How to Stop Stuttering: Best Therapy Methods
Stuttering occurs in both children and adults. It causes a lot of inconvenience and can seriously undermine self-esteem. It’s like a vicious circle: the more you stutter, the more you are shy, which makes you stutter even more… But everything can be decided if you believe in yourself.
We asked experts about how to get rid of stuttering once and for all. Speech therapists say: “Most often, stuttering occurs in childhood. The most dangerous period is from 3 to 5 years, during the rapid development of speech. But an adult can be also affected by this ailment. Stuttering is a violation of the pace, rhythm of smoothness of speech due to convulsions of the articulatory apparatus. A stuttering person can fumble for clothes, make involuntary movements with his arms and legs, he or she may have nervous tics. Some stutters “mask” their defect by inserting meaningless words or sounds into speech.”
How to cure stuttering?
Remember that stuttering is not just a speech defect. It is associated with a violation of the nervous system. It often turns out that bodily human health is imperfect. In an adult, stuttering may remain from childhood or appear spontaneously. Often the problem “fades away” in conditions of calm and harmony, and reappears when a person is stressed. In such cases, you should see a number of specialists: a neurologist, speech therapist, clinical psychologist. The psychologist will help relieve tension, fear of speech. A speech therapist will teach or help you remember the skills of speech breathing, smooth and continuous speech. And the neurologist will provide assistance to the nervous system.
It is useful for stuttering people to do some sports: swimming, yoga, karate. Singing, theater groups, dancing – all this also helps a person to be liberated, feel confident, develop breathing, plasticity, and cope with general bodily tension.
Despite the fact that almost all the secrets of stuttering have already been revealed, there are no magic means to get rid of it instantly. Currently, the treatment of stuttering is based on the normalization of the speech circle, namely the inhibition of Brock’s center.
Recent advances in the treatment of stuttering are associated with technological progress – these are special anti-stuttering devices and computer programs. Some of them allow you to hear your own convulsive speech in the corrected version, others allow you to hear yourself with a delay of a fraction of a second, others muffle the voice with background noise, fourth allow you to “see” your own speech on the screen, and the fifth, the most effective, lower or increase the pitch of the sounds perceived speech.
In the meantime, we recommend that you take advantage of popular practices to fix stuttering.
6 best tips to overcome stuttering
How to cure stuttering? Instead of thinking that it will happen again now, choose the position: “This is such a feature of mine”. Accept internally the fact that you are stuttering and try to live with it. If you are afraid of others’ reactions to your stuttering, you can tell or hint about the problem in advance. The calmer you are about a defect, the less often it will appear.
1. Learn to relax
Each person has its own “relaxation recipes”. Someone relaxes with the help of a rosary that can be fumbled in the hands, a piece of paper, the edges of which can be bent and unbent, or maybe a certain cross of fingers, giving a peaceful state. When you’re ready, start your speech. You will see: its quality directly depends on your internal state.
2. Play a home performance
Many stutters completely forget about their problem when speaking with loved ones. But the problem reminds itself in stressful moments. Rehearse a speech before your sister, your man or parents that you are going to make tomorrow at a meeting. Remember the feeling of relaxation and self-confidence, and keep it until the moment of “X”.
3. Learn how to breathe
Breathing exercises from yoga or qigong help regulate breathing when stuttering. Learn to control the strength of inspiration and exhalation, the rhythms of intake and removal of air from the lungs. Repeat the exercises every day: soon you will feel that stuttering has decreased.
4. Think about anything – just not about your own speech
People often stutter at the very fact of their uneven speech. This makes them lose the thread of the conversation, miss the point of it. Try to shift your attention from your own voice to the idea you want to convey or to your interlocutor. Concentrate on working out verbal information, put emphasis not on form but on content.
5. Pause
How to get rid of stuttering? When you feel that stuttering is coming, give yourself time to get your breath in order. Pause the conversation and take a deep breath. Repeat inhalation and exhalation, listening to your breath. So you can control your speech, and light pauses will give you an interesting mystery in the eyes of the interlocutor.
6. Get inspired
As you heal your speech, enlist patience and enthusiasm. And good literature and cinema will help you with this. For example, the Oscar-winning “King Says”: feel yourself in the place of the main character and go with him all the way from the complexes to a complete victory.
