Introduction
This morning I decided to read a book whose bookmark was somewhere in the middle.
I sat down at the table, opened the book and began to read out loud, when suddenly... I stuttered. Without giving it any importance, I continued reading, but stuttered several more times in a row. After a pause, I stood up and began to walk around the room. Finally I sat down again and continued reading, during which my face became redder and redder - I began to stutter. There have been many events in my life related to stuttering, the only thing worth it is that I had to experience stuttering twice and each time I started from scratch. I stuttered for almost 30 years the first time, and a long 12 months for the second time. The first time I had no idea what to do with stuttering, and the second time I knew more about stuttering than stuttering knew about itself.
During the break between stuttering, this book was written, from which you will learn: what stuttering is; what you need to do to get rid of stuttering; how to say goodbye to stuttering at any age, even after a stroke or head injury; how to stop controlling your speech and start speaking automatically; how to outperform people without stuttering in public speaking; why stuttering is the biggest problem of humanity; Is it true that children are taught to stutter and that all speech problems, including stuttering and dyslexia, are solved in one single way and this, unfortunately, is not prayer.
It all started with a nightmare that I often had until I was 5 years old. I fall into a black abyss, similar to space without stars, quickly spinning around me. Endless emptiness: I'm spinning and falling, spinning and falling, spinning and falling.
I woke up in a cold sweat, looking around. There is a starry sky in the window. Everything is quiet. What kind of dream? Why space? Why am I falling? Why am I spinning? Why are there no stars? When I lie down and fall asleep, I continue to watch the nightmare.
At the age of 6, my parents noticed my speech problems - I stuttered. Nobody knew about nightmares, but there were two cases when I got lost in the forest and almost drowned in the lake. The appearance of stuttering was associated with fear, but in the family I was not the only one who stuttered: my older brother and our grandfather stuttered. However, the brother did not notice that anyone could have scared him. This indicated a family origin of stuttering, which meant that I would never be cured.
Stuttering was the only flaw in my body. I didn’t go to doctors or speech therapists because they took my older brother there, who they didn’t help. I despised books, but I didn’t lag behind in my mind and more than once finished the school year with positive grades in all subjects.
Stuttering did not prevent me from graduating from school, technical school, or university. It did not stop me from serving in the army, getting married, getting divorced and getting a job. But already the first job made it clear that I would not rise further than the lowest level.
While studying, I started working at a pizzeria after school. There was a career ladder there. At the first stage: you sweep and wash the floor, and at the same time carry and wash trays. On the second: you roll out the dough and prepare the pizzas. On the third, the cashier: you take orders and give tasks - what kind of pizza to make and where to take it. On the fourth, manager: you manage employees and wear a white shirt. On the fifth, the director of one of the cafes of a pizzeria chain: you manage people in white shirts, you come once a month and count the money.
When I got hired, one student had just become the director, but needless to say, I couldn’t get beyond carrying trays and cooking pizza? Managers said that I work well, that I arrive before everyone else and leave later than everyone else. I was pleased with the praise, but in order to move on and become a manager, I need to work as a cashier. There were several attempts to put me at the checkout, but I was never able to greet the visitor and take the order. They changed me right in time for the r-r-ra-ra-conversation.
Over the course of 8 months, a crowd of newcomers passed me by, who in two weeks became cashiers, a month later managers, their salaries became many times higher, while I still received the minimum, collecting pizzas and delivering trays.
After changing several jobs, I did not move up the career ladder. The salary was barely enough to live on alone, sitting on the neck of his parents, and there was nothing to say about separate housing and family. I tried to work in several places at the same time, but there was no time for life.
After graduating, nothing has changed. There was no promotion, no other companies hired me, and even if I had managed to pass an interview, my salary did not increase enough to make me think about moving away from my parents and living independently. I had already accepted that I would be a part of the company all my life, until one day I discovered that work was not the only way to earn money.
It turned out that in addition to school textbooks and literary works, there are also useful books, from which I learned that money can be earned not only at work. At the age of 23, this news seemed “slightly” belated to me: I went to work, played, smoked, drank beer, walked, and it seemed to me that everyone was doing the same thing, that this was called life.
Deciding to make up for lost time, I spent the next 5 years doing business, but everything turned out to be not easy. I had difficulty explaining my proposal to clients, they looked at me as if I was sick, and only out of respect for the friends who recommended me, some agreed to work with me. There were few friends and, accordingly, little pay.
Then I opened a service that did not require live communication - only email messages and ready-made instructions. Everything was going well, but competitors appeared and turned me into a punching bag. They were great on the phone and took clients away. I didn’t dare to hire employees, because I also need to somehow communicate with them.
