Kill Your Stutter Review
A Comprehensive Kill Your Stutter Review
If you are looking for a comprehensive kill your stutter review, then you should read this article. It will tell you everything that you need to know about this great program and how it can permanently get rid of your stuttering. How do people usually react when they hear someone stutter or stammer? They most likely make fun of this person. And how do people usually perceive someone who stutters? Stupid, dumb, or even mentally retarded. There are many misconceptions about people who stutter a lot. One is that they are not as smart or well-adjusted as non-stutterers are. This is mainly because of their difficulty in expressing themselves. However, people who stutter are not as unintelligent as they may appear. Stammering and intelligence have nothing to do with each other. However, a person’s competence or personality is always judged based on how good a speaker he is. That is a sad reality for the many people who tend to stutter. About 1% percent of the world’s population stutters including more than three million Americans.
A lot of well-known people in the field of politics and entertainment stuttered and were able to cope with their speech difficulties. The world’s famous stutterers include actress Marilyn Monroe, British politician Winston Churchill, King George VI, author Lewis Carroll, musician Carly Simon, and former U.S. president George W. Bush. Before we get to how to stop stuttering, we should learn about some of the most common symptoms of stuttering.
Symptoms
The other symptoms of speech disfluency manifest themselves when a person attempts to control his or her stammering. Several movements of the body can be noticed while a stutterer is speaking. These include jerky head movements, rapid and repetitive blinking of the eyes, tightness or tension of the face and upper part of the body, poor eye contact, and trembling or shaking of the jaw or lips.
A few symptoms are more difficult to see than the physical symptoms of stammering. These symptoms involve the emotions, which can be recognized by the stutterer himself. The worst among all symptoms of stammering include fear of the condition itself, inability to express oneself clearly, and avoidance of situations in which a person has to speak such as talking on the phone or speaking in front of many people. Intense fear of being ridiculed and embarrassed is fairly common among people who frequently stutter.
Stutterers also tend to become angered and frustrated because of their condition and the reactions of other people about it. As a result, the self-esteem and self-image of a person who stutters go into a nosedive causing them to feel ashamed of themselves and to be extremely anxious every time they speak. All these emotional symptoms lead to another cycle of stammering symptoms, thus worsening a person’s speech difficulties.
All symptoms of stuttering vary throughout a person’s lifespan. They may increase or decrease, depending on the physical and emotional state of the stutterer. The symptoms may lessen when the person whispers, sings, talks to pets, speaks along with others, or copies another person’s manner of speaking.
On the other hand, symptoms get worse because of certain situations such as increased anxiety and nervousness when a person has to speak in public or talk on the phone. Also, there are particular medications that trigger or aggravate the symptoms of stammering.
Treatment
After you have accepted that there really is a problem and that you can’t handle it on your own, you can go to a professional speech language pathologist to help you in this case. They can recommend you good medications to help you at the start. This must be backed up with therapy sessions and you should also initiate to practice facing your fears as you progress through the process.
If you are dealing with a child or adult who has this problem, you have to guide them by giving them time to finish what they have to say. Allow them to talk in a slow manner and do not interrupt that much as they try to convey their message. Try to get them to speak in a slow and relaxed manner. The faster you talk, the harder it will be for you to speak fluently.
Try to sing the words to lessen your chance of stammering. Normally, most people don’t stutter when they sing. So sing your words to make yourself sound more pleasant as you speak.
Both adults and children should also try doing regular breathing exercises. Breathe in deeply before you speak. That way, words and sounds will smoothly flow out of your mouth. Also, learn to exhale while you’re speaking. To help yourself relax before you start speaking, you need to learn some breathing or relaxation techniques. Controlled breathing is crucial in treating speech disfluency. Yoga and meditation prove to be useful for that purpose.
While you are still in the process of finding a cure, you must avoid situations where you will feel really stressed out because this will only aggravate your condition. Refrain from pressuring yourself to speak fluently. The more you pressure yourself, the more anxious you become. And anxiety will only help increase your chances of stammering.
Studies are still being conducted to find the right and the best cures for stuttering. Even if this is the case, this must not stop you from researching and applying good tips on what you can do to overcome the condition or help someone who is suffering from this.
Millions of Americans have a speech impediment. For these people, the mere act of speaking causes them embarrassment and gives them low self-esteem. I used to be one of these people. I had a stuttering problem for more than 30 years starting from my childhood and up to my adulthood. I wouldn’t talk to anyone just because the physical act of speaking was tiring and tough for me and of course, the embarrassment of stuttering in front of people was just too painful for me to put up with. Each time I stuttered my self-esteem would drop even lower. I tried many things to fix my stuttering including speech therapy, slowing down my speech, breathing exercises, and trying to relax my vocal cords while I spoke but nothing gave me the results that I wanted. That is when I decided to look on the Internet. After several days of searching, I found a program that I hoped would correct my stuttering problem. I tried the program for several months and some words that I used to stutter on did not give me any problems anymore. I still had some stuttering difficulties on other words but speaking was a lot more effortless for me and I finally got the confidence that was always missing in social situations.
The program that helped me lessen the severity of my stuttering is called “Kill Your Stutter”. It is a digital program that shows you how to stop stuttering for good in under 10 minutes using specific targeted techniques for stuttering. It is the fastest and easiest way to get rid of your stuttering. This program consists of high quality content and illustrations written by professional writers in collaboration with experienced professionals that specialize in natural stuttering treatments. It is the natural, permanent and complete solution for people that are suffering from this condition whether they are beginners or more advanced. This program is easy to use. You will not have to spend hours learning this technique. You just have to go through the steps one time. You will not have to use rehashed methods that are over-saturated. You will learn the most up-to-date methods.
If you use the “Kill Your Stutter” program on a regular basis, then you will no longer have to waste time and money on speech therapy and you won’t have to use those hypnosis or will power tapes anymore. If you are having problems holding down a job because of your stuttering, then you should definitely give this program a try. This system will allow you to speak smoothly without any type of repetition or hesitation. Can you imagine living your life without your stuttering problem hanging over your head every waking moment? You will be able to speak to anyone including your significant other, kids, any other family members, and friends with complete confidence.
The severity of your stuttering will be reduced instantly as you go through the technique. You will not have to wait for weeks to see some results. This technique can be performed in your own home so you do not have to be out in public practicing speaking to people. You will learn the scientific reason why people stutter and you will learn how to stop it for good so that you do not have to spend energy trying to consciously control your speech.
So why does this system work while others fail?
This system has a high success rate and can be downloaded as a PDF digital report to your computer right now. This system is available for a low one-time fee and costs less than a single speech therapy session. It comes with a 100% money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose. If you want to purchase this affordable program and never have to pay for expensive speech therapy sessions again, then please click here to find out more about this program!
How Do You Stop Stuttering
Three Simple Ways For How To Stop Stuttering
Stuttering or stammering is a kind of speech disorder where the flow of speech is interrupted with prolongation or repetitions of words, syllables, sounds and phrases. The stutterer may sometimes experience involuntary silent pauses with what they want to say as they are unable to create any sounds.
This condition is only normal for children when they are only beginning to talk. At this point, kids are only trying to imitate sounds and they are practicing how they can construct their sentences in order to convey what’s on their mind. It is a different case though if you are already an adult and you still fumble many times with your words. If you won’t seek treatment, this may cause you burdens as well as social and psychological effects.
As you grow old, you are expected to mingle with different kinds of people. You will go far in life if you know how to express yourself properly at various kinds of venues. The condition may not bother you that much while you were young, but once you expand your horizons, like you attend school or go hunting for jobs, you need to be confident enough to express yourself to create a good impression. There are some people who only stutter at certain conditions, like when they have to speak in front of a large group or they need to present something very important to their bosses. There are also those who can’t say how they feel to people important to them or they get tongue-tied when they are already faced with the people they admire.
For severe cases, it is vital that you consult with a professional speech language pathologist so that they can test what’s the best treatment that you can get. If your condition is less severe and you want to learn effective ways to stop stuttering, then listed below are some tricks that you may want to try.
1. You must find out what is causing the problem. You are feeling stressed out that is why you are fumbling with your words. Once you have pointed out what’s causing the stress, you must then think of ways on how you can relax in such situation.
2. Learn how to breathe while talking. Do not rush yourself to finish what you are saying. This exercise is usually done by public speakers and singers. Inhale to get air into your system and say your thoughts while exhaling.
3. If you are finding it hard to speak, try to practice by singing your words. There are some singers who do not sound well during interviews, but you won’t notice anything that is wrong with them while singing. This will be a good exercise and as you go about it, you should also try to practice other steps to make it easier for you to say what you want to.
You have to find your voice and develop self-confidence in order to overcome stuttering. You must never be defeated by this condition. You must do your best to correct the problem and emerge a winner through it all.
How To Control Stuttering
An effective speaker is someone who can speak fluently without any trace of mumbling, rattling, and stuttering. If you speak well, people perceive you as a smart, charismatic person. On the other hand, if you often stutter and cannot express yourself clearly when you speak, people see you as an incompetent and weak person. Between the two kinds of speakers, which would you rather be? Of course, anyone would choose to be a fluent speaker.
However, as much as you would like to be flawless when you speak, there are times when anxiety and nervousness get the better of you. Sometimes as you speak, your tongue seems to trip itself over no matter how hard you try not to stutter. Don’t worry, it is possible to overcome this speech problem if you know the ways to control it.
If stuttering has become more of a habit than an exception to you, here are the steps you can take to curb that habit:
1. Create a mental picture of what you are going to say.
People who frequently stutter fail to visualize the words they intend to say before they start to speak. Worse, most of them have no idea what to say exactly and how to express it verbally.
