Soundsgood

ADULT CARE

Stammering

Talking to people can be hard for a person with stammering (or stuttering). They may get stuck on certain words or letters and may also feel tense or uncomfortable while talking. Stress or excitement can lead to more stammering. Due to difficulty in communicating fluently, persons with stammering often feel under-confident and anxious. The stammering may interfere with their job performance, or their ability to respond to questions at school/college, and also inter-personal relations with friends and family.

Common questions about stammering:

1. I do not stammer a lot. Stammering only increases when I talk to someone over the phone or while talking to a new person/ stranger. Can speech therapy help me?

Speech therapy is the most effective management option for stammering, irrespective of the severity of the problem. Modern strategies in therapy help improve fluency, confidence and communication skills. At Sounds Good Clinic we also work on helping you feel less tense and stop avoiding talking. The given strategies help you in situations that make you fearful, such as those encountered at school/ college, work, social gatherings, and phone.

2. Is stammering ‘curable’?

There is no universal ‘cure’ for stammering - in other words, there is no approach that works like a magic pill for everyone. This is because the cause of stammering is still being studied. Most experts agree that it is due to a combination of factors - physiological, neurological, psychological and environmental - but how exactly do these factors interact and affect a person is still unclear. However, there is a lot of help available. Speech therapy involves techniques and strategies which can be extremely effective in managing stammering.