With a stutter, I could not find a well-paid job, which meant I could not provide myself and my family with a decent life. I couldn’t climb the career ladder; people passed me by without stuttering. I could not grow the company to a satisfactory profit, which means five years were wasted. Gradually, I began to realize that stuttering is exactly what slows me down throughout my life and puts a spoke in my wheels every day.
Then I decided that I didn’t give a damn about such a life and put stuttering first on the list of problem solving: procreation, finding a job, family, apartment, wealth and other naive thoughts were sent to the trash bin. I told myself: “Stuttering is the first and only problem I am going to solve in this life. If I can’t solve this problem before the end of my days, then nothing else will happen.”
As a child, it seemed to me that scientists all over the world - the smartest people on the planet, sit in laboratories, come up with something and solve global problems for the sake of saving all humanity! I imagined: since stuttering does not allow people to live normally, then scientists will certainly sit day and night and think about how to help us.
25 years is more than a decent amount of time to solve any problem, so I opened a help site and entered the question into the search: how to get rid of stuttering?
Having visited dozens of sites, I could not believe my eyes: the sheer disappointment of people asking for help and the worthless advice that was given a quarter of a century ago. After a week of searching, it turned out that it was not possible to understand the secret of stuttering not only in the last 25 years, but also in the entire history of mankind, since people learned to speak.
As an adult, I became interested in what kind of people these “scientists” are, where they come from and what they do then. It turned out that in most cases they come from universities, having received higher education and getting a job in scientific organizations. Some scientists conduct fundamental research, while others are engaged in solving current problems. Finding out exactly what they do was not easy. Researchers write reports on grants, but it is impossible to find out what they write about, who checks them and where the average person can get acquainted with them. It is logical to assume that scientists are engaged in solving specific problems and diseases, but this is not always the case, as evidenced by the awards awarded to them.
The most prestigious award in the field of physiology and medicine is the Nobel Prize, and if you look at what discoveries it is given for, you can understand that most of them are related to cells, neurons, chromosomes, bacteria, and drugs. This is exactly what scientists do: they look through a microscope and don’t pay attention to people. Bacteria and neurons are of course good, but people needed help not even yesterday, but many thousands of years ago.
It became obvious that no one was going to solve real problems, and there was no point in waiting for help: where there are 25 years, there are 50, and where there are 50, there are 100.
Then I decided to figure it out on my own and get an answer to just one question: what should I do to get rid of stuttering? I rightly expected that, having learned the answer, the matter would remain small. At that moment, I could not even imagine that, having taken a piece of paper and a pencil, I would ever know how to “talk.”
Part 1: The Origin of Stuttering
“Life is a tragedy when you see it close up, and a comedy when you look at it from afar.”
Charles Chaplin
Task 1: Reading into a microphone
If you haven't already, turn on your computer, connect your microphone, and open Sound Recorder. If you don't have a computer, use your phone's voice recorder or other sound recording device. Make sure that no one disturbs you.
1. Start recording.
2. Read the book out loud, one chapter at a time.
3. After reading each chapter, stop reading and listen to the recording.
History of stuttering
Stuttering appeared simultaneously with the appearance of speech. The early Aztecs believed that stuttering occurred in older children because they continued to suckle from their mother. For treatment, it was advised to wean them and force them to eat on their own. Other causes of stuttering at that time were considered to be: excessive tickling of the baby, the child seeing himself in the mirror, cutting hair before the child uttered the first words and too small a tongue to speak without stuttering. One of the ways to eliminate stuttering was considered to be the need to drink water from a snail shell every day throughout your life.
Years passed, speech developed and intellectuals began to appear. Hippocrates believed that the cause of stuttering was associated with the accumulation of moisture in the brain and classified it as a disease. Aristotle had the opposite opinion, arguing that everything was fine with the brain, and the problem was in violations of the articulatory apparatus, including: the larynx, vocal cords, tongue, lips, teeth of the upper and lower jaw, the inconsistency of which led to stuttering. The Greek orator Demosthenes himself stuttered, but preferred practical exercises to reasoning, practicing his speech on the seashore, filling his mouth full with small stones.
People never stopped stuttering, and there were only more researchers. Along with the increase in their mass, the number of causes of stuttering and recommendations for its elimination also grew.
Pathologist Giovanni Morgagni autopsied the corpse of a man who stuttered and came to the conclusion that the cause of stuttering was a deviation of the hyoid bone. Other researchers recommended surgical interventions, including removal of the neck muscles, lips and tonsils, and shortening the tongue using scissors, despite the fact that their predecessors believed that the tongue, on the contrary, was too short.
