Stammering or stuttering is a speech disorder. Those who stutter, even though they might have a well-structured notion of what they want to say, they find it hard to get those words out. This speech impediment affects adults of all ages, but it’s mostly common among children ages 2 to 7. However, more than 75% regain their normal speech ability with time.
Yet, most people talk without too much effort most of the time. Indeed, they hesitate or stumble over words at times, especially under the stress of fatigue, but they show little concern about those mistakes. Then, what makes your speech different, and what can you do to improve it? Undoubtedly those who usually stutter are more likely to overreact to such mistakes because they fear they will occur and they become unavoidably tensed and restless.
During this time of increased tension, they can’t rebuild their speech flow, fear increases, and eventually, they avoid talking. However, many stutterers learn that their greatest enemies are fear and tension and that they must sort out ways to overcome them and regain their trust.
Slow it Down
It might sound repetitive for many of you, but it might actually work if you want to improve your speech once and for all. The most effective and famous way of making sense of what you’re planning to say is to talk slowly. When you hurry to complete your sentence or give someone a quick answer, you’ll unavoidably stammer or get troubles getting those words out. Luckily with a bit of patience, a few deep breaths, and a slow speaking flow, you can keep stuttering under control.
Consider Speech Therapy
Speech therapies have proved highly efficient in patients dealing with Dysfluency. Indeed, these treatments work best for individuals who address these problems at an early stage, but they’ve also proved useful in adults. What involves speech therapy, and how can it help me? Even Though you might not stop stuttering entirely, speech and language therapy can improve your speech fluency, boost confidence, and encourage you to participate in social events, school or work.
Speech therapy can teach you to:
- be aware of stuttering
- slow down your speech flow
- how to manage the situation in which stuttering gets worse
- build fluid speech patterns
Self-help Groups
Most people find that a combination of self-study and counseling helps them reach their best success. Self-help programs offer a way to find valuable resources and encouragement for people who stutter as they experience the struggles of stuttering.
Don’t overlook technology
Technology is a favorable extension for our needs, especially when it comes to language and expression, and luckily, there is an abundance of electronic tools that help people control their speech and improve their fluency. Some of these devices function by helping people slow their speech, while others mimic speech so that it sounds as though the person in the cause is talking in harmony with someone else. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, speaking in unison with someone else might temporarily decrease a person’s stuttering.
Yet, when it comes to electronic devices, more work is required to decide how long these effects can last, and whether people can use such tools in real-world environments efficiently and benefit from them. For these reasons, researchers are continuing to monitor the efficacy of these devices in the long term.
Identify triggers and reduce avoidance
A first step in recovering from stuttering is to find out who or what triggers it. Yes, this is acceptance and means you have to make peace with yourself once and for all.
When you learn about the situations and circumstances under which your speech gets interrupted, you can recognize those patterns and try to find a solution accordingly. Moreover, if you decide to avoid words you certainly know would put you in stressful situations, you won’t progress. And believe it or not, avoidance is one of the worst effects in stammering. If you keep avoiding them, you’ll eventually end up avoiding a simple phone conversation and so on. However, while offering relief temporarily, avoidances will simply raise your worries and cause you more trouble in the longer term.
Accept your emotions and conquer fear
We have all heard that the fastest way to overcome fear is to” just face them”. Many stutters can agree on the idea that fear might actually increase than decrease fears. They usually experience the exact same tension and fail to get the word or an idea out completely while attempting to face their fears. What makes them quit trying? Repeated failure and resulted in embarrassment over the failure is what nourishes stutterers’ fears. But hopefully, this fear can be unlearned by better managing difficult words and situations.
Stuttering usually starts much earlier in time than you’d normally expect, but as long as you’ve learned that tricks such as rushing or delaying can let you down, you’ll automatically begin to work on your new strategy.
Conquer tension and maintain eye contact
Where to start? You should learn to replace easy, slower, and more relaxed movements for tight forced and rushed movements. Regular practice will help you become more aware of the tension in your breath, chest, throat, vocal cords, jaw, and tongue. Choose some complex words that begin with sounds you find difficult and practice as much as possible.
This practice can make for success in decreasing fear and tension that comes from clocked movements, so think of these as stages of therapy or pieces of a puzzle you “assemble” for a great effect. The practice is a way out from all this, and if you’re willing to practice daily and try a new word each week, you’ll unavoidably see great results.
Both tension and fear-arousal can be easily conquered through learning and practice together. Keep in mind that practicing easy movements without reducing tension and fears is not too effective since great feelings of fear will always make you forget easier speech movements when you most need them.
