Do you know what famous people like Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, Napoleon, Bruce Willis have in common? The fact is that they all stuttered in childhood. However, with effort, they were able to overcome speech problems and achieve great success. Stuttering in children usually appears at the age of three to five years, when speech develops at the most active pace, but this function has not yet been developed sufficiently. In boys, the disorder is much more common (three to four times) than in girls. This can be explained by their less emotional stability. How to treat stuttering in children? What are the causes of such a disease? How can parents help a child get rid of a speech problem? Read about it in the article.
General concepts
Stuttering is a violation of the tempo, rhythm, smoothness of breathing, speech and voice, caused by spasms of the muscles of the tongue, larynx or lips. It can come on suddenly and then get worse. In speech, forced stops, repetition of individual sounds, syllables are noted. Seizures can be tonic (i.e., manifested in stretching sounds, long pauses, general stiffness, tension) and clonic, when the child repeats individual syllables, sounds(often at the beginning of a word). There is also a combination of both types of seizures - tono-clonic stuttering. In preschool children, the problem may not manifest itself for a long time and arise only in a stressful situation. Let's talk more about the etiology of the disorder.
Causes of stuttering in children
- Physiological. The disease can be triggered by a pathology of the nervous system associated with hereditary predisposition, birth trauma, and the like. Sometimes stuttering appears against the background of an organic disorder of the subcortical brain regions. The problem may be associated with diseases of the larynx, pharynx, nose, or with a disorder of the nervous system as a result of the transfer of measles, rickets, typhoid, whooping cough.
- Psychological. The causes of stuttering in children may lie in their state of mind. Often, a speech disorder occurs as a result of a sudden strong psycho-emotional shock. Such stuttering is called neurotic, or logoneurosis. When a child is excited, his speech works more slowly than the brain. As a rule, the emergence of a problem is preceded by neurotic reactions associated with a variety of childhood fears: fear of losing parents, darkness, loud noises, punishment, loneliness, and so on. Stuttering in a 4-year-old child can be caused by inappropriate animal behavior (the most common situation is when children are frightened by a suddenly barking dog).
- Social. If the parents did not work enough on the formation of the baby’s speech, then he may develop patter, pronunciation of words on the exhale,sound impairment. Stuttering in a child of 3 years old can occur if he is overloaded with speech material that is not age appropriate. In older children, the problem sometimes appears in the case of the simultaneous study of several languages. Also, the excessive severity of parents can become the cause of the disease.
Provoking factors
Stuttering attacks usually get worse during illness, overwork, school or family troubles. Even the weather and diet can affect the manifestation of speech disorders. For example, it has been observed that an excess of protein foods in the children's menu exacerbates the problem. Quite often, stuttering in children is provoked by infections. Chronic diseases, as a rule, do not cause this ailment, but they can exacerbate existing disorders. For example, in a child with adenoid growths, nasal breathing is difficult, and because of this, speech problems arise.
Treatment options
People started fighting stuttering a long time ago. The Greek orator Demosthenes suffered from this disease. He read difficult speeches to the sound of the waves, spoke with pebbles in his mouth, and thus tried to overcome the problem. The worldwide fame of Demosthenes confirms that he succeeded. In the 19th century, speech disorders began to be treated surgically: a person was partially removed the muscles of the tongue. I must say that such a radical method did not help everyone. Stuttering is not an affliction that can only be cured with a scalpel.
Today, there are so many options for eliminating a defect,how many theories explaining its origin. Both traditional methods (drug therapy, breathing exercises, physiotherapeutic procedures), and non-traditional ones (hypnosis, acupuncture), and author's methods are used.
General recommendations
- Daily routine. Treatment of stuttering in a child will be ineffective if a clear regimen is not followed. Children three to six years old should sleep ten to twelve hours at night and two hours during the day, children seven years and older - eight to nine hours at night and one and a half hours during the day. Avoid watching TV before bed.
- Psychological environment. The child is traumatized by constant pulling and remarks. You can not quarrel or be too noisy in the presence of the baby. It is also forbidden to show him your worries about speech problems. Treatment of stuttering in a child is not an easy process, you need to be patient, do not rush the baby during answers, praise him more often, thereby causing positive emotions.