Centuries later, researchers came to the conclusion that stuttering no longer appeared simultaneously with speech, but became a hereditary disease passed on from parents from generation to generation. If there was only one person who stuttered in the family, then another reason was found for the appearance of his stuttering and they did not attach any significance to the case.
With the advent of the Internet, scammers began to be tracked among researchers: deceiving a person who stutters and eating at his expense has been the norm at all times.
The vocabulary expanded and instead of the usual “stuttering”, substitute words were invented: stupor, holding back, stuttering, block. But it turned out that no matter what you call it, the number of people who stutter does not decrease.
People who stutter themselves were divided into several types, depending on the external manifestation and frequency of stuttering. The researchers also divided into groups and focused on different areas: breathing exercises; production of medicines; reading letters, syllables and words; focus on vowels or consonants; learning to speak in a sing-song manner, slowly, quietly, monotonously, with pebbles in the mouth, with an accent; remain silent for several days or months; invention of voice, hearing, visual and other types of devices; creation of speech computer programs; face and neck massage courses; hypnosis sessions; acupuncture; finger and sound games; synchronization of speech with the movement of the fingers of the leading hand. This list can be continued endlessly, but since people continued to stutter, the researchers decided to abdicate responsibility with the words: “we need an integrated approach from all specialists and all the procedures described above.”
The furthest advanced were specialists in the field of speech therapy and psychology, who published a huge number of books on the topic of reading syllables and peace of mind. Speech therapists divided speech disorders into several parts and began to deal with each separately. Psychologists took stuttering from there and divided it into several parts, giving each part a name and definition, but the matter did not go further than the development of chatterology. No one understood that people with speech impairments want to learn to speak like all ordinary people, and any division complicates their life by a corresponding amount.
Some experts claimed that there were results, which means that their method of getting rid of stuttering works. But is it possible to call the result when a person communicates like a robot: smoothly, humming words, moving his fingers and taking deep breaths? Do researchers themselves talk this way?
Having reached a dead end, they began to argue: “Why know where stuttering came from? Let's fight right away!" This may seem logical - since stuttering arose so long ago, how can one find out how it appeared? But the truth turned out to be that stuttering did not appear a thousand years ago or even a million, but continues to appear anew every time and the reason for its occurrence is the same for everyone. The researchers broke into the open door, which opened in the other direction. For some reason, no one paid attention to the first sentence of this chapter, the knowledge of which was known at all times: stuttering appeared simultaneously with the appearance of speech.
Fright
Since it was believed that I began to stutter after a fright, it was necessary to find out after which of the three: nightmares when I was drowning or lost in the forest? Other questions also emerged. Why do I rarely stutter, while others cannot say a single word? Were they really that scared? Why does my brother, whom no one frightened, stutter? Why do adults begin to stutter when they get a promotion, change profession, or move?
The story itself, that if you get scared once, the rest of your life is doomed, is not only cruel, but also simply ridiculous. You can convince a small child of this, but an adult, reasonable person is not so easy to deceive.
Then I made the assumption that every person on the planet, regardless of whether he stutters or not, has memories of childhood fear. I started asking my friends: did they have a fright before the age of 6? At first, everyone said that they didn’t remember this. Then I began to give examples: maybe the dog barked or I had a nightmare? Having given a couple of examples, everyone remembered something, but not immediately, obviously because they did not attach any importance to it - after all, they did not stutter.
Everyone began to tell stories: a drunken neighbor was running from the garden, in whose hands there was an ax; a shepherd without a chain jumped over the fence and found himself alone with him; bitten by a dog; a nightmare in which he fell from a tall building; how he ran from a rooster that wanted to peck him. Some stories were worse than my three, but people didn't stutter.
I conducted a broader survey, urging people to take a couple of minutes to remember if they had a scare as a child. 950 random people took part in the survey.
– Yes, there was – 658 (69.3%)
– No, I wasn’t – 113 (11.9%)
– I can’t remember – 179 (18.8%)
If fear were the cause of stuttering, then today at least 70% of all people on the planet stutter, but only 1% stutter.
Several dozen comments were left under the survey in which people described what exactly scared them. In addition to stories about drowning people, barking dogs, parents’ divorces and horror films, I was interested in the girl’s comment:
– I was, and now I have a sore for the rest of my life.
Having understood what I was talking about, I thought: “Yes, people really believe that the problem with stuttering is fear. They also believe that, having been afraid once, the rest of their lives are doomed to suffering.” Taking another look at the comment, I wrote:
-Which one?
