How to get rid of stuttering - 10 proven tips

As a speech therapist, I sometimes have to deal with situations when a father or mother, with tear-stained eyes, talk about how yesterday everything was fine, but today the child began to stutter and they don’t know how to get rid of stuttering. Or an adult who has suffered from this speech disorder since childhood gets the job of his dreams. And on the way to the coveted position, there is a damned illness.

However, there is no need to panic. There are certain methods, by studying which you may find the answer to the question: How to get rid of stuttering? Although, with such a complex speech disorder, you should under no circumstances refuse the help of specialists.

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.

Prevention and prognosis

In order to prevent the return of the disease or the appearance of the disease, it is necessary to adhere to the recommendations of the attending physician. Preventive actions:

• attending speech therapy classes, doing home exercises - reading aloud, singing, reading poems, audio training;
• taking B vitamins in courses;
• adherence to drug treatment without attempts at self-medication;
• personal psychotherapy, many patients neglect psychotherapeutic treatment, whereas it can help find out the cause of stuttering and reduce stress levels;
• active lifestyle (sports, yoga, etc.);
• compliance with the work and rest regime;
• breathing exercises;
• good sleep;
• balanced diet.

The prognosis for a person with stuttering depends on the stage of the disease, its form and type. With early access to specialists and the use of comprehensive speech therapy assistance, the patient can cope with the disease forever and return to their usual lifestyle. In such a situation, it is extremely important to trust your doctor, speech therapist and psychotherapist.

Stuttering is a common speech disorder that develops in people of all ages. In adults, the disease develops against the background of prolonged stress, a history of nervous system diseases and other negative factors. If you consult your doctor in a timely manner and receive complex therapy (psychotherapy, logotherapy, correction of neurological diseases and modern techniques), it is possible to eliminate stuttering and combat its relapses in the future.

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.

Definition and classification

Stuttering is a violation of speech function, manifested by a pathology of tempo, rhythm and smoothness of word pronunciation. A person suffering from the disease forcibly repeats syllables, “swallows” words and interrupts the pronunciation of sounds. To mask the defect, difficult to pronounce words are replaced with filler words, which leads to impoverishment of the patient’s speech.

Depending on its origin, stuttering is divided into neurosis-like speech disorder and logoneurosis (neurotic). The characteristics of these pathology options are as follows:

• A neurotic disorder manifests itself only as a speech disorder, without concomitant pathologies of the nervous system. If the patient is in a calm environment, then he does not stutter. When you are among strangers, the rhythm of speech and its tempo slow down.
• Neurosis-like stuttering is a consequence of organic damage to brain structures. Signs of speech pathology are accompanied by other symptoms - nervous tics, obsessive movements, shouting, etc.

Stuttering is based on convulsive contraction of the muscles of the speech-motor apparatus, as a result of which experts divide the pathology into several forms:

• tonic - with this type of disease, vowels and sonorant sounds are stretched, unnatural pauses and breaks in sounds within a syllable appear between words;
• clonic form, which is characterized by repeated obsessive repetition of the same sound, syllable or word;
• the mixed form combines all of the above characteristics.

In addition, a violation of the speech apparatus can be permanent or paroxysmal. The provoking factor is always a stressful situation - speaking in front of a large audience, communicating with a stranger, troubles at work and stress in your personal life.

Speech disorder in adults has some characteristics. Unlike childhood pathology, in adolescence or older age people retain normal internal speech - thinking, writing text without pauses or loss of words.

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.

Advice from personal experience

1. Read books out loud - it really helps and can, over time, eliminate some problematic letters. 2. Try to understand which letters start to bother you and try to replace words with these letters. Then it will become a habit, and speech will become even more interesting. 3. If you have some kind of public speech coming up (even a small one) and it cannot be avoided, try not only to think through your speech, but to come there in a really good mood. You can even drink a little something or eat something tasty that you like - gummy bears, for example. 4. Try to laugh at your stutter more often, even in public, because there is nothing wrong with it and adequate people will never perceive it as a “terrible deviation” 5. If you are still offended by someone for giggling, tell that person It's as serious as possible that you don't like it. He will definitely be ashamed and he is unlikely to do it again 6. Don’t think that if you stuttered in front of someone, that person will now remember this moment for the rest of their life. He will forget about it in 5 minutes! 7. People will always notice your stutter, always! And not because they are bad. But they hardly want to offend you with this on purpose. 8. The Stutterers Anonymous Club is not the best place to get rid of stuttering. You may feel even worse there, you may become depressed from the crowd of people with the same problems, because they consider this a problem 9. If you yourself feel embarrassed when you are stuck on some syllables or letters for a long time, stop, type more air and start talking again. 10. Most likely, stuttering cannot be completely cured. You can try to do this, but if you realize that this will be the case all your life, it’s better to go for a walk in the company of a handsome curly-haired guy (or girl) - all this makes much more sense than all this suffering, due to the fact that you never Now you will never be able to pronounce the word “tank” in your life.

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.

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 (stutter 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.

