Stuttering in adults
Stuttering in adults often begins in childhood. Occasional treatment is not always helpful. Therefore, many patients simply give up and put up with the violation. In fact, it is possible to cope with logoneurosis, but this requires a lot of effort.
The first mentions of stuttering as a speech defect are found in ancient records. However, scientists did not seek to understand the nature of the disease until the late 19th century. Until that time, there were no effective treatments for this disorder. This is due to the fact that stuttering is not a very common phenomenon and by itself it does not pose a threat to human life. In addition, it was very difficult to cope with the problem using the methods that were previously available.
Sick people were left with their problem one on one. This led to the fact that the person became withdrawn, tried to limit communication with society. This was the case in ancient times, but many people are still isolated because they do not know how to solve their problem.
Therefore, it is not surprising that a stuttering person tries to speak as little as possible, especially in the presence of strangers. Only in the 20th century in medicine were they able to assess the significance of the problem and began to study possible methods of solving it.
Modern medical science considers stuttering as a disease of a neuropsychiatric nature, but with speech symptoms.
Treatment involves an individual approach to each patient. For therapy to be successful, the causes of the violation should be identified and eliminated.
Content:
- Stuttering - what is it?
- Stuttering symptoms
- Causes of stuttering
- Stuttering diagnostics
- What therapies does modern medicine offer?
- Treatment cost and duration
- Prevention and prognosis of stuttering
Stuttering - what is it?
Stuttering is the most common type of speech disorder. It is most common in children between the ages of two and seven. When stuttering, there are violations of the coordination in the work of speech muscles, breathing and voice, as well as the smoothness and rhythm of speech. For a healthy person, 7% of the above types of speech interruptions are normal. Signs of stuttering are obvious slowdowns when the frequency of speech interruption is 10% or more, lasting from a second to half a minute. At the same time, convulsions occur in the organs participating in the act of speech (tongue, lips or larynx).
In most diagnosed cases, stuttering develops from childhood (at 2-4 years). During this period, the child's speech has not yet been formed, the speech function is distinguished by significant fragility, while speech develops most actively.
Sometimes this illness lasts for several months, and sometimes for many years. Most stuttering children, unlike adults who stutter, recover spontaneously. Boys are more prone to stuttering than girls. This is due to the lower emotional stability of men.
It is noteworthy that almost all stutters can speak fluently and without hesitation when they are alone with themselves, talking with an imaginary interlocutor, reading with someone in unison, emotionally involved, singing, whispering, or significantly change their manner of speech. In a conversation with strangers, when speaking in front of an audience, in a hurry, stuttering instantly increases. This can be explained by the emotional stress and excitement that a child has when communicating with others. But in a familiar, supportive environment (usually with family and friends), stuttering is almost imperceptible.
Stuttering symptoms
During the pronunciation of words, the patient's face is distorted by grimaces that he is unable to control. Tics are often visible on the face. This is the term for repetitive muscle tremors.
The sound that a person wants to make is as if he is bumping into some kind of obstacle. To "push" him out of the throat, the patient has to make efforts.
Stuttering can take two forms: tonic and clonic. In the tonic form of the disorder, a person stretches vowels and sonorant sounds, makes too long pauses between words, breaks sounds inside a single syllable.
The clinical form of the disorder is characterized by repetition of consonants, syllables or short words.
Sometimes patients have a mixed form of logoneurosis. Regardless of the type of disease, a person's speech is always intermittent, has a spastic character.
The stuttering that develops in an adult is a feature of his external speech. Studies show that inner speech is not disturbed. She will not suffer even when the external stuttering is gaining a maximum degree of manifestation.
The fact that inner speech has no pathological changes is considered strong evidence of the possibility of a complete recovery of an adult patient.
Stuttering affects men more often than women. As statistics show, there are only two women who stutter for every 5 men. This is due to the structural features of their brain.
Causes of stuttering
Stuttering can be neurotic (in this case they speak of logoneurosis), organic and neurosis-like. The doctor, during a conversation with the patient, will have to find out if the patient stutters on an ongoing basis, or if it happens from time to time, when certain factors are involved.