- Daily communication. You should talk to the child slowly, affectionately, calmly. The baby must hear the correct speech, as he adopts and assimilates what sounds in his environment. When stuttering in children is pronounced, you need to speak with them in a singsong voice. It is absolutely impossible to force kids to repeat difficult words several times.
- He alth status. Parents are obliged to take care of strengthening the general he alth of the child, relieving nervous tension, overwork. To do this, it is recommended to carry out hardening procedures: rubbing, outdoor games, air baths, gymnastics andthe like.
Help from experts
Treatment of stuttering in a child should be carried out jointly by a speech therapist, a pediatrician and a psychologist (psychotherapist). The task of a pediatrician is to eliminate concomitant pathologies, strengthen the body, prevent colds, especially those that affect the vocal cords and ears, cure chronic ailments or bring them into a stage of long-term remission. The baby should be assigned physiotherapy procedures: visiting the pool, massage, electrosleep.
The function of a psychologist (psychotherapist) is to help the child cope with the problem by teaching him the correct behavior in society. So, the doctor should teach the baby to feel comfortable in any situation, not be afraid to communicate with peers and adults, help to realize that he is no different from his peers and is not inferior. Usually classes with children with stuttering are held together with their parents - their presence helps the children cope with the excitement.
The task of speech therapy treatment is to free the child's speech from tension, eliminate the incorrect pronunciation of sounds, syllables, teach clear articulation and smooth, rhythmic, expressive speech. The kid first performs exercises together with a speech therapist, and then consolidates the acquired skills in oral stories and everyday conversations with others. As the degree of speech independence increases, the complexity of tasks increases.
Breathing exercises
Thisthe traditional way of treating speech disorders allows you to make the child's voice more free and natural. Exercises train the diaphragm, increase the mobility of the vocal cords, which makes it possible for them to close tightly during a conversation. Treatment can be supplemented with relaxation.
Acupressure
The course of therapy is selected depending on the degree of the defect. During the procedure, the specialist influences the points located on the face, legs, chest and back. The first results can be seen after the first course, but here the age of the child and the form of the disease should be taken into account. In order to restore the nervous regulation of speech, classes should be carried out systematically.
Computer programs
Often, the treatment of stuttering in a child is carried out through special computer programs that allow you to synchronize the speech and auditory centers. The kid speaks words into the microphone, while the program automatically delays his speech for a fraction of a second. As a result, the child hears his own voice with a delay and tries to adapt to it. Thus, speech acquires smoothness and continuity. With the help of the program, you can play different situations that arise during communication, for example, dissatisfaction, objection. Children say words into a microphone, and the computer evaluates how well they coped with the task and gives a hint about what needs to be improved.
Medicated treatment
In the complex of the general course, such therapy is auxiliary. To the kids inin some cases, tranquilizers, anticonvulsants, drugs are prescribed to help neutralize the blocking action of those substances that prevent the nerve centers from functioning normally. Nootropic anxiolytic medications may also be used. If necessary, the treatment is supplemented by soothing tinctures and herbal decoctions, for example, motherwort decoction is used.
Forecast
Initial stuttering (which appeared at an early age, when speech is just beginning to actively develop) can often be completely eliminated in a few months. The duration of treatment will depend on what underlies the speech disorder: a neurotic component or a pathology of the nervous system. If neurosis occurs, the defect may return in the event of some stressful situation, but, as a rule, it can be quickly eliminated after a course of therapy. With physiological disorders, the treatment process is longer, but also more consistent. In this case, the disease does not have such an abrupt course as with neurosis, so the therapy is carried out slowly but surely, without disruption. The duration of treatment can be up to two years.
The most problematic is stuttering that has been fixed, that is, one that has been observed for more than two or three months. It is important to take a comprehensive approach to therapy, select options, focusing on the personal characteristics of the baby. This will require long work and patience of both the child and the parents. Not all children are treated easily. ATkindergartens and schools, workers should take into account the characteristics of children with stuttering. Warn caregivers or teachers in advance about your child's problem, say that he should not be pushed during the answer. Also, such children should not be tested for their ability to read at speed - this can aggravate the situation. As already mentioned, the elimination of a speech defect is often a long and complex process. Parents, doctors and educators should join forces, this is the only way to achieve a positive result!