My eyes opened wide when she wrote:
– Diabetes.
Article:
The term stuttering (balbuties) is of Greek origin and means the repetition of convulsive contractions of the speech organs.
The problem of stuttering can be considered one of the most ancient in the history of the development of the doctrine of speech disorders. Interest in the treatment of stuttering goes back centuries, but it was only in the 19th century that the scientific development of this problem began. Specialists from such scientific disciplines as psychiatry, speech therapy, psychology, physiology and others began to carefully study, prevent and treat stuttering. For a long time, researchers were of the opinion that stuttering in preschool age should be considered as an age-related phenomenon that should gradually go away on its own with age. And it was recommended not to focus on stuttering in preschool children, creating complete peace at home. In some cases, this led to favorable results, but in most cases such measures did not help, and stuttering in children took on an increasingly severe form, leaving its mark on the child’s entire behavior and affecting the development of his personality. Treatment later was incomparably more difficult than at the beginning of the disease. The older the child who stutters, the more severe the degree of stuttering and the changes it produces in the child’s character, behavior and relationships with the environment.
Scientists such as M. Zeeman (1962), M.E. Khvattsev (1959), V.M. Shklovsky (1994), V.I. Seliverstov (2001) proved the need to treat this suffering in the early stages of its occurrence, that is, in early childhood.
Stuttering is a complex structural speech disorder. This is reflected in numerous theories that claim to explain its mechanisms. Most domestic scientists, when developing the problem of stuttering, classify it as a neurosis, guided by Pavlov’s teaching about higher nervous activity in humans, and in particular about the mechanism of neurosis. At the same time, some researchers are inclined to consider stuttering as a symptom of neurosis, for example, T.A. Florenskaya, another part - as a special form of general neurosis (V.A. Gilyarovsky, M.E. Khvattsev, N.P. Tyapugin, etc.), the third part of the researchers considers stuttering as a functional disorder in the sphere of speech, convulsive neurosis (I. A. Sikorsky), or define it as purely mental suffering, expressed by convulsive movements in the speech apparatus (Chr. Laguzen, G. D. Netkachev), as psychosis (Gr. Kamenka).
Numerous studies have been devoted to studying the problem of stuttering. But to this day, the causes and mechanisms of development of stuttering remain the subject of discussion among specialists of various profiles - speech therapists, neurologists, psychologists, etc. Even the formal definition of stuttering as a pathological process, according to V.M. Shklovsky (1994), cannot be either sufficient or final at the present stage. However, the author believes that stuttering is a discordinative convulsive speech disorder that occurs in the process of communication through the mechanism of systemic speech-motor neurosis, and is clinically represented by primary speech disorders and secondary psychovegetative disorders.
Most authors share the view that stuttering is a polymorphic painful condition in which convulsive speech impairment is only one of the symptoms. Therefore, a person suffering from stuttering should be considered as sick, and in most cases in need of complex therapeutic intervention (N.M. Asatiani, L.I. Belyakova, I.O. Kalacheva, 1978).
In modern speech therapy, stuttering is defined as a violation of the tempo, rhythm and smoothness of oral speech, caused by a convulsive state of the muscles of the speech apparatus (L.S. Volkova, 2003).
Outwardly, stuttering is expressed in the fact that speech is interrupted by forced stops, hesitations, and repetitions of individual sounds, syllables, and words. This occurs due to spasms in the speech apparatus, which, as a rule, spread to the muscles of the face and neck. They can vary in frequency and duration, form and location. There is no strict pattern in the occurrence of stutters. They can be at the beginning of a phrase, in the middle, at the end, on consonants or vowels.
However, hesitations, stops and repetitions that disrupt the smooth flow of speech do not exhaust the concept of “stuttering”. When stuttering, breathing and voice are upset: children try to speak while inhaling and during the full exhalation phase, the voice becomes compressed, monotonous, quiet, and weak. The speech of a stuttering child is usually accompanied by accompanying movements (shaking of the head, body, etc.).
The complexity of this speech pathology is also expressed in the fact that stuttering, complicating the child’s free verbal communication with people around him, distinguishing him from normally speaking peers, leaves an imprint on the child’s entire behavior, on his entire personality (S.V. Leonova, 2004).
At present, there is no single scientifically substantiated theory from the standpoint of which it would be possible to generalize and systematize experimental data and various hypotheses expressed by many authors regarding the causes of this speech disorder. At the same time, all researchers agree that when stuttering appears, there is no specific single cause that causes this speech pathology, since this requires a combination of a number of factors.