Diagnostic measures

At the initial stage of diagnosis, you should seek help from your local physician. After examination and questioning, he will refer the patient to other specialists, depending on the causes of stuttering. Most often, neurologists, speech therapists, psychologists and psychotherapists treat pathology. Diagnostic steps include the following approaches:

1. Collection of complaints and medical history. It is important to find out the time of appearance of clinical signs, the situations with which the patient himself associates their occurrence, as well as what methods the patients tried to be treated before the current request for medical help. It is recommended, if possible, to talk with the patient's close relatives or parents.
2. Examination and testing: speech therapy tasks, psychological tests to determine the level of intelligence, assessment of neurological status, writing and reading tests, etc.
3. Additional research methods: clinical and biochemical blood tests, PCR diagnostics to search for neuroinfections, electroencephalography, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging of the brain.
4. Consultation with a psychotherapist in case of logoneurosis. The specialist needs to find out the provoking factors, teach the patient to react to stress and his disorder.
5. Consultation with a speech therapist. He draws up an individual rehabilitation treatment plan and selects a speech therapy correction program.

Determining the immediate cause of stuttering allows doctors to select effective therapy to relieve the patient of the disease. It is worth paying attention that you should not engage in self-diagnosis or treatment, as this is fraught with the progression of the speech defect.

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.

Therapy methods

Patients are interested in how to treat pathology. Treatment of stuttering in adults should be individual and comprehensive. Depending on the cause of the disease, doctors develop a treatment plan. Currently, therapy includes a variety of methods - medications for the correction of diseases of the central nervous system, traditional medicine, relaxation activities, speech therapy classes using proprietary methods, breathing exercises, individual psychotherapy sessions, etc.

Traditional medicine

This section of therapy includes some medications aimed at normalizing the function of the nervous system. The most commonly used medications are:

• Nootropic drugs that have a positive effect on higher mental functions. They stimulate intellectual activity, improve learning ability and memory. The most common medications are Phenotropil, Piracetam, Pantogam, Semax, Picamilon, Tenoten, etc.
• B vitamins to improve the functioning of the nervous system: Magnelis B6, Magnelek, Thiamine, Biotredin.
• Anxiolytics are used in severe cases of pathology to inhibit stuttering (Xanax, Noofen).
• For epilepsy, doctors prescribe anticonvulsants (Pregabalin, Clonazepam and others).
• Sedatives (Motherwort or Valerian tablets), antidepressants (Afobazole) reduce anxiety and depression, help maintain good sleep and improve a person’s quality of life.
• Drugs that strengthen the patient’s immunity (Immunal, Anaferon, Echinacea tincture) and adaptogens (Levzea, etc.).

Currently, there are no pills that would be aimed at directly eliminating stuttering. Some scientists suggest that the disease develops due to excessive release of dopamine in the brain structures. The use of anxiolytics (tranquilizers) can eliminate the pathology by blocking the secretion of dopamine. However, there is no clinical evidence to support this hypothesis. Research into the use of neurotransmitter blockers is ongoing.

In addition to drug treatment, traditional complex therapy includes:

• Sessions with a psychotherapist or psychologist. They allow you to reduce anxiety about a speech defect, overcome logophobia, find factors that could cause the disease, adapt the patient to the social environment and return a normal level of quality of life.
• Classes with a speech therapist using special techniques help correct speech disorders. Articulation exercises provide relaxation of the muscles of the speech apparatus. Psychological group trainings help patients establish connections with other people and reduce logophobia.
• Hypnotherapy courses. A number of experts note the positive effect of hypnosis in logoneuroses.
• General health physiotherapy - acupuncture, massage, breathing exercises, reflexology, magnetotherapy, laser treatment, salt rooms, UHF therapy.
• Physical therapy, yoga, meditation.

An integrated approach allows us to help the patient adapt to society, recover and get rid of speech impairment, thereby returning a normal lifestyle.

Speech therapy methods for treating stuttering in adults

Speech therapy is carried out in courses over one or several years. For the entire duration of the therapeutic course, the patient is hospitalized in the clinic for a deep immersion in correctional work, classes with a neurologist, psychotherapist and communication with other people. There are several methods of speech therapy classes: according to Shklovsky and Harutyunyan (Andronova).

Harutyunyan method - a speech therapist teaches the patient to synchronize speech with the movement of the fingers of the dominant hand. With this method, the patient learns to associate pronunciation with calmness, fluency, confident posture and correct intonation. The first 24 days of therapy are spent in the hospital, then the patient is sent home. During the year, additional 5 courses of 7 days are prescribed.

Shklovsky's method includes three months of treatment in a specialized center with the participation of a neurologist and psychotherapist. The patient is preliminarily examined and, with the help of psychotherapy, the formed stereotypes about speech impairment are reconstructed, and they are also trained in various real life situations. Daily auto-training and group psychotherapeutic sessions are prescribed. This impact helps the patient gain confidence in his abilities and not be embarrassed by the speech defect, which goes away within a few months.