To determine the nature of the disease, the patient is referred for encephalography of the brain. If in the course of diagnostics violations are found in the work of its sections, then stuttering is regarded as organic. In this case, a person will stutter, regardless of external factors.
The reasons for this violation may be as follows:
- Postponed stroke, TBI and other diseases associated with damage to the motor sphere. In this case, stuttering develops as a complication of these pathologies.
- A brain tumor. It can put pressure on nerve impulses that go to the speech apparatus. This affects the pronunciation of words and sounds.
Logoneurosis in adults can be the result of severe stress, or a serious nervous shock. This form of disorder occurs with emotional stress.
Neurotic stuttering becomes noticeable when a person needs to talk in an unfamiliar environment, or with strangers.
Sometimes in adults, stuttering is temporary. It develops after severe fright, during a fit of anger, in a state of passion. After a certain time period, stuttering passes. Sometimes you can cope with the disorder with a glass of tea or even a small dose of alcohol.
Logoneurosis, which develops against a background of stress, requires early professional help. If it is absent, then a certain stereotype will form in the patient. Stuttering will become chronic. It will be complicated by a violation of external speech, convulsions, tics, twitching may appear. Psychological discomfort increases, which negatively affects interaction with other people.
Video: Snezhko R. A. talks about the causes of stuttering:
Stuttering rarely develops in adulthood. Most often, this problem haunts a person from childhood. The reasons can be reduced to organic disorders, to neurotic pathologies. However, in all patients, such stuttering is persistent.
Treatment is complicated by the fact that this problem is often hereditary, and the patient himself has already formed persistent speech stereotypes. The therapy can take several years. If the patient has enough patience to complete the treatment course, then his speech is fully restored.
Stuttering diagnostics
Diagnosis of the disease is within the competence of such specialists as: a neurologist and a psychologist. The diagnosis is not difficult, since speech problems are audible even to a person without special education. Stuttering is talked about when the patient has deviations in speech from its normal rhythm and articulation. It is much more difficult to determine the causes of the violation.
Sometimes speech is characterized by intermittent speech in people who do not suffer from stuttering, so the doctor must carefully diagnose the disorder. It is important to assess the frequency and duration of speech interruptions.
There is a special technique for this. It aims to count the stops that occur for every 100 words a patient speaks. If he does not suffer from stuttering, then the percentage of breaks will be equal to 7%. In people with logoneurosis, this percentage reaches 10% and even more.
You should also pay attention to how long the pauses last when pronouncing words. In healthy people, these pauses are invisible, while in stuttering patients, on the contrary, they are pronounced. They can last 1-30 seconds. In this case, the patient's facial muscles are tense.
What therapies does modern medicine offer?
To cope with stuttering, you need to approach the problem in a comprehensive manner. When working with a patient, psychological, biological and social aspects should be taken into account.
Therapy takes place in several directions: drug treatment, speech therapy and psychotherapeutic correction.
Drug treatment
The drugs are prescribed to patients to eliminate seizures and stabilize neurological reactions.
The therapy is carried out using medications such as:
- Antispasmodics and anticonvulsants: Finlepsin, Midocalm, Magnerot. Also, patients are shown taking vitamins of group B (Milgamma).
- Sedatives that help eliminate nervous tension. These are such medicines as: Afobazol, Glycine, Grandaxin, Novopassit, Dormiplant, extract of valerian, lemon balm and motherwort.
Providing speech therapy
Working with a speech therapist allows you to eliminate the stereotypes of speech developed in a person, get rid of habits that distort the pronunciation of sounds and words.
Treatment is carried out in the following areas:
- Teaching the patient the correct technique of speech, setting breathing. The patient is taught to master his own voice, develop the correct articulation.
- Working out new techniques of speech while reading stories and during normal conversation.
- Bringing the formed skills to automatism. Various speech situations are worked out with the patient, they teach him to maintain emotional balance and deal with difficulties that arise when communicating with other people.