Researchers (M.E. Khvattsev, 1959; M. Zeeman, 1962; V.A. Kurshev, 1973; L.I. Belyakova, 1992; V.M. Shklovsky, 1994; V.I. Seliverstov, 2001; L. Y. Missulovin, 2002, etc.) distinguish two groups of causes of stuttering: predisposing (“ground”) and producing (“impetles”). At the same time, some etiological factors can contribute to the development of stuttering and directly cause it (L.S. Volkova, 2003).
Predisposing reasons include:
1. A certain age of the child (from 2 to 6 years), since the coordinating mechanisms of speech activity that develop in preschool age are in the stage of intensive formation. Any functional system that is in the stage of intensive development is selectively vulnerable under the influence of harmful factors.
2. State of the central nervous system. Often, when stuttering occurs, organic damage to the brain is noted in the prenatal, prenatal and postnatal periods of development. These causes cause various pathological changes in the somatic and mental spheres, lead to delayed speech development and speech disorders and contribute to the development of stuttering. Some people who stutter do not have organic brain damage. At the same time, they are characterized by increased impressionability and vulnerability of the nervous system, anxiety, low level of adaptation, and special susceptibility to mental trauma.
3. Hereditary factor. It is caused by the genetic transmission of certain features of higher nervous activity - increased excitability, accelerated rate of general movements and speech, i.e., a certain weakness of the central speech mechanisms is transmitted, which are increased susceptible to the influence of risk factors. Burdened heredity can be traced at the level of several generations. At the same time, according to L.I. Belyakova and E.A. Dyakova (1998), among stuttering men, the percentage of stuttering sons is 22%, and daughters - 9%. For a woman, the risk of children stuttering is higher: in this case, 36% of boys stutter, 17% of girls. The incidence of stuttering in siblings is 18%, with stuttering occurring in 32% of dizygotic twins and 77% in monozygotic twins. According to L.Ya. Missoulina (2002), in cases of family stuttering, the possibility of this disorder occurring in children only by imitation of their parents is not very realistic. The genetic inheritance of any pathology manifests itself in the presence of additional harmfulness.
4. Functional asymmetry of the brain. V.A. Kurshev (1973) points out that stuttering often occurs when retraining left-handedness to right-handedness, if it is brought to the point of torture. And according to M.E. Khvattsev (1959), when retraining left-handed people, not only the connections and relationships between the hemispheres of the brain are rearranged and disrupted, but also the condition of the right hemisphere, in which the leading centers of speech are located in left-handed people, worsens. The weakening of the interaction between the symmetrical structures of the brain in people who stutter makes this central nervous system especially vulnerable.
5. Features of the course of speech ontogenesis. For the onset of stuttering, the period of intensive speech formation is of particular importance. At this time, many children are characterized by the appearance of physiological iterations (from the Latin Iterare - repeat). At this age (from 2 to 5 years), children can repeat or stretch out individual sounds, syllables, words, and sometimes insert emboli (extra sounds and words that do not carry a lexical and emotional load - “a”, “well”, “here” " and so on.). This is a normal process of developing rhythmic speech, since speech breathing that is not yet sufficiently formed does not correspond to the mental ability to pronounce complex phrases (M. Zeeman, 1962; L.I. Belyakova, 1992; V.I. Seliverstov, 2001).
The pace of speech development, especially the appearance of phrasal speech: slowed or accelerated, can also be of great importance in the appearance of stuttering. During these periods, the speech system is especially susceptible to the influence of unfavorable factors. Of particular importance in these cases is the behavior of adults surrounding the child. Additional speech and emotional load, fixation on iterations can provoke stuttering (L.I. Belyakova, 1992).
6. Sexual demorphism. L.M. Belyakova and E.A. Dyakova (1998) note that among children who stutter, the ratio of girls to boys is approximately 1 to 3-4. A L.Ya. Missulovin (2002) in his work showed that with age, stuttering decreases or disappears completely, but in a number of patients it remains, and in men it occurs more often than in women in a ratio of 2.2-5.3 to 1.
In addition to the above, to congenital predisposing factors V.M. Shklovsky (1994) includes severe neuropsychic and infectious diseases of parents. The scientist notes that diseases such as schizophrenia, tuberculosis, syphilis, etc., harmful chemical factors of production, and increased radioactivity in many cases primarily affect the nervous system of an unborn child. Various types of trauma, experiences, unfavorable living and working conditions of the mother during pregnancy, and birth injuries can have a harmful effect on the state of the offspring’s nervous system.
