Alex V. Speech Pathology can treat children with stutter concerns in Brisbane and Ipswich by teaching the acquired use of speech restructuring techniques.
Nearly 9% of all 3-year-old children in Australia stutter. 5% of the population retain the disorder for life.
Alex V. Speech Pathology understand that stuttering and fluency issues can often cause misunderstandings and even frustration on the part of the stutterer. While a person with eloquent speech typically speaks with coherent thoughts, delivered in words that convey unmistakable meaning, the coherent thoughts of those that stutter often don’t meet with fluent words. The result often leads those that suffer from stuttering to repress thoughts and leave words unsaid, especially in social circles and among their peers. Alex V. Speech Pathology strives to correct such issues and bring about a new freedom and confidence to those impaired by such communication dilemmas, including helping the individual deal with the anxiety that usually comes with the dilemma of speak, or not to speak, stuttering.
If you or someone you know would benefit from Alex V. Speech Pathology stutter therapy in Brisbane or Ipswich, simply contact us for a consultation on (07) 3217 7037.
What is Stuttering?
Stuttering is a speech disorder that that is commonly characterised by the repetition of words, sounds or syllables, the prolongation of sounds or interruptions in speech. An individual who has a stuttering issue doesn’t necessarily have an issue with knowing what they want to say, they just have trouble producing fluent speech.
Stuttering can make it extremely difficult to communicate with others, impacting a person’s ability to build meaningful relationships, which can negatively impact job performance and other opportunities.
However, with the right treatment, stuttering can improve immensely, with some children recovering from the impediment completely.
What Causes Stuttering?
The causes for stuttering are not completely conclusive, with some people even developing a stutter as an adult after being able to speak fluently for most of their life. One of the first theories for the causes of stuttering is discrepancies in motor planning. In short, motor planning is a skill that allows us to remember and perform steps in order to make a movement happen. In the case of stuttering, an individual’s motor plan might have issues telling the muscles in their mouth to produce words fluently, which is where they might end up with a stutter.
On the other hand, there is the theory that stuttering is psychological, where a change or discrepancy in a person’s psychological makeup can impact their ability to speak fluently.
Symptoms of Stuttering
One of the most common symptoms of stuttering, and an indication that your child has a stutter is that they repeat sounds in their speech. This usually sounds like “C,C,C, Cat” and is what stuttering is most commonly characterised by.
Sometimes, it can be difficult to determine the difference between a child simply thinking about what they want to say and there being an issue with their fluency. For example, your child might say “Cat, Cat, Cat,” which can be hard to pick up because it sounds like they are thinking about whether they’ve chosen the right word to use.
Another symptom is when children try to squeeze the word out, which essentially means they extend the pronunciation of their words and speak very slowly.
Each of these symptoms may be an indication that your child has a fluency issue, which is why it’s a good idea to seek treatment as soon as possible. At Alex V. Speech Pathology, we treat stuttering and fluency issues in children through fun, interactive methods of treatment. To book in for a consultation, contact our friendly team on (07) 3217 7037.
Stuttering Treatment
One of the main questions around children and stuttering is “do they grow out of it?”
Unfortunately, there is no conclusive answer to this question as some children do grow out of a stutter, whereas other children don’t. Due to this, it is never advised to assume that your child might grow out of a stutter, and parents should seek treatments for their children as soon as possible to prevent any further damage.
At Alex V. Speech pathology, one of the main evidence based treatments we use is the Lidcombe Program of Early Stuttering Intervention, which is essentially a behaviour modification treatment. The main principle of this treatment involves giving the child praise when they speak clearly, and occasionally mentioning when stuttering occurs.
Of course, each of our treatments is tailored to the child, their needs, milestones and hobbies to increase relevancy.