About every twentieth child stutters in kindergarten age. The bumpy flow of words usually begins before the age of six. The children are confused, the parents worried. It is reassuring, however, that four out of five of the affected children stop on their own. It “grows out,” as they say. By puberty at the latest, language is flowing again for most people.
But not for everyone. It would therefore be extremely helpful if a test could predict the further development of the affected children, if one knew who would later be able to speak unaided without stumbling – in order to save them the trouble of possibly unnecessary speech therapy.
If treatment begins before the age of six, up to 90 percent are cured.
Until then, all children who stutter should be treated, and the earlier the more effective. If treatment begins before the age of six or earlier, up to 90 percent are cured. If it starts after puberty, the chances are very small. And: The better the therapy, the better the result.
A non-specific logopedic treatment brings little or nothing. However, there are special therapies against stuttering, in which rhythm and voice attack are trained, for example.
Stutterers still encounter a nonsensical prejudice: It is said that stuttering has something to do with the psyche. The stutterer just has to pull himself together. Or also: The parents are to blame. Incorrect. It has long been known that stuttering is a disruption in the wiring of the brain. It has a measurable organic cause, which again is partly genetic. But that also means that nobody is to blame. And it also means: Psychotherapy is not a suitable treatment.
Lots of well-intentioned advice is a bad habit that is hard to bear. It’s somewhat absurd to assume that a long-time stutterer has never tried the “You just have to speak slowly!” tip. Or that it would help him or her to finish the sentence vicariously. On the contrary: Anger at the know-it-alls tends to intensify the problem. The simplest manners also apply to people who stutter: everyone has the right to speak up!
The column appears every Wednesday. All episodes that have appeared so far can be found on the column page of the Tagesspiegel.
2023-04-25 14:37:38
#children #stutter #Therapy #ideally #age
