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stuttterblog (12)Stuttering People Blogs - share a Problem, view Speech difficulties, explore Causes
At least five factors contribute to stuttering. No single stuttering therapy is a "miracle cure", or even more than moderately effective. Treating stuttering requires a multifactoral approach-different treatments for the five factors.
The five factors are: (Auditory Processing Underactivity) Brain scans have found that the auditory processing area is underactive during stuttering. It appears that stutterers can't integrate what we hear ourselves saying with how we feel our muscles moving. Electronic altered auditory feedback devices appear to correct this neurological abnormality. (Speech Motor Control Overactivity) Brain scans have also found that the speech motor, muscle control area is overactive. Stutterers overtense their respiration, vocal folds, and lips, jaws, and tongues (articulation muscles). These overtensed muscles lock up or fail to coordinate, making speech impossible. Fluency shaping therapy trains stutterers and some anti-stutter devices help to speak with relaxed speech production muscles. (Dopamine) A third neurological abnormality associated with stuttering involves ( too-high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the left caudate) nucleus speech motor control area. This appears to contribute to speech muscle overactivity. Dopamine antagonist medications treat this abnormality. (Response Selection to Stress) Stuttering is a response to stress, but a response that sets up a vicious cycle. Personal construct therapy and other therapies train stutterers to handle stress in ways that result in fluent speech. (Psychological Effects) Stuttering causes psychological fears and anxieties. For some individuals, these fears and anxieties are more disabling than their physical stuttering
Treating the Five Factors. Most stutterers have one or two factors strongly. The other factors may be less significant. You might find a speech clinic that treats you successfully, especially if the speech clinic combines two or more therapies. But a speech-language pathologist can treat at most three of the five factors. Electronic devices can treat one or two factors. You'll likely have to go to several speech clinics, and possibly buy an electronic device to treat all of the factors that contribute to your stuttering.
I truly believe that the only people who can answer the question, from the title of this article, are people who actually have or have overcome a stutter themselves. For reasons that I am not aware of, I developed a stutter when I was just four years of age. Despite attending speech therapy at regular intervals, the problem continued for the next eighteen years. I decided to follow an alternative route to cure my speech impediment, a route that was to prove successful when I was aged twenty-two. I have no doubt that the speech therapists do an admiral job up and down our country, however do they offer any real help for people who stutter?