If you try to picture in your mind what you wish to say, then it will be a lot easier for you to find the right words to use to convey your message. It would be better if you practice visualizing the letters of the word you are going to say as you speak.
2. Perform an aural visualization.
Practice speaking the words you usually find difficult to pronounce. That way, you make it more comfortable for you to speak those particular words. Let your brain hear the words you are going to say. This mental exercise helps you get used to speaking the words that typically cause you to stutter. Stutterers who perform the exercise successfully get more confident when they speak.
3. Avoid pressuring yourself too much.
The more you pressure yourself to speak fluently, the higher your chances of stumbling when you speak. It is because you increase your anxiety and stress when you are pressured, causing you to stutter. Stressing out yourself won’t do you any good—just relax and you will soon get the hang of it.
4. Speak more slowly.
The problem with many stutterers is that they speak very fast and forget to breathe before they start speaking. Take a deep breath before you speak and feel the rhythm of every word that comes out. Speaking too fast can lead to more stammering. So speak in a moderate pace so that you will stutter less often and will be understood by your listener.
5. Speak as though you are singing.
Try this: when you speak, do it in a singing way. Do you feel how much easier it is to speak that way? It is because people tend to stutter less when they sing. So why not use that technique to minimize your stuttering?
Speech Therapy: An Overview
A lesser known area of rehabilitation medicine is Speech Therapy. Many people may not even know that this form of therapy existed. This might be your first time encountering this field or you may have heard about it somewhere, but don’t fully understand what this therapy is all about. The sad truth about Speech Therapy is that you may not encounter it unless the situation calls for it. However, getting to know what the practice is can be very beneficial information.
What Is Speech Therapy?
As the name suggests, speech therapy deals with speech problems that an individual may encounter. However, the field of Speech Pathology doesn’t only tackle speech, but also language and other communication problems that people may already have due to birth, or people acquired due to accidents or other misfortunes.
Speech therapy is basically a treatment that people of all ages can undergo through, to fix their speech. Although speech therapy alone would focus on fixing speech related problems like treating one’s vocal pitch, volume, tone, rhythm and articulation.
Goals Of Speech Therapy
Speech Therapy aims for an individual to develop or get back effective communication skills at its optimal level. Recovery mainly depends on the case and severity of your problem, especially if your speech problem is acquired, meaning you had normal speech skills before then you had an accident or abrupt incident that caused your current speech problem; thus, you may or may not get back your old level of speech function.
Speech Problems
Speech problems are mainly categorized into three namely: Articulation Disorders, Resonance or Voice Disorders and Fluency Disorders. Each disorder deals with a different pathology and uses different techniques for therapy.
Articulation Disorders
Articulation Disorders are basically problems with physical features used for articulation. These features include lips, tongue, teeth, hard and soft palate, jaws and inner cheeks. If you have an Articulation Disorder, then you may have a problem producing words or syllables correctly to the point that people you communicate to can’t understand what you are saying.
Resonance or Voice Disorders
Resonance, more popularly known as, Voice Disorders mainly deal with problems regarding phonation or the production of the raw sound itself. Most probably, you have a Voice Disorder when the sound that your larynx or voice box produces comes out to be muffled, nasal, intermittent, weak, too loud or any other characteristic not pertaining to normal.
Fluency Disorders
Fluency Disorders are speech problems with regard to the fluency of your speech. There are some cases that you talk too fast, in which people can’t understand you, thus, you have a Fluency Disorder of Cluttering. The most common Fluency Disorder however, is Stuttering, which is a disorder of fluency where your speech is constantly interrupted by blocks, fillers, stoppages, repetitions or sound prolongations.
Who Gives Speech Therapy?
A highly trained professional, called a SLP or a Speech and Language Pathologist, gives Speech Therapy. Speech and Language Pathologists are informally more popularly known as Speech Therapists. They are professionals who have education and training with human communication development and disorders.
Speech and Language pathologists assess, diagnose and treat people with speech, communication and language disorders. However, they are not doctors, but are considered to be specialists on the field of medical rehabilitation.
Ways To Stop Stuttering
Five Simple Ways To Stop Stuttering
Before you hide yourself from the world because you are finding it hard to talk and connect to other people, you must look at your case and help yourself overcome the problem. This is the usual dilemma of adults who have stuttering problems and that is the reason why they all ask the same question, “How Do You Stop Stuttering?” They fear that others might laugh at them and won’t care about what they are saying, so they choose to back out and lessen their exposure to lots of people. If you can relate with the situation, you must bear in mind that nothing can be achieved if you won’t do anything about it or if you will run away from it all. You must first try to help yourself and seek a professional’s help if the case is already becoming a heavy burden.
You can start with these simple routines and exercises if you think that the condition is still manageable. Make sure that you act on the problem as soon as you recognize that there really is one before it gets out of hand.
1. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. If you are already having problems in conveying your thoughts to other people, it won’t help if you simply stop talking to them. You need to challenge yourself that you can surpass this and no matter how you fumble at first, you should continue telling people what you want you think.
2. Get out of your comfort zone every once in a while. It is expected that with this condition, you will try to limit your circle to friends, relatives and family members who will not laugh at the manner you speak. But to be able to evolve and succeed in life, you need to learn how to socialize and represent yourself even to people whom you do not know.
3. You have to be comfortable in verbalizing your thoughts to other people. While you are at this stage, you must not feel very pressured to speak in a fluent manner. It doesn’t matter at this point if you are fluent or not. What matters more is how you feel why you are speaking with others. As you try to find your voice and as you begin getting rid of initial nervousness, you will eventually learn to speak in more fluent terms.
4. Another good way to build up your confidence while speaking with other people is by looking them in the eyes. You will feel the connection by maintaining eye contact, and this is also a good exercise to complete your thoughts and ideas.
5. You are already under pressure as it is while you are trying to help yourself get rid of the condition. You must not add any more stress contributors by expecting that you will overcome the problem after some days or even a week or so. This will take time, lots of practice and hard work. You must be determined to finish the task and achieve your goal in the long run.
You must never let stuttering overshadow who you really are. You must find ways to beat it by doing the recommended tricks to help you get past this stage.
Importance Of Play In Speech Therapy
Play has a very important role in speech therapy. It is actually one way that speech therapy can be conveyed, especially if the one undergoing therapy is a child.
What’s Play Got To Do With It?
Play isn’t just used during the therapy proper. In fact, play is already used during the initial phases of assessment. Kids can be very choosy with people that they interact with, so seeing a therapist for the first time doesn’t promise an instant click. Rapport has to be established first, and this is usually done through play.
Benefits Of Play
Other than using it as a tool to establish rapport, play also gives a lot of benefits. First off, it gives an over view of the child’s skills, whether it be their abilities or limitations.
Then, therapy wise, play can be used to make a child cooperate with whatever exercises a therapist has lined up for him/her. Since play doesn’t put much pressure on a child, he/she would likely cooperate to do the exercises and not know that what he/she is doing is already called therapy.
When the child is more relaxed, he can be at a more natural state. If a child is at his more natural state, then his skills could show more naturally. Thus, this would be a benefit on the therapist’s part, since the therapist could get a more comprehensive assessment of the child’s skills.
Play could also make therapy more fun and less scary. Since play is an activity to be enjoyed, the child would not get bored with monotonous therapy activities that seem like chores, rather than activities.
Play As A Skill
In fact, play is considered to be a skill itself, because it is a natural activity that children do. If a child doesn’t play, then there must be something wrong with him, most probably with his Inner Language skills. This is because; play is a representation of a child’s inner language. This is just one of the many reasons why play is important.
It actually has a domino effect, if you look at the bigger picture. Play is needed to have Inner language, which is in turn needed to have Receptive language that is a prerequisite of Expressive language. Thus, if a child has no play abilities, then his whole language system may be affected.
Play And Cognition
Play is also a basis of a child’s cognition skills. The more developed a child’s play skills are, the higher the probability that his cognition skills would be at a fair state. However, play and condition are not the same. Play is more likely a prerequisite or a co-requisite of cognition.
What Parents Have To Say
Unfortunately, most parents may have a negative impression when they see the therapist playing with their child. Initially, parents get surprised and shocked that they paid a very valuable amount for therapy, only to find out that their child would only be playing.
That’s why it is very important for therapists to explain the procedures that they are going to do with the child to the parents. To make the session more interesting, the therapist could also include the parent/s in the play session with the child.
In this way, the child would definitely think that it is a play session. Additionally, the parent can also do the play activity at home with the child. Doing this, could serve to be practice of the targeted skill of the play activity.
What Causes People To Stutter?
Researchers have various theories on what causes people to stutter. However, the exact cause of this speech impediment is still unknown today. What researchers are sure of is that there are factors that influence people’s inability to speak fluently.
Language Development
Developmental stammering is the most usual form of the condition. That means it affects young children at a stage when they are learning how to speak and form language. Children who are still in the process of developing their speech and language tend to stutter when they speak. It occurs when children rack up their brain for the right words to convey their message. This is a sign that their speech and language abilities are not yet developed enough to help them express clearly what they intend to say. If you are very concerned with your child’s constant stammering, don’t be. Your child will outgrow it within about four years.
Genetics
Most scientists believe that many forms of stammering have something to do with genetics. It is because of the tendency of the condition to run in families, supporting the claim that stammering may be inherited from one generation to another. However, the exact genetic mechanisms that cause stammering or genes that trigger the condition have yet to be found.
Neurogenic Disorder or Signal Problems
People may stutter because of difficulties in transmitting signals from the brain to the muscles and nerves that control speech. That happens when the speech muscles and nerves fail to function properly, which make it harder for the brain to coordinate with the various parts of the speech mechanism in the body. This stammering type is referred to in speech pathology terms as a neurogenic disorder. It usually occurs in children as well as adults who have brain injury or those who have suffered from stroke. In rare cases, lesions or structural flaws in the part of the brain that takes charge of a person’s motor speech trigger this neurogenic condition.
