how to stop stammering There are two things you should consider when choosing a stammering therapy:
1. Stammering cannot be eliminated overnight. If you have been living with stammering for years or even decades it won’t go away that easily. Whatever therapy you choose, it will probably take several weeks or months before stammering can be effectively controlled. Claims that you can “cure” stammering in a few days should be looked at with extreme caution.
2. Stammering is not only a speech disorder but also a communication and behavioural disorder. Stammering can be compared to an iceberg and the speech disorder only represents the tip of the stammering iceberg. The bulk of the iceberg is made of the communication and behavioural disorders as well as all the negative feelings such as shame, guilt, embarrassment etc. A therapy that exclusively focuses on the speech disorder is bound to fail over the long run. An effective therapy should be based on a holistic approach and should address every aspect of stammering: the speech disorder (the "disfluencies") as well as the communication and behavioural disorders and negative feelings associated with stammering. See What is Stammering? for more information.
Stammering Self-Therapies
Self-therapy is an affordable and effective way to treat stammering and this is definitely where you should start.
To get started, all you need to do is invest a few pounds and commit yourself to spending 30 minutes to one hour a day doing simple exercises. You will probably notice significant improvements in your fluency within a few weeks and should be able to eliminate stammering within a few months.
We have chosen two self-therapy stammering programs for you:
Comprehensive Stuttering Therapy (Phillip J. Roberts):
Comprehensive Stuttering Therapy is probably the most comprehensive and most effective self-therapy presently available to stammerers. It includes 29 exercises addressing every single element of the stammering phenomenon: the “disfluencies” as well as the negative feelings and behaviours associated with stammering. By going through these exercises, the stammerer will gradually improve his fluency and alter the destructive feelings and behaviours that promote stammering. The end result is a self sustainable fluency lasting for a lifetime. Click here to access Phillip J. Robert's web site.
Understanding & Controlling Stuttering (William D. Parry)
Understanding & Controlling Stuttering is another excellent self-therapy program. William Parry developed a new theory to explain stammering. According to his theory, stammering results from a neurological confusion between the voice and the Valsalva mechanism (a set of muscles that we tighten when exerting effort). The book then suggests a technique that eliminates stammering by controlling the Valsalva mechanism. Click here to access William D. Parry's web site.
It is very likely that self-therapy is all you will need to achieve fluency. If you still stammer after trying self-therapy, you can then consider other therapeutic options. In any case, reading these books will provide you with in-depth knowledge about stammering, and this knowledge will be extremely useful when visiting a speech-language pathologist or attending an intensive stammering program in a speech clinic.
If one of your relatives stammers, we strongly recommend that you read these books. Many stammerers feel that they are left alone to struggle helplessly with stammering. They wish they could talk about it with their friends or relatives but they feel so embarrassed by their disfluencies that it is difficult for them to take the first step. These books provide valuable information about stammering and will help you understand the feelings and frustrations experienced by stammerers. After reading these books, it will be easier for you to take the initiative and talk about stammering with your relatives. You will then be able to provide the support the stammerer needs and suggest a therapy to follow.
If your young child stammers, you will definitely find these books useful as they will help you to understand stammering as well as your child's inner feelings. Besides, Comprehensive Stuttering Therapy (Phillip J. Roberts) explains in details what parents can do to help their child become fluent.
Electronic devices
Fluency enhancing devices are based on DAF (Delayed Auditory Feedback) and FAF (Frequency-Shifting Auditory Feedback). The electronic device picks up your voice from a microphone, delays the sound for a fraction of a second (in the case of DAF) or shifts the frequency (in the case of FAF) and feeds your voice back through earphones.
DAF and FAF can instantly reduce and in most cases eliminate stammering with minimal efforts from your side. But you should keep in mind that DAF and FAF should ideally be used in combination with a comprehensive stammering self-therapy or visits to a speech pathologist. As explained earlier, stammering is a communication and behavioural problem and you will need to change your communication patterns, your attitudes and your way of life. You will also need to learn fluency enhancing techniques and to synchronize breathing with your speech.
DAF and FAF are not a substitute to a holistic approach to stammering but can certainly help you to successfully follow a comprehensive stammering therapy. DAF and FAF will help you slow down. You will therefore be more in control of your speech and it will be easier for you to put the fluency techniques that you learned from the self-therapy or from the speech pathologist into practice. After a while, you should be able to speak fluently without the help of electronic devices.
DAF and FAF devices can be ordered from Casa Futura Technologies.
Speech Language Pathologist:
Another way to treat stammering is to visit a speech-language pathologist. Visiting a SLP is costly both in terms of time and money and you will probably want to spend some time reading about stammering before your first visit. This will help you define your goals and make your discussions with the SLP more fruitful. We recommend that you read about the two self- help stammering therapies described above.
During your first visit to the speech-language pathologist, you should make sure that the person is experienced and comfortable in treating stammering and that a holistic approach will be used.
Speech Clinics
Several speech clinics provide intensive therapy programs for stammering. Click here to access our list of speech clinics. Please note that we do not endorse any particular organisation and this list is only provided to help you locate a speech clinic. We recommend that you keep in mind the guidelines given earlier about selecting a speech clinic: 1) Stammering cannot be eliminated overnight; this means that an intensive therapy program for stammering should be followed-up by a therapy of some sort. 2) Only a holistic approach can effectively reduce and eliminate stammering and you should make sure the speech clinic provides a comprehensive therapy addressing every aspect of the stammering phenomenon.
Again, it is important that you gain some basic understanding about stammering before contacting any speech clinic. We recommend that you first read books about stammering such as Comprehensive Stuttering Therapy (Phillip J. Roberts) and Understanding & Controlling Stuttering (William D. Parry).
Tags:
0 comments:
Post a Comment