Speech therapy
There are no drugs against stuttering itself yet. Nevertheless, drugs against tension and anxiety (fear) can ease certain situations and thus improve the symptoms. The best advice on this can be given by child and youth psychiatrists.
They have a wealth of experience in anxiety therapy and know the spectrum of anxiety-relieving drugs (anxiolytics). If the caregivers listen patiently to the stutterer, let him or her speak out and confront him or her with understanding, the stutterer will usually enjoy speaking and it will be easier for him or her to control the flow of speech. Within the family, stuttering should not be considered at all.
On the contrary, corrective interventions by others, impatience and inacceptance promote a stressful situation and complicate the stutterer’s flow of speech. The latter takes place mainly at school. Children quickly realize that they can weaken and offend their stuttering classmates, like to correct them and annoy them with smiles and ignorance.
Parents and teachers should therefore not be afraid to openly address the situation in class to appeal to the understanding of their classmates! The affected person himself usually does not like to talk about such teasing and skillfully hides his shame from the educators and parents. Here, too, open conversations should be held from time to time in order to assess the child’s situation and to be able to influence it if necessary.
- When does the stutterer feel relief?
- What should accompany every therapy?
- What can parents and teachers do?
Prognosis of stuttering
About 90% of stutterers start stuttering before the age of six. Of those affected, the majority lose their speech disorder by puberty. Stuttering begins earlier, especially in girls.
At the same time, girls stop stammering earlier on their own. The prognosis for stuttering depends on the therapy. Patients who still stutter after puberty have a small chance of speaking completely without stuttering.
Therefore it is important to consider stuttering therapy early on if serious stuttering is suspected. An improvement in stuttering can still occur at any age with or without treatment. With therapy most stutterers are helped very well.
A complete remission is not always possible. However, stuttering therapy does help most people to speak more easily and with less pain. Therapy is therefore indicated for both children and adults.
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