by Ashutosh
Our world is rapidly growing and its effects are showing on our life. As our life becomes faster and faster, we strain our mind and body. This changes our way of functioning of both mind and body. Stammering is also a problem which is also caused due to this. The reason being – trying to communicate fast.
Stammering is one-in-a-million problem. A rare defect, not disease, which is found to affect only a few people. It is not a mental problem or a physical one. It is just the mis-co-ordination between the thinking of words and the execution of the process of speech. I have no strong base of information to give you but to me the most probable reason of this flow in speech is trying to convey more and more information in a shorter period of time. In simpler words – trying to speak fast.
In my opinion this problem has been affecting people for ages. People of all ages are affected by it. But males are more prone to it as they tend to lead a fast and tensed life whereas the ladies are calm and thus only few are affected by it. 80% of the cases are males and the rest 20% the females.
Stammering is of 3 basic types. The first being formation of blocks. The second being prolonging of words and the third being repetitions of words.
These are simple ways by which anyone and everyone can help a stammerer overcome his problem. We should be patient and calm but should not show him that he is abnormal. We should speak slowly and make him do the same. We should tell him that he has our full attention and he should be relaxed. We should also encourage him to talk maximum with everybody.
Yet, in my opinion, the answer to a high degree of stammering is through speech therapy. It is a process consisting of individual therapy or exercises – administered by the speech therapist and group therapy – where many people affected by this problem interact together. To make sure the stammering does not return after cure, which is known as ‘Relapse’, there is a maintenance therapy which ensures continuity in near flawless speech.