Stuttering - Causes and Signs of Stuttering

There are several types of stuttering depending on the etiology of the disease:

• Logoneurosis or neurotic stuttering, when there are no pronounced neurological disorders. There are no deviations in the functioning of the brain with logoneurosis. Speech develops normally, without disturbances.
• Organic or neurosis-like stuttering is a consequence of neurological disorders. In this case, the EEG reveals deviations in the functioning of the brain. Neurosis-like stuttering is accompanied by a violation of motor skills and articulation of speech. May be accompanied by nervous tics, speech spasms and movement disorders.

Causes

The reasons for the development of stuttering depend on the form of the disease.

Causes of neurosis-like stuttering:

• heredity;
• diseases caused by encephalopathy;
• intrauterine and birth injuries;
• severe pregnancy;
• diseases during the first year of life;
• infectious diseases.

Causes of logoneuroses:

• severe stress;
• overwork;
• fright or fear (momentary);
• low emotional development;
• rapid speech (tachylalia);
• mental disorders (infringement);
• imitation of adults;
• forced retraining of left-handers to be right-handed.

Symptoms

There are general symptoms characteristic of all types of the disease:

• speech disorders: repetition of sounds, syllables and words;
• stretching out the pronunciation of sounds, syllables, and sometimes entire words;
• speech strain;
• the emergence of a feeling of "suffocation" during pronunciation;
• shortened sighing at rest and during pronunciation;
• stopping or blocking speech;
• avoiding communication;
• tension of the neck and facial muscles;
• fear of pronouncing certain letters, syllables or words to the point of muteness;
• upset appearance during communication.

Diagnostics

Diagnosing stuttering is quite simple, since speech disorders are easy to identify. But it can be quite difficult to determine some symptoms of stuttering by ear.

Diagnostics of children allows you to assess the possibility of stuttering developing in the future. For this, I offer children to undergo a series of tests. Children are observed by specialists for a long time.

In order to diagnose stuttering, the following signs must be present:

• impaired fluency and rhythm of speech;
• pronunciation difficulties or speech hesitation;
• grimaces and tics during pronunciation, as an attempt to cope with stuttering.

If all these signs are observed for 3 months, then stuttering is diagnosed and a consultation with a speech therapist and neurologist is prescribed. Also, to exclude neurology, the following studies are prescribed: MRI diagnostics, rheoencephalography, EEG of the brain.

Treatment

Treatment of stuttering depends on the type of disease.

Treatment of neurotic disease depends entirely on modern diagnostics. The following methods are used to treat this type of stuttering:

• psychotherapeutic methods: hypnotic, behavioral, etc.;
• visiting a speech therapist (collective and play psychotherapy for children);
• drug treatment (elimination of mental disorders);
• acupuncture.

Treatment of logoneuroses:

• behavioral therapy (overcoming the fear of speech through fairy tale therapy, art therapy, etc.);
• drug treatment (elimination of the fear of communication);
• a session with a speech therapist.

Prevention

To prevent the development of stuttering, you should adhere to the following rules:

• daily routine;
• proper nutrition;
• rest in the fresh air;
• avoiding overload of the nervous system;
• moderate information load;
• sufficient communication.