Psychogenic Disorder
Scientists explain that some forms of stammering originate from the brain’s activities such as reasoning and thought. This type of stammering is called psychogenic disorder. Compared to other forms of stammering discussed earlier, the psychogenic origin rarely affects people’s speech. It happens to people who have undergone extreme mental stress or trauma or those who have certain types of mental disorder.
However, experts believe that these emotional and mental problems lead to stuttering instead of causing the speech condition. For example, people who usually stammer may have to endure several emotional troubles like speaking on the telephone or in public. Others dread meeting new people. In some cases, people stammer when they are intensely excited, enraged, scared, or shocked. Aside from these extreme emotions, fatigue, intense pressure, and self-consciousness may also increase a person’s tendency to stutter while speaking.
Interestingly, many people who usually stutter can speak fluently when they talk to themselves, speak with a few friends, or sing with a crowd or group. The reason for that is still unclear, though.
Fluent Speech
There are several speech therapies aimed at controlling or eliminating stuttering. These therapies vary from what kind of program fits the characteristic of the patient.
One of these therapies is called generating fluent speech. A comprehensive speech processing approach that aims to guide people who stutter to develop a speech processing similar with normal fluent speakers. Developed by Barbara Dahm, it is a therapeutic program for stuttering developed at Communication Therapy Institute in Israel. This has been developed from her several years of experience with people who stutter.
Established in 1987, Communication Therapy Institute is a private clinic specializing in the treatment of stuttering. Barbara Dahm, M.Ed is a speech pathologist who founded and currently heads CTI Communication Therapy Institute.
This program is based on the premised that stutterers use processes for the production speech different from the normal fluent speakers. Thus, the program includes steps in which stutterers relearn the speech production process. Exercises include learning to vibrate their vocal folds in an effortless manner, thus training them to monitor words and speech sounds.
The program’s exercises aid the stutterers to focus their attention away from the activity. This results to simplified language development process and as such becomes subconscious. Stutterers also learn an uncontrolled speech muscles and makes articulation an automatic process at a rapid rate. It also aimed at making the patients fully understand their speech production system so that they can self-correct their errors. After this program, patients are expected to be confident speakers whatever situations they may face.
The exercises are not intended to teach fluency but train the stutterers to detach from the result of the activity of speaking. Eventually, repetitive and religiously done activities will result to a proficient act of speaking. The goals of learning conscious effort, artificial monitoring speech, and subconscious controls will make stutterers speak effortlessly.
The therapy program is divided into two stages. Children from age 10 and adults will undergo approximately 90 hours of intensive therapy for stage 1. Stage 2 will consist of six months self-help therapy. However, during these times, clinicians will be available depending on the patient’s needs.
Children below age 10 have a different set of stages. Stage 1 comprises a regular scheduled individual therapy sessions until the patient is able to produce speech easily and correctly in conversation and oral reading. Stage 2 consists of shorter and less frequent therapy sessions with self-help and family assisted home therapy.
Results have shown that people learn the process within the three-week period of the first stage. Some patients also testified that through this program, they were able to understand their difficulty in speaking. The program aided them for making self-improvements in their ability to speak fluently.
The research study showed that Generating Fluent Speech is an effective therapeutic program. The results showed that patients developed a stronger sense of self-confidence and relaxing body mechanisms when speaking.
Recently, the findings of latest researches indicated that Generating Fluent Speech is most utilized therapeutic approach in treating several stuttering cases.
How To Stop Stuttering In Children
At the age of three to four, children begin stuttering as they develop their speech and language skills. That is just normal during the speech development stage, which causes toddlers to constantly repeat, hesitate, and mispronounce words, sounds, and syllables. This temporary stage is called normal disfluency or pseudo-stuttering that occurs as children learn how to speak properly. Parents have no reason to worry because kids will eventually outgrow this stage after several months.
Causes
Until now, the exact cause of speech disfluency in children is still the subject of numerous studies. However, there are factors that may possibly trigger speech disorders in children such as genetics and the malfunction of the mechanisms responsible for speech production in the brain, nerves, and muscles.
Symptoms
Stammering in children becomes a cause for alarm when they fail to show signs of improvement after six months since the onset of stammering. The following are the symptoms every parent should watch out:
-Frequent repetition of a certain syllable (e.g. “Mom, I want some cho-cho-cho chocolates.”)
-Tendency to pronounce particular sounds in a lengthy way (e.g. “Ccccccan I wwwwatch TV?”)
-Substitution of vowels when repeating certain syllables. (e.g. “I will wuh-wuh-wuhsh my feet.”)
-Change of tone and pitch when the child gets stuck with a word
-Avoidance of speaking for fear of getting embarrassed
How to Help Children Overcome their Condition
As a parent, you have to make life a bit easier for your child and lessen the struggles he or she has to endure while going through the speech disfluency stage. The following are useful tips to help your child cope with the speech problem:
-Refrain from asking your child too many questions. Toddlers will find it easier to speak more clearly when they are allowed to express themselves instead of answering questions often.
-Do not react negatively or scold your child whenever he or she stutters. Making your child feel that you dislike stammering will only make him or her more self conscious. Just listen and show a neutral reaction or simply smile. Also, avoid the urge to complete or correct the sentence for your child. Let him or her express the message without any interruption.
-After your child has completed the sentence, say it again in a slow manner to let him or her know that you understood the message.
-Speak to your child in a moderate pace. This will train your child to speak calmly instead of hurrying to say things. In addition, pay attention to what your child has to say. If you look like you’re in a hurry, your child will tend to speak faster to keep up with you.
-Encourage—but don’t force—your child to talk. That way, the child learns to be confident when speaking. Whenever your child says a complete and correct sentence, praise him or her.
Your child needs your care, understanding, and support to be able to cope with stuttering. Give your child the assurance that you won’t punish him or her for every mistake. That way, it will be easier for the child to outgrow the speech problem.
Speech Therapy For Stuttering
There are a number of ways to treat stuttering. You should not let stuttering get in the way of speaking to other people, especially when you need to demonstrate emotions.
A very popular treatment in stuttering is speech therapy. This requires consulting a speech-language pathologist. However, finding the right speech-language pathologist for you is very important for they vary in expertise. Some may work perfectly with young children, while others specialize in problems associated with brain damage.
There are key factors to keep in mind in entering a therapy process. Pathologists and clinicians will not solve your disorder. They will be just key instruments in aiding you to eradicate stuttering. First, you should remember that all stuttering therapies are self-help process. Second, such therapy is long term and full-time process for stuttering affects not only your speech but also attitudes and behaviors. Thus, the third key point is about a therapy that alters speech, attitude and behaviour. Last, be sure to be clear about the process.
Speech therapies are sometimes available at local health clinics or university speech clinics. But do remember that mostly clinicians and pathologists here are graduate students in training. The graduate students also change each semester, so your relationship with your clinician is also changing.
Choosing a clinician and pathologist is another important factor in your therapy process. Vital aspects of time, financial resources, and plans are to be considered here. As a guide in selecting your clinician, here are some key points to look at. This advice is from Hugo Gregory of North-western University, a known speech-language pathologist.
One is the perspective of clinician on how to treat and use a program for his patients. Does he believe in one general type of program or a varied program that fit a particular characteristic of a stutterer?
Second is the content of the program. Does it focus on altering speech or does it include change in thoughts and feelings, or a combination of both?
Third is the process of the program. Does it include mechanisms for modification of stuttering or does it emphasize on learning skills for a stutter-free speech? This is also related to the fourth one. Does the program combine procedures for modifying stuttering with teaching of skills for building fluency?
Fifth is the practical aspect of the program. Does the program ensure a practice of learning from the clinic to real-life situations?
Sixth is the effort of the clinician to understand and link the frustration of the stutterer and his life experiences to be able to map how his patient will succeed in therapy and life in general.
Seventh is the span of time the therapy process will take. Is it short term or it has follow-up program to assist the stutterer in the process of change?
Lastly, has the clinician provided several opportunities for his patients to express their experiences before the therapy, during and after the therapy?
Generally, people who plan for a stuttering therapy should remember that good clinicians are honest, positive in their attitudes, open-minded, informative, and detail disciplined.
Types Of Fluency Disorders
One of the main categories of speech problems in need for speech therapy are fluency disorders. However, there are different types of fluency disorders, even though they may all seem the same. Each type has its own cause, and defining characteristics that make them stand out from one another.
There are basically six main types of fluency disorders, while some are considered to be other conditions that are related to fluency disorders.
Normal Developmental Disfluency
Normal developmental disfluency, is a fluency disorder that is a lot of times mistaken to be stuttering. This condition occurs with children from ages 1:6- 6 years old, although the peak of the condition is considered to be 2-4 years of age.
A lot of parents may be concerned of the way their child speaks, but in reality, this is a normal condition that every child goes through. Normal developmental disfluency is a normal part of a child’s development. So there is really no need to worry at all.
A child would normally get over this stage as his speech skills develop. However, a proper environment, and interaction is needed for that to happen. If a child is pressured by his parents or people around him about his speech, the higher the probability that his disfluency would become a problem in the future and could develop to stuttering.
Stuttering
Stuttering is a disorder of childhood (developmental) that is characterized by an abnormally high frequency or duration of stoppages in the forward flow of speech. Although normal developmental disfluency has its own share of stoppages, stuttering on the other hand has some extra characteristics that normal developmental disfluency doesn’t have.