External predisposing causes, according to V.M. Shklovsky (1994), are generated by the environment, living conditions and upbringing of the child. The author includes disturbances in sleep and eating patterns, and insufficient awareness of parents that the baby should live and be raised, if possible, in calm conditions. Strong sound stimuli (TV, receiver, tape recorder, loud shouts from adults, etc.), large crowds of people, stuffiness - all this negatively affects the state of the child’s nervous system. Long-term psychotraumatic stimuli can cause a severe neurotic state, against which stuttering appears. A certain role among the external causes of stuttering is played by the child’s imitation of stuttering adults or peers.
In the group of producing causes V.I. Seliverstov (2001) distinguishes anatomical-physiological, mental and social.
1. Anatomical and physiological reasons: a) Physical diseases with encephalitic consequences and injuries (intrauterine, natural, with asphyxia, concussions); b) Organic brain lesions, in which the subcortical mechanisms regulating movements are damaged; c) Exhaustion and overwork of the nervous system as a result of intoxication and other diseases that weaken the central apparatus of speech (measles, rickets, whooping cough, diseases of internal secretion and metabolism); d) Diseases of the nose, pharynx, larynx, imperfections of the sound-pronunciation apparatus in cases of dyslalia, dysarthria and delayed speech development.
2. Mental and social reasons: a) Short-term and one-time mental trauma: fright and fear; b) Long-term mental trauma - improper upbringing in the family, spoiling, imperative upbringing, uneven upbringing and upbringing of an “exemplary” child; c) Chronic conflict experiences, long-term emotions in the form of persistent mental stress or conflict situations; d) Acute severe mental trauma, strong and sudden shocks that cause an affective reaction: horror, excessive joy; e) Improper speech formation in childhood; speech while inhaling, rapid speaking, impaired sound pronunciation, rapid nervous speech of parents, overload of young children with speech material; age-inappropriate complications of speech material and thinking (abstract concepts, complex phrase construction), polyglossia - simultaneous mastery of different languages at an early age causes stuttering in one language; imitation of stuttering: passive - involuntary stuttering, hearing the speech of a stutterer and active - copying the speech of a stutterer; retraining left-handedness: demands can disorganize the child’s higher nervous activity and lead to a neuropathic and psychopathic state with stuttering; incorrect attitude of the teacher towards the child: excessive severity, harshness, inability to win over the student can be the impetus for stuttering.
The physiological characteristics of the personality of a stutterer are primary; on their basis, psychological ones are formed, which aggravate the symptoms of stuttering.
To unfavorable conditions conducive to the occurrence of stuttering V.I. Seliverstov (2001) also includes the following factors: physical weakness of children; age-related features of brain activity; accelerated speech development (3-4 years) occurs when communicative, cognitive and regulatory functions quickly develop under the influence of adults; at the same time, children observe iterations - repetition of syllables and words that are physiological in nature; hidden mental impairment of the child, increased reactivity due to abnormal relationships with others; conflict between environmental requirements and the degree of their awareness; insufficient number of positive emotional contacts between adults and children; insufficient development of motor skills, sense of rhythm, facial and articulatory movements.
It should be noted that most researchers in the group of producing causes include mental trauma, which can be chronic and acute. So, B.D. Karvasarsky (1990) notes that most authors proceed from the recognition of the determining role of psychotraumatic situations in the genesis of neuroses, believing that in some cases they can act as leading etiological factors, in others - as etiological conditions. And most often their combinations acquire a pathogenic role.
Chronic mental trauma is long-term, negative emotions in the form of persistent mental stress or unresolved, constantly reinforcing conflict situations. They are often associated with a tense psychological climate in the family or the child’s difficulty adapting to a child care institution.
Acute trauma is a strong, sudden, mostly one-time mental shock caused by an affective (emotional) reaction. More often this is a reaction of fear or fear. It is soon after suffering an acute mental trauma or against the background of chronic conflict situations that many children experience stuttering of a convulsive nature (S.V. Leonova, 2004).
In general, in the presence of any of the listed unfavorable conditions, a stimulus of extreme strength is sufficient, and a nervous breakdown will be caused, causing stuttering.
Thus, preschool children, due to their emotional excitability and unpreparedness to process external environmental influences, are more susceptible to violent emotional reactions than adults. The combination of individual of the above factors, acting during the period of formation of speech function (from 2 to 6 years), can cause the appearance of stuttering (L.Ya. Missulovin, 1997).
Currently, there are two groups of symptoms that are closely related: biological (physiological) and social (psychological). Physiological symptoms include speech cramps, disorders of the central nervous system and physical health, general and speech motor skills. Psychological - the phenomenon of fixation on the defect, logophobia, tricks and other psychological characteristics (L.M. Belyakova, E.A. Dyakova, 1998; L.Ya. Missulovin, 1997; V.I. Seliverstov, 2001).