Group emotional stress psychotherapy according to Dubrovsky and Nekrasova is widely used in Russia. During therapy, the negative emotions of patients associated with the fear of speaking are replaced with new psychological attitudes. After such sessions, patients demonstrate a position opposite to fear - they are ready to talk and overcome the psychological barrier formed as a result of pathology.

Breathing exercises

Due to spasms of the muscles of the articulatory apparatus, breathing is impaired. Improper breathing also negatively affects speech activity, so one of the common corrective techniques is breathing exercises. The complex includes several exercises developed by Strelnikova. The most common:

• “Head turns” - the patient stands up straight, lowers his arms down and relaxes. Then he turns his head to the left and quickly inhales noisily, then begins to move his head from left to right and quickly exhales. In this way, the exercise is repeated several times.
• “Pump” - the patient stands up straight and straight, lowers his arms and leans forward a little, rounding his back. The neck is as relaxed as possible. When inhaling, the patient should rise slightly, but not straighten his back. After exhaling, the doctor recommends taking the starting position and repeating the procedure 4-5 times. Inhale quickly and exhale smoothly and slowly.

The course of treatment is 2-3 months, exercises are performed daily for 10-15 minutes. Already during the training, the patient will notice that breathing becomes free, the voice is more natural, and the person begins to stutter less.

In addition to Strelnikova’s technique, you can perform other breathing exercises after waking up or before going to bed: lying on your back, one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest; during a smooth inhalation, the stomach is “inflated”, and when exhaling, it is slightly “deflated”, lightly pressing on the anterior abdominal wall. The exercise is repeated 3-5 times. This type of gymnastics is performed lying down or standing; inhalation is always done through the nose, and exhalation can be done through the mouth with or without a cocktail straw.

Modern methods

The use of the new Breathmaker computer complex ensures the formation of a normal speech stereotype by normalizing the connection between speech centers and its recognition. The patient is given headphones and a microphone, after which he is asked to sit in front of the computer. The patient’s task is to speak certain sentences into the microphone. After this, a computer program corrects the patient's speech and feeds information into the headphones.

In this way, the nervous system assimilates correct normal speech. Using the method, it is possible to restore a person’s confidence and learn to speak more correctly. The Breathmaker complex is especially often used to eliminate stuttering in children.

Unconventional treatment

This approach to treatment includes acupressure, traditional medicine, treatment through contact with animals and other non-standard methods of assistance.

Acupressure - acupuncture - stimulation of points has a beneficial effect on the speech center. This method belongs to alternative medicine, but gives a noticeable effect in some patients. At the first stage, the massage should be carried out by a specialist. After mastering the technique, the patient can do it independently or with the help of loved ones. The acupuncture effect is based on kneading and stroking at bioactive points - da-ling, nei-guan, tian-jing, etc.

The use of herbal infusions and decoctions can calm the nervous system and reduce stress. Most often used:

• Infusion of white ash - 20 grams of ash leaves and flowers are poured into 300 ml of boiling water, infused for 20 minutes and cooled. The infusion is used as a mouth rinse; swallowing such a product is prohibited.
• 100 g of lemon balm, chamomile, St. John's wort, hops and nettle leaves are poured with 4 cups of boiling water. Take in the morning on an empty stomach and in the evening before bed.
• Chamomile decoction - one sachet is poured with 250 ml of boiling water, cooled and taken overnight.
• 100 ml of cabbage, viburnum and lemon juice are mixed with 100 ml of rose hip decoction and 200 g of honey. The mixture is taken 1 tablespoon every morning and evening.

Treatment with folk recipes and spells does not guarantee a positive result and cannot completely eliminate stuttering, since it does not have scientific confirmation of its effectiveness. Such methods can be part of complex therapy.

Restorative activities with animals really help not only children, but also adults. Swimming in a pool with dolphins and caring for horses has a beneficial effect on the nervous system, reducing its excitability and relaxing it. In addition, such activities improve a person’s mood, which has a positive effect on his speech.

Self-help at home

It is impossible to cure stuttering at home. Proper therapy requires comprehensive care. However, in a stressful situation, you can help yourself by following some recommendations of psychotherapists or psychologists: take a relaxing bath with herbs or sea salt, drink chamomile tea or fragrant rue infusion before bed. Meditation practices, swimming in the pool and yoga classes help cope with stress.

For additional training in correct speech, singing and reading aloud at home or in front of loved ones are suitable. This allows you to reduce psychological discomfort when stuttering, which helps a person cope with logoneurosis.

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.

Clinical manifestations

Frequent symptoms of stuttering include long pauses between syllables or words, stretching out words, the inability to pronounce certain sounds, hesitation in pronunciation, and obsessive repetition of the same words. These signs include: anxiety, avoidance of one’s own speech, withdrawal from society, isolation, shyness, sweating of the palms, redness of the face, etc. Despite the fact that in adulthood people who stutter are treated tolerantly, patients still prefer to have less contact with others.

Suspiciousness, anxiety, excitement and other negative emotions about the disease lead to the patient’s refusal of treatment, which can cause the progression of the pathology. In such a situation, patients are advised to work with a psychotherapist.