What makes stuttering different, from normal developmental disfluency, is that stuttering has escape behaviors, avoidance behaviors, and other secondary behaviors. These so called behaviors are also called physical concomitants. Some examples are eye blinks, head nods, jaw tremors and total body gyrations.
Neurogenic Disfluency
This kind of disfluency is a result of an identifiable neuropathology in a person that has no history of fluency problems prior to occurrence of the pathology. People who have accidents that caused brain problems, which induced their disfluency, fall into this category.
Neurogenic disfluency has similar characteristics as stuttering, including the physical behaviors like eye blinks and tremors. The thing is that, the main problem in conditions like these is not fluency at all, but the lesser control of muscles needed in speech production.
Psychogenic Disfluency
A disfluency with no found evidence of neurological dysfunction and no history of developmental stuttering. It is of sudden onset and attributed to an identifiable emotional crisis. Can be grouped into three categories namely: emotionally based, manipulative, and malingering disfluencies
An example of this kind of disfluency is when a person starts to stutter when a specific other is around. For instance, a student who is afraid of her teacher, starts to stutter every time her teacher is around but speaks fluently when around her friends and family.
Language Bases Disfluency
This is a disfluency that is attributed to the development of linguistic sophistication. The main root of the problem here would be language problems, which would require language based therapy rather than fluency-based therapy.
Mixed Fluency Failures
These are fluency failures that are characterized by overlapping causative factors. Speech pattern observed is the result of a blend of two or more factors/disfluency.
Cluttering
This is a condition that is related to fluency disorders. It is considered to be the extreme of stuttering. It is a disorder of timing and rhythm of speech where the person speaks too fast that his speech can’t be comprehended. The thing is, a clutterer isn’t aware that he is cluttering, while a stutterer is very much aware that he stutters.
Charles Van Riper’s Stuttering Modification Therapy
It is an intensive interval therapy program for people who stutter. First conducted in 1987 Germany, this therapy program was named after Van Riper from whom it took several of its basic underlying principles of treatment.
It is called the Van Riper Program as Intensive Interval Therapy. It is called interval because of its block schedule system—a five-day duration of segments with six to eight weeks between the segments. It is called intensive because of its long period of session during segments—about eight hours a day.
The basic principles of this program involve the preference and utilization of stuttering modification approach over a fluency shaping approach. It also considers motivation and relapse as major difficulties in many adult stuttering therapies. In addition, it believes that therapist plays a lesser role in most adult stuttering therapies.
The Van Riper Program is done in a group—about 12 patients with two therapists. This is often conducted in a church-run boarding house. In Germany, the therapists include Andreas Starke, together with Angelika Engert and Bernd Koppenhagen.
There are five weeks overall in the process. The first week focuses on identification. The two major goals in this initial week are improving the understanding of each patient’s stuttering and making patients understand the basic concepts of speech production. This segment involves a video recording of each patient and recorded ten-minute conversational speech and five-minute reading. This is followed by lectures on speech production and analysis of the video recordings.
The second week focuses on desensitization. The major goal of this segment is to desensitize patients to the expectation and experience of stuttering. This phase include exercises in maintaining eye contact, analyzing reactions to stuttering, and regaining control in stuttering event. In this phase, patients are expected to make modifications in their reactions to stuttering such as avoiding, interjections, and postponing.
The next week uses the cancellation procedure from Van Riper’s technique with introduction and practice processes. This stage teaches patients with slow motion speech with attention given to precise prolongation of natural speed production and the use of pauses. Records have shown that frequency of stuttering have substantial reduction in most patients.
Aside from introduction and practice, the fourth week now employs the pull-outs devised by Van Riper. This is simpler than the process in the previous stage. Patients are trained to gain control of the stuttering event, thus completing the word through slow movement. Most patients rarely have difficulty achieving this process. Often than not, they find such process pleasurable.
In addition, the fourth week involves less outdoor activities and telephone sessions. However, for ensuring their fluency, a 15 to 20 minute public speech is done as an exercise.
Lastly, the final week involves no exercise anymore. It is more of reviewing the sequence of therapy and instructs the patients to work their way backwards. In addition, the therapists further explain the sources of relapse and discuss specific characteristics of a life of a person who stutter.
In a recent survey, this stuttering modification process has been successful so far in many patients.
Treatment For Stuttering In Children
Every parent wants to catch the first words of their children. They are eagerly waiting for the time that their kids can finally talk and express what they want to say through words. It is only normal to feel a bit warned and problematic after learning that they are finding it hard to speak when they are already at the right age. Stuttering is common to younger ones like those in preschool. How would you know that the condition should already be referred to a professional?
If the kid is really young, you must give them enough time and allow them to keep up with their own pace on how fast or how slow they will be able to learn how to talk properly. The best thing that you can do to guide and help them at this point is by talking to them and helping your kids pronounce the words that they are finding hard to say. You must not hurry them to talk straight and right because it will eventually come. They must not feel any pressure whenever they want to say something. You should let them finish what they have to say without any interruptions. Through this, they will be able to practice how to construct their sentences and put words together to be able to verbalize what they want to let other people know.
If they are at the right age or even while they are young but the condition is already hindering their social growth, this is when you should start seeking help by getting them treated by the right professionals. In this case, you can get them checked by a professional speech language pathologist. If you don’t know anyone, you must try to research about similar cases because the results will give you good leads as to the right people that you can consult about the matter.
Normal Phase
This is a phase that everybody goes through as part of speech development. This situation is actually referred to as psuedostuttering or dysfluency, which is only normal and must not raise warning signals. The child is trying to imitate sounds and say the words that express how they feel. This is a new experience for them so it is only natural that they fumble with their words as they repeat syllables, they substitute the sounds of the words, they pause in the process of saying difficult words or they aren’t able to say what they want to.
The more pressure that you will put on them to finish fast with what they want to convey or to prompt them to say the right things, they will stutter all the more. This is because they will feel the pressure. They are already excited as it is with this new phase that they are beginning to learn. It won’t help if you will add any factors to stress them out all the more.
The best way to diagnose if your child’s stuttering is already causing them problems is to give them time and observe how they deal with it. If the condition is not causing them any troubles, then you should leave your worries behind for the meantime.
Speech Therapy: PROLAM-GM Approach
PROLAM-GM is an acronym for the various intervention and transfer strategies used in the management of stuttering. PROLAM, which stands for physiological adjustments, rate manipulation, operant controls, length and complexity of utterance, attitude changes, and monitoring, are the intervention strategies. GM, which stands for generalization and maintenance, are the transfer strategies.
Physiological Adjustments
Physiological adjustment strategies include tactics that manipulate bodily components known or thought to be involved in the production of stuttered speech. An example of this would be the attempt to use gentle contact between the articulators when talking.
The rationale behind this approach is that the physiological components necessary for the production of normal fluent speech are in some way used inappropriately when stuttering occurs. Therefore, the therapy tactics used will result in a “readjustment” of the disordered component, or in use of compensatory behaviors and strategies.
Rate of Speech Manipulations
Use of a reduced speech rate to modify stuttering operates in the belief that: (a) reduction of rate results in simplification of the physiological speech processes, thus allowing easier synchronization or; (b) reduction in the rate of speech prevents the stutterer from anticipating feared stimuli that result in the production of the stuttering response.
The rate of the stutterer’s speech may be reduced by: prolongation, combining prolongation with continuous phonation, and using an instructional rate control method.
Operant Controls
Use of operant controls in the management of stuttering believes that if stuttering is an operant behavior (behaviors whose frequency or probability of occurrence are influenced by the consequences they generate), then its frequency will increase if it is reinforced, and its frequency of occurrence will decrease if it is punished.
Two of the most frequently used operant procedures for treating stuttering are positive reinforcement of fluency and punishment of stuttering.
Length and Complexity of Utterance
Controlling the length and complexity of the stutterer’s utterance reduces stuttering and increases fluency. This technique is often used to increase fluent speech. Most of the approaches utilizing this technique combine manipulation of length and complexity of the client’s language with operant controls (punishment of stuttering and reinforcement of fluency).
Attitude
There are two components of stuttering namely: the feelings accompanying it and the speaking behaviors that are resulted from it. It is believed by some that to have a successful therapy, a balance of treating both factors should be done. That’s why attitude manipulation is done in some approaches while in other approaches it can be optional depending on the case of the client.
Monitoring
In the science of Speech Pathology, especially in the field of stuttering, there are a lot of meanings for the term ‘monitoring’. Some say it’s a process in which the PWS becomes aware of what he is doing at the time he is doing it. Some say it is a specific form of consciousness where the act of speaking is raised from an automatic level to a purposeful level. Basically, it has three key components: self-awareness, deliberate control and self-feedback.
Generalization
The technical term for generalization is “the occurrence of a relevant behavior under different nontraining conditions.” The term generalization is usually interchanged with ‘transfer’ or ‘carryover’.
Maintenance
Sometimes, when clients are able to achieve fluency, they think the fight is over. They forget to maintain their skills and in result they have a relapse with their stuttering. Maintenance refers to different after-treatment activities to help clients keep the skills they learned from therapy intact.
Some activities to help maintain skills are daily self-monitoring activities, regular clinic contacts, refresher programs and having self-help groups.
Treat Stuttering With The Mind Body Spirit Technique
Many clinicians now treat stutterers using the mind-body-spirit medical philosophy, a model that was being practiced at least three thousand years ago.
Not only are the principles and practices of this model used to treat people who stutter. Such technique also showed effective results with terminally ill cancer patients and catastrophically ill children. Doctors employ visualization, guided imagery, and psychotherapy.
The mind-body-spirit medical philosophy is also known as “alternative medicine” or “holistic medicine” because clinicians look into the totality of the person including his mind and body to understand the dynamics that may induce or cause the illness and not just the symptoms.
