Gentle approach helps children who stutter

Gentle approach helps children who stutter

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Dino was a healthy and smart child but he often
withdrew from socialization. At school, friends made fun of him
because he stuttered when speaking, while at home he just didn't
like the way his parents made him repeat what he was saying until
it was said correctly.

Dino was becoming more and more silent and whenever he spoke
his parents would make unpleasant remarks. His parents grew
impatient with his failure to communicate.

Ki Pranindyo, a speech therapist with the Vacana Mandira
speech clinic, said that a person's speech ability is determined
by several factors, which include physical, psychological and
environmental elements.

He explained that adults or children may have a tendency to
stutter or repeat a particular word when speaking.

"This is normal, but many parents get the wrong idea about it
and make unpleasant remarks in their attempt to correct it," he
said, while warning that such an approach would further aggravate
stuttering and in turn discourage a person from communicating.

Pran also added that friends, colleagues, teachers and other
people also have a role.

"It's a very discouraging situation for a child or adult to
speak if they know that friends or other people will laugh at
them," he explained, while adding that this condition could lead
to psychological problems.

He said that stuttering usually begins in childhood and rarely
in adulthood.

"It can, however, disappear during the teenage years but
reoccur in adulthood. We believe that adults with a stuttering
problem had similar problems in their childhood."

Stuttering can be differentiated into sound prolongation (like
s-s-s-sorry); partial word repetition (like mo-mo-mommy); and
word repetition (next ... next ... next year). There is also
another type of stuttering condition whereby part of an unrelated
word that has nothing to do with what the person is trying to say
is used (a-a-a ... how are you?).

He said that normally unaffected people stutter sometimes. If
it occurs often it is called normal non-fluency, usually in the
form of word repetitions, a form of the condition which
stutterers are not usually hampered by.

A more serious form is called primary stuttering, where
stutterers repeat part of a word or prolong sounds, but still
talk to other people. However, if the environment is not
favorable it can worsen into secondary stuttering, in which
stutterers often use different words to the ones they want to say
and have already withdrawn from daily interaction.

If the stuttering problem becomes uncontrollable, a person is
advised to seek professional help.

Pran explained that treatment for stutterers may be
multidisciplinary, involving a psychologist, psychiatrist,
neurologist and speech therapist.

"Psychologists, psychiatrists and neurologists can handle the
physical and emotional aspects of the problem, while a speech
therapist can motivate the stutterers to communicate," he said.

Phases of speech therapy comprise of motivating the stutterers
to speak, helping them identify the cause of their stuttering
problem (such as talking to the opposite sex, to older or
respected people, in front of a group of people, or talking on
the phone), desensitizing the stutterers to these triggering
factors, motivating them to gradually gain the ability to talk
while being confronted by the triggering factors, improving their
articulation and stabilizing their communication ability.

"They are progressively trained to speak 140 words a minute,
like normal people do. But for this they may need to undergo
training sessions for breathing to enable them to articulate the
phrase properly," he said.

Pran advised parents to adopt a gentle encouraging approach --
such as saying the right words and focusing on the message --
toward children with normal non-fluency tendencies.

"If the parents can deal with their children's stuttering
problem wisely, the children will soon regain their self-
confidence and be encouraged to improve their ability to
communicate," he said.