As noted by N.A. Vlasov (1956), the main external symptom is convulsions during the speech act (0.2 -12.6 sec.). In severe cases, convulsions last up to 90 seconds. They differ in form (tonic, clonic, mixed), in localization (respiratory, vocal, articulatory, mixed) and in frequency. With tonic convulsions, a short jerky or prolonged spasmodic muscle contraction is noted - tone. With clonic convulsions - rhythmic, with less pronounced tension, repetition of the same convulsive muscle movements - clonus. This is how the entire respiratory-vocal-articulatory apparatus is usually affected, since its function is controlled by an integrally functioning central nervous system. Depending on the predominance of convulsions in certain organs of speech, respiratory, vocal and articulatory convulsions are distinguished.
M. Becker, M. Sovak (1981), pay attention to various disorders of the higher nervous activity of stutterers, their physical health, autonomic disorders: touchiness, tearfulness, appetite and sleep disorders, susceptibility to infectious and colds, somatic weakness, etc. In the process of speaking, people who stutter sweat sharply, their facial skin turns red or pale, their heart rate increases, that is, autonomic reactions appear, which are also observed in normal speakers in a state of strong emotional stress.
Another characteristic symptom of stuttering is fear of oral speech, a fear of sounds or words that are most difficult for a stutterer to pronounce. Fear of speech is called logophobia. Logophobia includes obsessive experiences, fear of speech convulsions, and fear of verbal communication. (N.M. Asatiani, L.I. Belyakova, I.O. Kalacheva, 1978).
The concept of fixation on a defect means a special quality of attention (stable, stuck, obsessive, concentrated), awareness of the defect, an idea of it, a different emotional attitude towards it (fear, anxiety, timidity and worries). At first, an involuntary emotional reaction to the defect occurs, but gradually one’s own attitude towards the defect is formed, associated with emotional experiences and reflected in volitional efforts (actions and deeds), and an independent unsuccessful fight against stuttering.
G.A. Volkova (1976) distinguishes several degrees of painful fixation on the defect: 1) zero degree: children do not experience infringement from the awareness of the defect, or do not notice it. There are no elements of embarrassment, resentment for incorrect speech, or attempts to overcome the defect; 2) moderate degree: older schoolchildren and teenagers experience the defect, are embarrassed by it, hide it, resort to tricks and try to communicate less. They know about stuttering and try to hide and disguise it; 3) pronounced degree: the experience is expressed in a feeling of inferiority. Children concentrate their attention on speech failures, experience them deeply, suspiciousness and fear of speech, people, situations, etc. arise.
Fixation on a defect is one of the main factors that complicates the structure of the defect and its correction.
Awareness of the defect and unsuccessful attempts to overcome it give rise to various psychological characteristics in a stutterer: vulnerability, defenselessness, timidity, timidity, suggestibility, etc. Therefore, at present, for a justified psychotherapeutic focus of correctional work, the individual psychological characteristics of stutterers are being studied more deeply.
Research by G.A. Volkova (2003) relationships in the family of a child who stutters showed some changes in the character of children with the onset of stuttering: manifestation of aggressiveness, use of incorrect words, sudden refusal to speak and play. According to the parents, the children showed stubbornness and persistence in fulfilling their desires and requests expressed in a categorical form.
According to G.A. Volkova (2003), for preschoolers who stutter, undeveloped gaming skills and collective communication skills, decreased activity, and poor game plans are indicative. These features also determine the underdevelopment of the social behavior of children who stutter.
When characterizing the expressive speech of stuttering children, V.I. Seliverstov (2001) reflected the following features: a) violation of smoothness, tempo and partially melody. Speech is intermittent, with unreasonable pauses, repetitions, and even difficult pronunciation of individual sounds, their combinations, or simply difficult beginnings of phrases; b) speech tricks in the form of auxiliary sounds, their combinations or words (embolophrasia); c) limitation of speech activity in many children, decreased communication with others, which indicates certain violations of the communicative function of speech; d) deficiencies in the pronunciation of sounds, incorrect use of words, construction of phrases, etc.; e) at school age, deficiencies in oral speech can be reflected in written speech in the form of repetition of identical letters, syllables, word breaks, incorrect sentence construction, etc.
Since the mid-60s, the view of stuttering as a violation of the communicative function of speech has been established (R.E. Levina, N.A. Cheveleva, S.A. Mironova, A.V. Yastrebova). Manifestations of stuttering are studied in close connection with the characteristics of the communicative situation and the child’s reaction to it, which determine his speech behavior.