The specified treatment plan is indicative. Speech therapists are constantly updating their treatment methods. For each patient, the program is compiled individually. Classes can be held in a group. Sometimes training is carried out personally with each patient.
The method of stuttering treatment according to L. Z. Harutyunyan is widely used. According to her, the doctor forms a new speech motor skill in the patient.
Psychotherapeutic correction
Psychotherapeutic correction takes place in the following areas:
- Suggestive methods of influence. They boil down to the hypnosis to which the patient is subjected. The number of sessions is selected on an individual basis. When working with a person, the doctor focuses on the emotional sphere, on the features of breathing, articulation and movements of the vocal apparatus.
- Rational treatment methods. They boil down to a conversation with a person. Their goal is to teach the patient to adequately relate to his problem and give him an impetus to make efforts to overcome it.
- Patient training with auto-training techniques. Such skills will allow a person to independently provide psychological assistance to himself in the future.
Physiotherapy is one of the auxiliary methods of therapy. The exercises are aimed at working out the muscles responsible for speech. They have a positive effect on the functioning of the nervous system.
Respiratory gymnastics proposed by Strelnikova, as well as yoga classes, allow you to consolidate the result. Additional therapies include acupuncture and acupuncture.
Alternative therapies are often used as additional help for people with stuttering. At the same time, a specialist should be selected who will have good recommendations and experience in working with such patients.
There are treatments for stuttering that have not been proven to be effective. For example, prayer for stuttering. If you wish, you can read it, but it is not recommended to seek help from specialists who make conspiracies and take money for it.
Video: Snezhko R. A. talks about the inadequacy of modern methods of stuttering treatment:
Treatment cost and duration
If a person has met a “professional” who guarantees for a certain fee to save him from stuttering with the help of one hypnosis session, then such a promise should not be believed. It will not be possible to cope with the problem instantly, or it will return again at the slightest emotional excitement. A person should understand that stuttering treatment is a long process that requires an integrated approach. This is the only way to solve the problem radically.
Terms are negotiated with the doctor on an individual basis. It all depends on the characteristics of the course of the disease. The basic course is reduced to a month's hospital stay. Then, on an outpatient basis, he will have to be treated for another 3-6 months, and sometimes a year. In some cases, therapy is repeated every year.
When the patient notices that he manages to overcome a certain barrier, he is inspired, which becomes an excellent basis for further improvement of speech. The cost of the procedures varies depending on the specific region and country.
Estimated course fees:
- 60-100 thousand rubles - Central Entertainment Center Moscow.
- 50 thousand rubles - Central Entertainment Center Kiev.
- 55-60 thousand dollars - Israel, Hadassah clinic.
- 45-50 thousand rubles - MC Nadezhda, Minsk.
- 100 thousand rubles Healthy Speech Center, Yekaterinburg.
Coping with stuttering and minimizing the likelihood of a relapse of the disease is possible only if professionals of various specialties work with the patient.
Prevention and prognosis of stuttering
Stuttering prevention comes down to taking care of your psychological health. It is impossible to get rid of stress, but it is quite possible to strengthen your own psyche and mental balance.
If a person notices that the slightest disruptions appear in his speech, which intensify at the peak of emotional excitement, you need to contact a doctor. You can find a specialist on the Internet. The programs developed under the guidance of the following authors are successful: Asatiani N. M. and Vlasova N. A., Nekrasov Yu. B., Shklovsky V. M. All of them are aimed at a comprehensive study of the patient's speech and combine various areas: psychiatric, psychotherapeutic, neurological, speech therapy.
If a person suffers from stuttering, you should not put up with this problem. You need to see a doctor, get quality therapy and enjoy communicating with other people.
Article author: Mochalov Pavel Alexandrovich | d. m. n. therapist
Education: Moscow Medical Institute. IM Sechenov, specialty - "General Medicine" in 1991, in 1993 "Occupational Diseases", in 1996 "Therapy".