The underpinning principle for such technique is that human organisms naturally yearn for balance and wellness in mind, body, and spirit. Such balance and wellness enables the body to function normally without much effort.
Therefore, recently, speech pathologist Carl H. Scott proposed a PWS in treating people who stutter. His model is based mainly from the mind-body-spirit medical philosophy. The technique does not only treat stuttering symptoms but also work the person toward balanced mind, body, and spirit.
Patients should take note of the adverse attitudes that would lead to unsuccessful treatment. The program is designed to encourage patients to develop their own inner guidance and therefore trust the technique. The technique makes patients self-reliant with a continuing source of information and inspiration to realize their goals.
The fundamental principle of this process is the commitment and intimate communication of patients with their higher selves. One clinician defines it as “invisible life force.”
A variety of therapeutic techniques is provided through the healing process. Examples of these are regression, gestalt therapy, psychosynthesis, applied kinesiology, EMDR, focusing, visualization, guided imagery, hypnosis, and neurolinguistic programming (NLP).
The first stage is to guide the patients to identify attitudes, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviour that might lead to unsuccessful healing. On this stage, clinicians are often listeners and absorbers of their patients’ seethes before the latter will be willing to throw their old belief system and accept a new perspective.
The second stage of the therapeutic sessions is to begin a healing process. Sometimes, this stage involves an inner child work. Other sessions might include dialoguing or forgiveness. The sessions are designed to dispel negative feelings and thoughts that has been stored over the years. This is because negative energies pose threat to therapeutic progress.
The next stage is designed to create a healthy belief system through indoctrination of new and positive thoughts and feelings. The sessions aim to develop a self-acceptance and love in the patients. The fundamental emphasis on this technique is to embed in patients’ belief system that everyone has freedom to think, feel, and behave.
This stage is focused on embedding new beliefs, thoughts, feelings, attitude, and behavior on an internal level. Such goal is often attained through the use of guided imagery, visualization, and actively living the life outside the therapy environment.
This systematic process of mind-body-spirit model makes a person achieve fluency and eliminating his stuttering.
Stuttering Treatment For Children
Worried about your child who seems to not outgrow his or her stuttering? Also called stammering, this speech condition has symptoms that include repetition of a word, syllable, or sound while speaking. It also involves trouble starting to speak a word, phrase or sentence. Other symptoms of stuttering include trembling of the jaw or lips, quick and repetitive blinking of the eyes, and tightness or tension of the face and upper part of the body. If your son or daughter suffers from these symptoms, it may be a sign that your kid has failed to outgrow that speech difficulty.
When should you bring your child to a specialist? For children between two to five years old, it is normal for them to stutter as they develop their speaking abilities. That will go away on its own. But if the stammering lasts beyond six months and occurs often with the symptoms mentioned above, then your child needs medical attention. If left untreated, stammering in children may lead to worse symptoms such as emotional problems, avoiding situations when the child has to speak, and poor performance in school.
It is advised that a child with speech problem be checked by a speech pathologist, a medical practitioner trained to diagnose and treat people suffering from speech, language, and voice disorders. During diagnosis, the speech pathologist will ask you about the history of the speech condition, particularly when it started and under what situations. After asking other relevant questions, the speech pathologist will perform a full assessment of the speech and language abilities of your child.
Various treatment methods are available for children with speech difficulty. These treatments only alleviate the condition to reduce stammering—no cure has been invented yet. Therapy can help a lot in keeping developmental stammering from getting in the way of a child’s normal day-to-day life.
Stammering in children is usually treated through informing parents on the best ways to adjust or control their children’s speaking environment. That way, the episodes of stammering will be minimized.
The following are several suggestions for parents like you who are searching for ways to treat your child’s speech condition:
-Discuss openly with your child the condition when he or she asks you about it.
-Avoid encouraging or forcing your child to speak to other people.
-Make sure that you maintain a relaxed environment in your home to give your child enough chance to speak. It would be a lot helpful if you let your child speak without any distraction coming from you or other people at home.
-Be relaxed whenever you speak and do it slowly. That way, your child will learn to imitate the correct way to speak minus the stammering.
-Listen to your child attentively whenever he or she talks to you. Be patient—wait for your kid to complete the words. Avoid completing your child’s thoughts for himself or herself.
-Avoid punishing your child or reacting harshly because of his or her speech disfluency.
How To Stop Stammering
More than three million Americans stammer. Stuttering occurs normally in children during their speech development years. However, if you’re an adult and you still stammer, then you’ve got to do something about it before your life becomes a total disaster.
In medical parlance, people stutter when their natural flow of speech is hampered by repetitions of syllables, sounds, or words. Some people who stutter find it difficult to start a word when speaking. This speech disorder may be accompanied by symptoms such as shaking of the lips, jaw, or both as well as rapid blinking of the eyes. If left untreated, the condition may cause side effects, which can ruin one’s performance in social situations. People who usually stutter are fearful of speaking in front of many people or even simple interactions such as talking on the phone.
So how do you control your speech condition? Here are the ways:
* Breathe in deeply before you speak. That way, words and sounds will smoothly flow out of your mouth. Also, learn to exhale while you’re speaking. To help yourself relax before you start speaking, you need to learn some breathing or relaxation techniques. Controlled breathing is crucial in treating speech disfluency. Yoga and meditation prove to be useful for that purpose.
* Refrain from pressuring yourself to speak fluently. The more you pressure yourself, the more anxious you become. And anxiety help increase your chances of stammering.
* Before you speak the words, think about them first. Be sure what words you want to say before you blurt them out. Project the words you want to say in your mind so that they come clearly once you speak. To make that a bit easier for you, try to visualize the letters of every word you are going to say.
* Practice pronouncing words by letter. In doing so, you ease up your speech, making it more comfortable for you to say a word without stammering.
* Speak in a slow and relaxed manner. The faster you talk, the harder it will be for you to speak fluently. Try to sing the words to lessen your chance of stammering. Normally, most people don’t stutter when they sing. So sing your words to make yourself sound more pleasant as you speak.
* When speaking in front of an audience, refrain from looking only at one person. Instead, look above the heads of the people in front of you. Shift your focus on an area at the back of the room (or space, if it is an open area).
* Speak loudly. It may seem to be counteractive because the louder you talk, the more people would notice your stutter. But that’s not completely true. Speaking loudly in fact helps you vocalize each sound of your words properly, keeping you from repeating certain syllables or words.
* Practice, practice, practice. If you frequently stutter, avoiding any situation in which you have to talk will not help you in any way. In fact, it will only worsen your condition because you will never learn how to pronounce words smoothly.
There are many ways to control your stammering. Give them a shot now to gain more confidence when you have to talk to somebody.
Stuttering Facts
Stuttering is a kind of speech disorder that manifests through a person’s hesitation to continue what they are saying, repetition of syllables or whole words and phrases and prolongation of sounds while they are speaking. This is usually experienced by children from ages two to five because this is the stage when they are only learning to form sounds, words and complete sentences.
There are some people who suffer from this due to genetic factors, but there are no proven studies to prove this point. Other people suffer from this speech disorder as a result of neurological events like traumatic brain injuries and stroke. In some cases, it results from a psychological problem. It can get worse when the stutterer is faced with many stress factors or they are dealing with anxiety and nervousness. There are cases when people can sing without any hints that they have the condition and you will only notice such once they begin speaking in a conversational manner.
Symptoms
The known symptoms of this condition include extended pauses while delivering your message, creating long sounds in between words, repetition of words or certain parts of the words. If you have this case, you may also find it hard or feel hesitant in starting your phrases. There are also physical manifestations like too much blinking of the eyes, jaw jerking and involuntary movements of certain body parts without intending to do such.
Treatment
If the condition is only mild, you must learn how to handle it on your own. It will help if you are going to find out what’s causing the problem. What makes you feel nervous when you are talking with other people? Why can’t you speak to a large crowd or why can’t you look directly to the eyes of the person you are talking to?
After you have accepted that there really is a problem and that you can’t handle it on your own, you can go to a professional speech language pathologist to help you in this case. They can recommend you good medications to help you at the start. This must be backed up with therapy sessions and you should also initiate to practice facing your fears as you progress through the process.
If you are dealing with a child who has this problem, you have to guide them by giving them time to finish what they have to say. Allow them to talk in a slow manner and do not interrupt that much as they try to convey their message.
Both adults and children should also try doing regular breathing exercises. It will also help if you are going to practice singing your thoughts. While you are still in the process of finding a cure, you must avoid situations where you will feel very stressed out because this will only aggravate your condition.
Studies are still being conducted to find the right and the best cures for stuttering. Even if this is the case, this must not stop you from researching and applying good tips on what you can do to overcome the condition or help someone who is suffering from this.
Speech Therapy for the Hearing Impaired
Hearing is conversely associated with speech in that initial communication and hence understanding, arises primarily from learning spoken language through listening and building up symbolic thinking processes. This is why speech therapy is a must for people with hearing impairment.
Developing Auditory Awareness
Auditory awareness is the ability to be conscious of the fact that sound is present. During this period, the child is to learn to wear appropriate amplification. Therapy involves playing with toys that make sounds and listening to music.
Developing Auditory Attention or Listening
Auditory attention is the ability to give some real notice or interest to the sound that is heard.
The clinician focuses the child’s attention to the sound by saying two or three times: “Listen, I hear something. What is that?” The clinician pats his ears, but does not show the source of the sound until the child is listening. The clinician rewards the child’s attention by showing the source of the sound.
Developing Auditory Localization and Distance Hearing
Auditory localization is the ability to recognize the direction from which the sound is coming from. Distance hearing, on the other hand, is the ability to hear the sound even from afar.
