. Start with short sentences. Encourage your child to express themselves in short phrases, while speaking them without stuttering. Let the sentences be simple at the beginning, but the child will learn to speak them without speech defects. Gradually offer to increase the size of offers. So the child will speak more and more phrases without stuttering.
6. Sing along or draw out the words in the manner of a song. By stretching words, the child learns to control stuttering and pronounce words for longer without interference. Choose a few simple motifs that the child will like. Twice a day will be enough. Greet the morning with a song, also sing phrases and single words in the evening.
7. Create an atmosphere of understanding and cooperation between you and your child. Let your child know that you are in no way judging a speech impediment. And tell me that it is possible to fix it, you just need to make an effort. Establish trust with your child so that together you can walk the path of correcting the deficiency.

Remember that stuttering is a speech deficiency that is correctable. Parents, during the period of correction of stuttering, it is important to be sensitive. Please note that speech problems do not lead to embarrassment and complexes in the future. If you notice the problem in time, you can deal with it even at preschool age.