Stuttering in Children
What all stutterers have in common
If the cause of a stutter cannot be removed, it is virtually impossible to help the person to get over his problem. Unless the thorn is removed, the person with a thorn in his foot will never stop limping. That means that it must be discovered exactly what it is that the stutterer is doing wrong.
One of the most astounding facts about stuttering is that any one person's stutter appears to be different from any other person's stutter. One person would stutter only on certain words, another would stutter more severely. The person who does not stutter very much will probably have periods when he stutters often, whereas the severe stutterer may experience periods when he stutters noticeably less. Some people stutter when they are talking but not when they are reading aloud; others stutter both when speaking and reading. Some would repeat certain sounds (usually initial sounds) several times, or prolong certain sounds before the word is said. Others may experience complete "blocks" when no sound is coming out at all. During these blocks, some may exhale strenuously and voicelessly, without being able to overcome the block.
Apart from these apparent differences between stutterers, there are often several other features added to the speech production. These may consist of gestures or movements of various kinds, such as jerking the head or throwing it backwards or forwards, clenching the fists, twisting or stamping a foot, slapping the knee with the hand, licking the lips, nasal snorts or sniffs, closing the eyes, et cetera. It is especially such oddities as these, which people find irritating when listening to a stutterer and which cause the most embarrassment to the stutterer himself.
All these features, however, must be regarded as no more than accessory phenomena. They are similar to the flailing arms of a falling person. Basic to the condition of such a person is that he has lost his balance, and the flailing arms are only a symptom of his efforts to regain his balance. Similarly, basic to the stutterer's condition is that the vocal sound tends to stop, and these accessory features are simply symptoms of his effort to get the flow of sound started again.
That then is the characteristic that is common to all stutters: the flow of vocal sound tends to stop. This can only mean that there must be something wrong with the way in which the stutterer produces the sound of his voice. If stuttering is a learned behavior, as was previously suggested, this must then be the answer to the question what it is that he has learned to do wrong. The stutterer has learned to produce the sound of his voice in an unnatural and incorrect manner. Stuttering is therefore strictly speaking not a speech problem, as is commonly believed, but a voice production problem.
If this is true, how is it possible that such a simple fact has so far remained undiscovered? If one studies the literature on the subject of voice production, the answer becomes obvious: there are a large number of conflicting theories on the functioning of the human voice. In fact, one can safely state that so far nobody really knew how the human voice works. Unless one knows this, it is impossible to see what it is that the stutterer is doing wrong.
Because there is so much uncertainty about the functioning of the human voice, one can imagine that there will probably be many people with a complete misconception about the way in which the sound of their voices is produced. This means that there are probably few who really use their voices correctly. This is also the reason that there are so many people with vocal problems. Some sources maintain that up to 76% of schoolchildren have vocal problems. A large percentage of adults also display symptoms of voice problems. Some people get hoarse very quickly when they speak. Others find that their throats get sore. Still others may develop nodules on their vocal chords. With some the improper use of their voices may assume such proportions that they find it impossible to maintain a steady flow of sound when they speak. They become stutterers.
How does the human voice function?
Without breath it is impossible to produce vocal sound. This is a fact that cannot be denied. There is still much uncertainty, however, on the question how the outflowing breath is converted into vocal sound. The reason for this is obvious. Because the voice is hidden inside the body, it is impossible to observe it while in actual operation, which makes if difficult if not impossible to establish empirically which organs are those responsible for human sound production. If one wished to discover which organs of the body really are the vocal organs, the only safe approach would be to discover an irrefutable fact about the human voice, and to use that as a point of departure for a study on the voice.
"What exactly is the human voice?" If one could find an acceptable answer to this question, if one could conceive a feasible definition of the voice, such an irrefutable fact about the voice might emerge from that. Most works on the voice start with the so-called "physiology of the voice." In most of these, no attempt is made at defining the voice in any way. Some do refer to the voice albeit in passing as an instrument, sometimes even as a musical instrument. However, no attempt has ever been made to exploit to the full the enormous possibilities locked within this seemingly unimportant reference.