The therapist shows the child how to respond whenever he hears a sound. Some of the activities are opening the door when someone knocks, dancing to music, clapping to music, building blocks when a sound is heard, marching to a drum and picking the phone up when it rings.
Developing Vocal Play
Vocal play is the ability to use the speech structures to produce various sounds that are not necessarily meaningful but are sound productions nonetheless. This stage requires making lots of sounds when playing with toys, especially animal and vehicle noises: growl for the teddy bear, meow for the cat, or click tongue for the horse.
Developing Auditory Discrimination
Auditory discrimination is the ability to identify one sound from another. Activities include reviewing vowel sounds and varying pitch, loudness and rhythm: oo— vs. oo-oo. For example, the therapist can build a train with blocks and say oo-oo or oo—, as the train is being pushed on the table. For older infants, they can look at books, making similar sounds for the pictures.
Developing Auditory Discrimination and Short-Term Memory
Activities include teaching discrimination of noise makers in audition and incorporation of phonemes into words in use.
Developing Auditory Processing
Auditory processing is the ability to associate sounds with memories of past events. Activities include naming of abstract ideas like sadness and joy. The therapist also starts to teach the child to call the names of the people that he has constant contact with.
Developing Auditory Processing of Patterns and Auditory Memory Span
Activities for the child’s audition include testing the child’s recognition of words and testing of auditory memory span. Auditory memory span is the ability of the child to remember in sequence the things that he has heard. An example would be the sequence of the instructions that the therapist gave to him.
Developing Auditory Figure-Ground Discrimination
Auditory figure-ground discrimination is the ability to choose among the sounds that are present in the environment and to focus on that one sound alone without being distracted by the rest of the surrounding sounds.
Activities for the child’s auditory skills include clapping or dancing to different rhythms, learning to count from one to ten, saying the alphabets, days of the week, nursery rhymes, holiday songs, prayers, his own address or telephone number, and also remembering two or three directions at a time.
Auditory Tracking
Auditory tracking is the act of listening closely to a material to be able to follow what is being stated in the said material. Auditory tracking using a tape recorder is included in the activities. Also included are reading aloud, practicing using the telephone, listening for information and using internal repetition.
Speech Therapy Of Hearing Impaired Children at the Verbal Level
There are two notable differences when teaching a hearing-impaired child compared to the traditional way of teaching language. First the choice of vocabulary taught is different. Second, the correctness of word order is different too.
Teaching at the Vocabulary or One Word Level
First, your choice of vocabulary is important. Customarily, words that are easy to say or lip read are usually taught first. Words like shoe, bow, tie, boot etc. are commonly taught with an emphasis on lip reading. On the other hand, children taught through auditory stimulation would likely say button first rather than bow. This is due to the inflectional pattern of button that is more stimulating to the child’s hearing.
Then there is the use for functional words. Auditory approach makes the early vocabulary of functional words possible. Words that a child uses to communicate everyday experiences but are very far off from the words said in the vocabulary lists devised for deaf children. Much of these words are not proper names or nouns.
Some of the first words are: Bye-bye, More, Oh, All gone, Off, Nice, Rough, Up, Uh-huh, Down, Hi, Ow, Hot, Cold, Light, No, Yummy, Yah, Pooie, Peeoo, Stop, Cut and Knock-knock.
While the first phrases include: open the door, I heard that, pick it up, bad girl, bye-bye in the car, daddy shop, I love you, come here, thank you, and peek-a-boo.
Developing First Nouns is the third critical point. When the child is already active in the communication process, it is recommended that the parents target a word that they perceive that the child would need. When the child is already able to recognize five to ten sounds associated to toys and a few functional words the development of symbolic language of the child should be accelerated.
The Circle Of Speech
The child’s vocabulary development could be illustrated in circles. The core skills comprise of basic listening experiences and pre-speech activities; and gestures. If the child possesses these skills, the therapist can proceed to the next level and teach him names like mommy, daddy, doggie, baby and a few verbs like listen and push, few adjectives like loud, hot and more and a few nouns like hat, cookie etc.
Fourth is the ability to developing language units. If the therapist would consider the child’s interests, it would be easy to plan language units. A few of these units are derived from the child’s everyday environment.
Body parts are one good example of language units. Words like eye, nose, and hair are words that a child can easily learn due to the association of his body. Family names are another example of language units. The child easily picks up words such as mama, Dada, and the names of his siblings since these are the people that he is exposed to most of the time.
Another language unit criteria can be food. Basic food related words like apple, candy and yummy can be taught. Verbs are also another kind of language unit. The therapist can teach words like cook, stir, drink, and jump. This can be done by doing the actions themselves so the child can easily pickup the concept.
School related words could also be a unit. Words like teacher, and his classmate’s names are a good start. Animal words, like dog, cat, kitty, can also be one separate unit, coupled with some sounds associated with animals.
Conditions For Speech Therapy: Autism
Autism is one condition that requires speech therapy treatment. However, autism is often misunderstood and thought of to be something that can be left untreated. However, that should not be how things work. Autism presents a lot of problems, but the intensity of these problems could be decreased if given the correct treatment.
In Relation To Autism: Vocabulary
A lot of terms are commonly heard in relation to autism, such as: classic autism, infantile autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Atypical PDD, Autistic like, PDD-NOS, Asperger’s Syndrome and high functioning Autistic.
What Is It Exactly?
Basically, Autism is a neurological disorder. It is classified to be a Pervasive Developmental Disorder. The main characteristic of Autism is that it affects three major areas in relation to speech and language. This triad is the impairment of the child’s: social interaction, communication and imaginative play.
Pervasive Developmental Disorder is actually an umbrella term for Autistic Spectrum Disorders. With the use of the term ‘pervasive’, it is emphasized that the disability’s range of deficits is beyond psychological development. On the other hand, the term ‘developmental’ puts emphasis that the occurrence of the condition is during the child’s development rather than later in life.
Autism is actually only one condition under this umbrella. Other conditions include Rett’s Disorder, which is a neurodevelopmental disorder that begins to show its symptoms during early childhood or infancy.
Another is Childhood Disintegrative Disorder; it somewhat resembles Autism but the difference is the first two to four years of the child’s life is rather normal, then the symptoms start to show.
Asperger’s syndrome is also in this umbrella. It is sometimes called high functioning autism. Lastly, PDD-NOS or Pervasive Developmental Disordere—Not Otherwise Specified is also related to Autism. These are children that present symptoms similar to but don’t quite match the other conditions.
What Causes Autism?
Even though a lot of research has been done, there is no identified single factor that causes Autism. Several factors are said to play a part in the occurrence of Autism. One of these is brain disorder. Recent studies show that there is a difference in the brains of people with Autism. Their cerebellum seems to be smaller than normal, and their limbic system is impaired.
Chemical imbalances are also said to play a part here. It was found that in some cases, symptoms came from food allergies, chemical deficiencies, hormonal imbalances or elevated brain chemical levels.
Heredity is also an important factor. A lot of genetic disorders have Autism as a symptom. An example would be the fragile-X syndrome. Other factors include pre-, peri-, post-natal trauma, brain damage complications and MMR immunization.
Whatever the cause may be, the child with Autism should be given the same structured training in able to stimulate his learning, language and social skills.
Diagnosis
For a child to be diagnosed of having Autism, he should first qualify for the Diagnostic Criteria for Autistic Disorders according to the DSM-IV.
Treatment: Therapy And Others
Due to the triad of Autism effects on the child, speech therapy becomes a vital part of Autism management. However, other members of the team are also needed such as pediatrician, pediatric neurologist, child psychiatrist, psychologist, occupational therapist, behavior therapist, and educators like schoolteachers or Special Education teachers.
Role Of Speech Therapist In Autism Rehabilitation
The Speech Therapist assesses hearing. He also evaluates whether the speech and language difficulties of the child is really due to Autism or another disorder. This can be taken from analyzing the child’s expressive language, receptive language, oral-motor functions, voice quality, articulation and fluency, auditory processing and pragmatic skills.
Relaxation Technique In Treating Stuttering – The F. M. Alexander Technique
Along with varied therapies and programs designed to treat stuttering, one method is based on the premise of developing and controlling self-awareness, movement, balance, support and coordination. This is called the F.M. Alexander Technique.
The F.M. Alexander Technique is a psychological approach used in treating stuttering. Worth noting is that it is not a treatment specific to stuttering or to any disorder. It is a method of improving ease and freedom of movement. It teaches to use the appropriate amount of effort exerted in certain activities. However, the F.M. Alexander Technique is not or limited to a series of exercises; it is a reeducation of the mind and body.
It was named after its developer F. Matthias Alexander, who initially developed it as a technique for vocal training for singers and actors in the late nineteenth century. While developing this system and with varied experiments, F.M Alexander realized the importance of naturally functioning respiratory mechanism in a well-functioning physical body.
He introduced a technique, which he called the reeducation of breathing mechanism. Hence, many medical doctors eventually recognized such innovative perspective during those times. F. M. Alexander also discovered that breathing and vocalization are essential component of how body functions well. Take for example the habitual breathing and vocal patterns. Both are crucial aspects of habitual patterns of general bodily coordination. Coordination includes posture, breathing, movement, and tension patterns.
As such, he eventually developed a method that teaches patients to change consciously their maladaptive habits of coordination. F. M. Alexander found out that habits are generally psychophysical in nature, be that physical or mental habits. This is because he realized that the mind and body function are integrated entity rather than working individually.
In addition, he observed that one’s perspective towards his activities determines how he coordinates himself to those activities. At the same time, long-practiced habits of too much tension and inefficient coordination affect vocal training. The method of breathing reeducation and then a comprehensive technique of psychophysical reeducation help solve the difficulties.