Thus, stuttering affects the child’s activity and behavior and negatively affects mental development. This speech defect has an impact on mental development, especially on the formation of higher levels of cognitive activity, which is due to the close relationship between speech and thinking and the limitations of social, in particular speech contacts, during which the child learns about the surrounding reality; interferes with verbal communication (L.S. Volkova, 2003).
In general, the analysis of the literature allows us to draw the following brief conclusions:
– Stuttering is a complex speech disorder that requires further in-depth study. Among numerous speech disorders, it is one of the few whose mechanisms are not fully understood. Some interpret it as a complex neurotic disorder, which is the result of an error in nervous processes in the cerebral cortex, a violation of cortical-subcortical interaction, a disorder of the uniform tempo of speech movements (voice, breathing, articulation), others as a complex neurotic disorder, which is the result of a fixed reflex of incorrect speech , which initially arose as a result of speech difficulties of various origins, and others as a complex, predominantly functional speech disorder that appeared as a result of general and speech dysontogenesis and disharmonious personality development. Moreover, all approaches are legitimate, since in general the etiology of stuttering is distinguished by a combination of exogenous and endogenous factors.
– Having examined the structure of the defect, it can be noted that the primary factors in stuttering are the physiological characteristics of the personality of the stutterer, and since stuttering is characterized by complex, polymorphic symptoms, in the vast majority of cases it is the cause of secondary psychological and logoneurotic layers that aggravate the symptoms of stuttering. In addition to a specific speech defect, children who stutter are characterized by disturbances in attention, memory, thinking, disorders of the emotional-volitional sphere and behavior. Researchers note in these children certain features of general emotional-volitional immaturity, extremely unstable attention, difficulty concentrating and maintaining attention on purely verbal material outside of a visual situation, delayed involvement in activities, decreased verbal memory and memorization productivity, and a lag in the development of visual-figurative thinking. Therefore, work to correct stuttering in children should be based on the characteristics of their attention, memory, thinking and perception. Only taking into account the diversity and interconnection of speech and non-speech symptoms in people who stutter makes it possible to carry out a targeted approach to the selection of equally diverse methods and techniques for treating this speech defect.
Bibliography:
1. Asatiani N.M., Belyakova L.I., Kalacheva I.O. and others. Data from a clinical and physiological study of preschool children suffering from stuttering // Defectology. - 1978. - No. 1. — P.25-30. 2. Becker K.P., Sovak M. Speech therapy. - M.: Medicine, 1981. – P.273-275. 3. Volkova G.A. Manifestations of stuttering in preschool children // Preschool education. – 1976. – No. 1. — P.24-26. 4. Belyakova L.I. A problematic approach to the analysis of pathogenetic mechanisms of stuttering // Stuttering: problems of theory and practice / Ed. Belyakova L.I. - M. - 1992. - P.3-20. 5. Belyakova L.I., Dyakova E.A. Stuttering. Tutorial. - M.: V. Sekachev, 1998. - 304 p. 6. Vlasova N.A. Treatment of stuttering in preschool children. - M.: Knowledge, 1956. - 32 p. 7. Volkova L.S. Speech therapy. Methodological heritage. In 5 books. Book 2: Disturbances in the tempo and rhythm of speech: Stuttering. Bradylalia. Tahilalia. Tutorial. - M.: Vlados, 2003. - 431 p. 8. Zeeman M. Speech disorder in childhood. Per. from Czech E.O. Sokolova / Ed. VC. Trutkeva, S.S. Lyapidovsky. - M.: Medgiz, 1962. - 299 p. 9. Karvasarsky B.D. Neuroses: A Guide for Doctors. 2nd ed., revised. and additional - M.: Medicine, 1990. - 572 p. 10. Kurshev V.A. Stuttering. - M.: Education, 1973. - 159 p. 11. Leonova S.V. Psychological and pedagogical correction of stuttering in preschool children. - M.: Vlados, 2004. - 128 p. 12. Missulovin L.Ya. Stuttering and its elimination. - St. Petersburg: SLP LLC, 1997. - 144 p. 13. Missulovin L.Ya. Pathomorphosis of stuttering. Changing the pattern of occurrence and course of stuttering, features of correctional work. - St. Petersburg: Soyuz, 2002. - 320 p. 14. Seliverstov V.I. Stuttering in children. - M.: Vlados, 2001. - 208 p. 15. Khvattsev M. E. Speech therapy. - M.: Uchpedgiz, 1959. - P.237-249. 16. Shklovsky V.M. Stuttering (clinical-psychological and experimental-psychological aspects). - M., 1994. - 248 p.