What is the human voice? An answer to this question that would probably be found adequate by most people is the following: "The human voice is a sound producing mechanism, capable of producing musical sounds." Granted, the voice is also capable of producing sounds of a decidedly unmusical nature, but so is any musical instrument.
This definition would fit any musical instrument, if one would replace the words "human voice" with "musical instrument." The only conclusion that can possibly be drawn from this is that the voice must then also be a musical instrument, a fact often alluded to by many other writers on the subject.
The human voice is a musical instrument
This is the irrefutable fact that we were looking for and that we needed as a point of departure for our study on the voice. If the human voice is a musical instrument, that means that we can now learn a lot about the voice by studying other, more readily accessible instruments. That it is impossible to get at the voice itself because it is hidden inside the body need no longer deter us: we can substitute another musical instrument as our object of study. We could select any musical instrument for our study. However, seeing that we are going to conduct some experiments with the chosen instrument, it is best to choose one that will be readily available to most people. Most people should be able to get hold of a guitar.
If you pluck one of the strings of a guitar, you would hear an agreeable musical sound. The question is now: exactly what is it that produces the sound? Most people would answer that it is the string that makes the sound. It is easy to test whether this is so by removing the string from the guitar and stretching it over a piece of stick or bamboo. If previously it was the string alone that made the sound when it was in the guitar, there should now be very little or no difference when the string, drawn tight over the stick, is plucked. However, one finds that the string now produces virtually no sound at all. When the string, drawn tight over the stick, is plucked, it is possible to hear only a faint vibration. If the stick with the vibrating string is pressed on the box of the guitar, however, one hears almost the same sound that one could hear previously with the string still in the guitar.
The implication is that the sound of the guitar is not produced by the string only. The string produces a vibration, which is converted into an audible sound by the box of the guitar. This implies that there are three elements required in order to produce the sound emanating from any musical instrument:
- Something which causes something else to vibrate in the guitar, it is the finger which plucks the string;
- The thing that vibrates in the guitar, the string;
- Something which can convert the vibrations into audible sound in the guitar, the box.
Further investigation would convince one that these three elements are essential to all musical instruments. For example, in the piano we have a hammer hitting a string, causing it to vibrate, and then the soundboard of the piano converting these vibrations into audible sound. In a wind instrument like the trumpet, it is the player's breath that causes his lips, tightly pressed against the mouthpiece of the trumpet, to vibrate, and the pipe of the trumpet converts these vibrations into audible sound.
It is very important to note that the thing, which converts the vibrations into audible sound, is always made of some hard material, like wood or metal. Any soft material will not serve the purpose. For example, if one would remove the sound board of the piano and put a piece of cloth in its place, the piano will not produce the same sound as before when a note is struck.
As we have previously discovered that the human voice is also a musical instrument, the three elements referred to must of necessity also be essential to the voice. Yet one is expected to believe that, according to the most popular theory on human voice production, the vocal chords produce both the vibration, and is also alone responsible for all the sound! With such erroneous ideas about the voice, it is no wonder that the cause of stuttering has so long remained a mystery.
Let us now consider the voice in relation to the three elements. First, the thing that causes something else to vibrate, must in the case of the voice be the breath, just like in all wind instruments. This designates the voice beyond any doubt as a wind instrument although there are many writers on the subject who maintain that the voice was a string instrument. Second, the thing that vibrates must be the vocal chords. There must also be a third substance that converts the vibrations of the vocal chords into audible sound. Most writers on the subject, however, maintain that the vocal chords are at the same time the vibrating and the sound producing body. Some say that the vocal sound emanating from the chords is amplified by the throat and mouth cavities. However, we have already mentioned that the sound-producing element must be of some hard material. The throat and mouth, which are of soft material, cannot amplify, let alone produce any sound.
Having got as far as this, it is now quite simple to conclude what must be the thing that converts the vibrations of the vocal chords into audible sound. It must be situated above the vocal chords, because the breath-stream must flow into the sound box, just like when the trumpeter blows into the pipe of the trumpet. Furthermore, it must be of hard material. This leaves us with only one possibility: the hard, bony skull.
With people who are able to use their voices very well, like opera singers, it is possible to feel a pronounced vibration when you touch their heads especially their foreheads while they are singing or speaking.
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