Thus, the F. M. Alexander Technique aids stutterers to develop more awareness and control in their activities. This came from the premise that the difficulties people experience in many levels such as learning, control of performance, and physical functioning are caused by unconscious habits. As such, these unconscious habits interfere with the natural poise and the capacity to learn. Therefore, the technique teaches a person to eliminate such interference in the innate coordination of the body creating greater self-confidence and presence of mind.
Therefore, finding out about vocal technique and breathing problems, many of his students developed therapeutic mechanisms in solving various problems including stuttering. They followed his premise on breathing mechanisms and respiratory technique.
However, one should keep in mind that the F. M. Alexander Technique does not treat a passive patient. Positive results will yield from conscious eliminating of harmful habits that cause physical and emotional stress. Both American educational philosopher John Dewey and Nobel-prize-winning scientist Nikolaas Tinbergen recognized such technique as an effective aid in improving physical and psychological well-being. Thus, it is now used as a combination therapy in treating stuttering.
Therapy Procedures for Speech Disorders
The terminal goal of speech therapy is for the client to spontaneously use the appropriate speech sounds of his or her linguistic culture in connected speech. In this context, therapy becomes a continuum of short-term goals designed to meet the terminal goal. And therapy procedures may either use the motor or traditional approach or the cognitive-linguistic approach.
Motor or Traditional Approach
This approach is structure-based and uses drills more. Drills are activities that have rapid rates of stimulus presentation and which puts much stress on accuracy of the patient’s response to the stimulus and the said response reaching various set criteria.
Under this approach is auditory training. Its proponent is Charles Van Riper. This procedure uses pictures and games as motivational events or events that serve as a way of presenting stimuli. Activities are mainly about speech sound discrimination. It highlights the awareness and detection of sound.
Another procedure is the exercise of the oral motor structures. It is used when an oral motor assessment shows muscle weakness or spasticity. For children, it should be made fun and functional. It also uses mirrors for visual feedback.
One other procedure under this approach is phonetic placement. Van Riper was also the proponent of this procedure. It provides clients with verbal descriptions or instructions regarding articulatory position and movements for target sound. It is usually used together with visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic cues.
Weiner’s contribution to this field is his modified sensory motor approach. It is where a word in which the target sound is correct in the final position is paired with a word in which the same sound is in error in the initial position. The words are produced without a pause to facilitate assimilation of the incorrectly produced sound.
In this line also is syllabication. It uses the syllable-by-syllable production of words. It is used in addressing weak syllable deletion or the deletion of the syllable in a word which is the least stressed.
One procedure that is closely related to syllabication is chaining. The client is first asked to say the whole word. If he says a syllable incorrectly, the therapist instructs the patient to look at his lips while he produces the word syllable by syllable with the patient following him after every syllable until he produces the word the same way that the therapist did.
Cognitive-Linguistic Approach
The first procedure under this approach is auditory bombardment, also known as cycles approach. There are treatment cycles which have their designated phonemes, taught in a span of 2-4 weeks. Auditory bombardment requires that the patient be bombarded with the phonemes that he needs to learn without him being aware of it.
Another procedure is auditory bombarding with PACT (Parents and Children Together). Here, production should not be over-emphasized. It may use funny, perceptually salient make-up words like ker-plunk, boing, shilly-shally or kaboom. All that matters is that the words contain the phonemes that are being targeted.
Modified cycles approach is also under this group. It requires the clinician to make purposeful and obvious lexical errors in words that contain target phonemes to make the patient correct the clinician, thus producing the target sound. Parental involvement is important for explanations of goals, procedures, and assignments.
Minimal contrast therapy, on the other hand, contrasts presence and absence of phonemes, establishing also the difference between phonemes. This procedure can be utilized in addressing perceptual or production difficulties when it comes to final sounds of words, establishing the difference between words like fee and feet.
Facts About Stuttering
How do people usually react when they hear someone stutter? They most likely make fun of the stutterer. And how do people usually perceive someone who stutters? Stupid, dumb, or even good for nothing. A person’s competence or personality is always judged based on how good a speaker he is. That is a sad reality for many people who stutter. Whether you are among the 1 percent of the world’s population that stutters or not, it helps to know and understand the basic facts about this speech condition to put things in a better perspective. This is especially helpful for parents with children who stutter.
The following are some of the essential and interesting facts about stammering that people should know:
-Individuals who stutter are normal, as they lack only the ability to express words fluently. They are not mentally incapacitated as what others perceive them to be. Stutterers can be as smart as non-stutterers are.
-Speech disfluency typically begins at the age of two to five.
-Boys are four times more likely to stutter than girls.
-The real cause of stammering has not yet been determined.
-Speech disfluency runs in families, leading scientists to believe that this condition can be hereditary.
-A lot of well-known people in the field of politics and entertainment stuttered and were able to cope with their speech difficulties. The world’s famous stutterers include actress Marilyn Monroe, British politician Winston Churchill, King George VI, author Lewis Carroll, musician Carly Simon, and former U.S. president George W. Bush.
-For many people, stammering gives them a feeling that their speech is way beyond their control. Such a feeling makes them worry and disturbed about their self-image, causing them to feel ashamed of themselves and to be extremely anxious every time they speak. Their tendency to stutter also makes them fear talking in front of others.
-The anxiety that a person feels boosts the intensity and frequency of stammering. This creates a cycle that only escalates the condition.
-Stammering behaviors develop and change in a person’s entire lifespan. Most people who stutter experience variations in the level of their speech problem. There are times when they stutter frequently, while at other times, they stutter just a bit.
-In children, there are times when stammering seem to disappear on its own, but it goes back later on a more severe level.
-About 80 percent of toddlers who stutter will eventually outgrow their speech disfluency. The remaining 20 percent of these children continue the speech condition for the rest of their lives. These children tend to talk very fast and struggle to say words that seem to stuck. This behavior increases the likelihood of stammering in later years.
People with stuttering problems are often misunderstood, and this make the problem worse for them. It is important that you know how to deal with and help your family members or friends who stutter so that they will be able to cope better with their condition.
How Yoga Helps Control Stuttering
Everybody knows the various health benefits of yoga. This healing system, which originated in India, is well known for its principle of ensuring the harmony of the mind and the body. This leads to yoga being an effective cure for a wide variety of ailments and health problems. However, not many people know that yoga is beneficial as well for seemingly minor bodily conditions such as stuttering and other speech disorders.
At some points in their lives, children and adults experience speech difficulties such as getting stuck on their words. While it seems it is just normal to stutter, this could pose a problem in a person’s day-to-day interaction with other people. If you stumble every time you speak, it would be very hard for you to get your message across. Worse, it can affect your self-esteem and performance in various social situations.
According to Yoga principles, stress has a lot to do with most speech problems. People start to stutter when they become overly stressed. Anxiety is another factor that causes people to stutter. When you are very nervous before you start speaking, your vocal cords become tensed. And when you begin to talk, you will naturally stutter.
Yoga experts believe that the only way to stop people from stuttering is through relaxation. This is where yoga and meditation come into play. Yoga trains people how to relax so that they can speak with much ease. Simple yoga postures and Pranayama, in particular, aid in managing stress and the stammering. When paired with speech therapy (under the supervision of a trained speech therapist), yoga and meditation can effectively reduce the frequency of stammering in people and improve their speech abilities.
People tend to stutter if they breathe incorrectly before and while speaking. The proper way to do it is to breathe in deeply before you start to say something and then breathe out while you are talking. Yoga can help you address breathing problems through Pranayama, which is a system that corrects breathing patterns. Pranayama uses the optimum capacity of your lungs so that you can cope with breathing and speech difficulties.
Are you interested in practicing yoga to control your tendency to stutter? The first things you must focus on are recognizing and accepting your speech problem. Then think about all your talents and positive attributes. In doing so, you will have a better perception of yourself. You will be less self-conscious as a result. This positive thinking will greatly help you deal with stress that causes your stammering.
The next step is to practice the following Yoga postures and breathing techniques to make you feel more relaxed:
-Surya Namaskar (sun salutation)
-Progressive relaxation techniques and meditation
-Suksham Vyayama (a relaxing breathing exercise)
-Concentrating on breathing to make it easier for you to deal with stressful thoughts
-Positive attitude for better self-esteem and self-image
-Bhastrika and Nadi Shodhana that help solve breathing problems
-Simhasana (lion pose)
Without a doubt, yoga is an effective way to heal stuttering. It is advised that you practice yoga with the help of a trained yoga therapist to train you about proper relaxation and breathing techniques.
Delineating Speech And Language Therapy
The field of speech and language therapy is somewhat a vague body of knowledge that only a few people understand. What most people don’t know is that there is a difference between speech therapy as a whole and language therapy. Although the term ‘speech and language’ therapy is widely used, since speech and language problems coexist most of the time.
Differentiating Speech And Language Therapy
The truth of the matter is, that speech therapy and language therapy differ in some key areas. First off, they differ on the problems that they are targeting. The techniques and activities used during therapy are also different. Although there are times that these activities are done simultaneously, to target two problems at a time.
Speech Therapy
Speech therapy is done to treat speech problems. Such speech problems deal with how or the manner a person speaks. These speech problems are categorized into three general kinds. First, is voice or resonation disorders. Second, is articulation disorders. And, lastly, fluency disorders.
Voice disorders mainly deals on problems with the voice box or the larynx itself. These may be due to physiological malfunction, anatomical differences, fatigue, or neurological problems. Some voice disorders present problems in pitch, volume, and tone. The presence of breathy, raspy, nasal and weak voice is viable too.
