Most people will be aware of stuttering thanks to films such as The King’s Speech. Or through Australian media personalities like Megan Washington and Harrison Craig. However, the majority of us are unaware of how stuttering works and how we should respond when someone stutters.
How speech pathology treats stuttering
What is stuttering?
Stuttering is a speech disorder that impacts the flow and smoothness of speech. Stumbling or stuttering over words occasionally is normal for most people. However, concerns arise when stuttering behaviours become frequent. Therefore affecting how well others can understand them in turn affecting their confidence.
It is important to clarify that people do not stutter because they are anxious or nervous. However, anxiety can make stuttering worse. Scientific researchers are yet to pinpoint a specific cause of stuttering. But, it is generally accepted to be of neurological origin[1].
How stuttering starts
- Stuttering typically emerges during the preschool years between 2 to 5 years of age, either all of a sudden (e.g. overnight) or gradually[2].
- 8.5% of children develop stuttering by the age of 3[2].
- Approximately 5% of children are likely to recover naturally from stuttering[3]. That is to say, the remaining children will continue to have a stutter unless they receive professional help from speech pathology.
- Significantly, Speech pathologists cannot predict which children will naturally recover.
References
1 “Searching for the cause of stuttering. – NCBI.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12241868. Accessed 11 Jan. 2019.
2 “Predicting stuttering onset by the age of 3 years: a prospective … – NCBI.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19117892. Accessed 11 Jan. 2019.
3 “Predicting stuttering onset by the age of 3 years: a prospective … – NCBI.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19117892. Accessed 11 Jan. 2019.
4 “Early childhood stuttering I: persistency and recovery rates. – NCBI – NIH.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10515508. Accessed 11 Jan. 2019.
5 “Management of childhood stuttering – Semantic Scholar.”
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/81a1/6954676aea74968832d72b404b04b1ced815.pdf. Accessed 11 Jan. 2019
6 Packman A, Onslow M. Searching for the cause of stuttering.
Lancet 2002; 360: 655–656.
7 Reilly S, Onslow M, Packman A et al. Predicting stuttering onset by the age of 3 years: a prospective, community cohort study.
Pediatrics 2009; 123: 270–277
8 Yairi E, Ambrose NG. Early childhood stuttering I: persistency and recovery rates.
J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. 1999; 42: 1097–1112
9 Onslow M, Jones M, Menzies R, O’Brian S, Packman A. Stuttering. In: Sturmey P , Hersen M , eds. Handbook of Evidence‐Based Practice in Clinical Psychology.
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2012; 185–207.