Articulation disorders, on the other hand, deal with the manner a person speaks. The problem is rooted from the articulators themselves. Articulators are composed of the tongue, teeth, hard palate, soft palate, jaw, and cheeks. Articulation disorders may be due to weakness or physiological malfunction in any of the articulators, which results to distorted or incomprehensible speech.
Fluency disorders would deal on problems regarding the fluency of the person. It may be the case that he talks too fast or too slow. Stuttering and Cluttering are two of the major fluency problems that speech therapists deal with.
Speech therapy activities would likely include different exercises to practice speaking. Since most of the time, weak muscles are present; the therapy proper would usually include activities that can help strengthen these muscles. Different compensatory strategies are also taught, so that the patient can compensate for lost speaking skills.
Language Therapy
Language therapy mainly deals with problems regarding your inner language, receptive language and expressive language. Cognition skills can be the main cause of language problems. Unlike speech disorders, that manifest physical differences, most language disorders are due to problems the brain’s language processing.
Receptive language problems mainly deals on difficulties understanding received language, like what other people are telling you and comprehending written data. Expressive language problems on the other hand are difficulties on expressing oneself. You may have a hard time knowing which words to use verbally or even through writing.
Language based problems are usually treated through mental exercises. Workbooks are often used to practice and develop language skills. For very young children, play therapy is used to develop inner language, so that the therapist could later on target improving receptive and expressive language, respectively.
In some cases, speech and language problems are both present. This is especially true for individuals that had traumatic brain injuries or accidents that had an effect on the brain. They may manifest physiological problems due to damaged nerves that result to articulation or voice problems.
The can also have language problems like aphasia, especially if their brain was hit on its language areas.
Speech Therapy Activities For Aphasia
To begin with, the primary cause of aphasia should be stabilized or treated. After doing so, that’s the only time that a therapist can work on the rehabilitation of the patient. To recover a person’s language function, he or she should begin undergoing therapy as soon as possible subsequent the injury.
Speech Therapy: As A Treatment For Aphasia
Since there are no surgical or medical procedures that are currently available to treat Aphasia, conditions that result from head injury or stroke can be improved through the treatment of speech therapy.
For majority of Aphasic patients though, the main emphasis is placed upon optimizing the use of the person’s retained language skills and being able to learn to use other ways of communication to be able to compensate for their permanently lost language abilities.
Therapy Activities
The formulation of what activities to use during a speech therapy session is critically done and would highly depend on the therapists’ assessment and diagnosis results on the individual. However, there are some general activities that are done to treat Aphasia.
Exercise
Since most types of Aphasia would include right-sided weakness of the body and sensory loss, it is important for the patient to be able to exercise their body. Regular exercise and practice is needed to strengthen the weak muscles and prevent it from further degeneration.
The exercise activities do not have to be exhilarating. For the purpose of speech function, the therapist can exercise the patient’s weakened muscles through repetitive speaking of certain words, and projecting facial expressions, like smiling and frowning.
The use of food too is helpful, since the patient is able to exercise articulators needed for speech production like the tongue and jaw, which may be weakened due to the condition.
Picture Cards
One of the tools used for therapy are picture cards. Pictures of daily living and everyday objects can be used to improve and develop word recall skills. Picture cards can act as a visual cue to increase the learning process of an Aphasic. These can also help increase the vocabulary of the patient.
By showing the picture cards and repetitively saying aloud the names of the objects in the picture, the patient will be able to exercise weak muscles and practice vocalization.
Picture Boards
Another tool for therapy are picture boards. Since aphasia can bring about difficulty in recalling names of activities, objects and people, use of material to help recall these names is very helpful. By making use of a board where the therapist places pictures of different everyday activities and objects, the patient can point to specific pictures to express ideas and communicate with other people.
Workbooks
The use of workbooks is also important in the treatment of Aphasia. Since reading and writing skills are affected, this is one way to exercise them. Workbook exercises can be used to sharpen an Aphasic’s word recalling skills and recover reading and writing abilities.
By reading aloud, hearing comprehension can also be exercised and redeveloped through workbook exercises.
Computers
With the development of technology, there are now computer programs that are used to treat Aphasia. Such computer programs can be used to improve an Aphasic’s reading, speech, recall, and hearing comprehension. In fact, the use of computers can bring about optimal results, since it can stimulate senses of vision, and hearing at the same time, helping speed up the learning process.
Speech Therapy For Intermediate Stuttering
Fortunately, for people with a stuttering problem, there are a number of techniques that can be used to treat intermediate stuttering. These techniques include a mix of fluency shaping and stuttering modification techniques. Listed below are some of the more commonly used techniques for the treatment of intermediate stuttering:
Flexible Rate
Flexible rate is slowing down the production of a word, especially the first syllable. This technique is thought to allow more time for language planning and motor execution. In here, only those syllables on which stuttering is expected are slowed, not the surrounding speech.
Flexible rate is taught by having the clinician model production of words in which the first syllable and the transition to the second syllable are said in a way that slows all of the sounds equally. Vowels, fricatives, nasals, sibilants, and glides are lengthened, and plosives and affricates are produced to sound more like fricatives, without stopping the sound or airflow.
After the clinician’s model, the child produces the word with flexible rate, and successive approximations of the target are reinforced.
Easy Onsets
Easy onsets refer to an easy or gentle onset of voicing. Teaching easy onsets is like teaching flexible rate. The clinician models the target behavior by the use of a lot of different sounds and then he makes the child imitate the models. After the child tries to imitate, the therapist should reinforce the child’s successive approximations.
Some children, particular younger ones, may be helped to get the concept by performing an action, such as bringing their hands together slowly, as they produce an easy onset.
Light Contacts
Producing consonants with light contacts prevents the stoppage of airlow and/ or voicing that can trigger stuttering. Light contacts are taught by modeling a style of producing consonants with relaxed articulators and continuous flow of air or voice, depending on the consonant.
Plosives and affricates should be slightly distorted so that they sound like fricatives but are still intelligible. Modeling a variety of words with initial consonants and reinforcing the child’s successive approximations of the target accomplish teaching a child to use light contacts. The clinician can use a variety of games to make the concept of light contact more interesting.
Proprioception
Proprioception refers to sensory feedback from mechanoreceptors in muscles of the lips, jaw, and tongue. The effectiveness of teaching proprioception may be that it promotes conscious attention to sensory information from the articulators, perhaps bypassing inefficient automatic sensory monitoring systems and thereby normalizing sensory-motor control.
Children can be taught to use proprioception by having a child first hold a raisin in his mouth and report on its taste, shape, size, and other attributes. Children can also learn proprioception by picking a word from a list and then closing their eyes and silently moving their articulators for this word and being rewarded when the clinician guesses the word.
Children can be coached to feel the movements of their lips, tongue, and jaw as they say a word. Proprioceptive awareness can also be enhanced by using masking noise or delayed auditory feedback to interfere with self-hearing. In this, the clinician must look for slightly exaggerated, slow movements to verify that a child is trying to feel the movement of his articulators.
Scaffolding
It is useful with some children to “scaffold” their use of superfluency by letting the listener know that we are working on our speech and sometimes by coaching the child in that fluency-friendly environment. This can be exhibited for example by telling a stranger in a mall that the child and the clinician are working on their speech and would like to ask him some questions. Another example would be when the child makes telephone calls.
Toys As Materials For Speech Therapy
There are a variety of tools and materials, which are designed for speech therapy in the market right now, thus giving the therapist much more options when it comes to choosing the equipments that could best maximize his services. One variety of materials are toys. And there are various reasons for the rise in its use.
The Toys and Their Functions
Before the therapy starts, an evaluation of the patient’s oral motor structures is usually done. This is where the therapist inspects the various structures that are inside and around the patient’s mouth that are used for speech. Some of these are the lips, tongue, teeth, jaw and cheeks.
For the structures to be seen more accurately, a penlight is usually used. The only problem with it is that the child may not find it very pleasant to have a flashlight in his mouth. This is now why there already is the colorful and jelly-like oral light system, which gives the same amount of light minus the metallic appearance.
The examination of these muscles also usually requires gloves and tongue depressors; in which kids do not appreciate both of whose smell and taste. This is now the reason why colorful and fruit flavored gloves and tongue depressors are already available.
After the said oral motor examination has been performed, the therapist may find a weakening in one or some of the structures. Some seemingly ordinary materials and toys may aid the strengthening of these muscles. One of them is the straw, which can come in all colors and designs. It serves two purposes.
The first purpose is for the rounding of the lips. This activity is important for the articulation of vowels and the semi-vowel /w/. Another function is the act of sipping. In this activity, the velum, the muscle right above the throat is exercised. This muscle is used when producing vowels and back consonants like /k/ and /g/.
Another commonly used material is a toy, which has to be blown. An example would be the whistle. The whistle is considered a difficult blow toy. It means that among the toys that work when blown, it is one of those, which requires more effort for it to perform its function.
The whistle, like the straw, aids in the exercise of the muscles of the lips. Another structure, which it strengthens, is the cheeks. It maximizes the capacity of the cheeks to hold in air and to gradually blow it out.
Other materials that are more commonly used are picture cards and interactive books. They usually contain pictures of words, which represent all the speech sounds. When these cards are used, all the therapist has to do is to show the picture and have the child produce the word together with the speech sound within the word.
Why Play?
If the patient sees the materials they have for therapy are colorful and fun toys, he will come to think that the reason he is in the clinic is to play and have fun. And having the child thinking this, will allow the child to cooperate with the therapist.
Play is a universal activity that blends social, cognitive, linguistic, emotional, and motor components. It is an integration of the many aspects of a child. Play serves as a representation of the thoughts and abilities of a child. Through play, the therapist will be able to know how to approach the concerns of his patient.