Stuttering in Children

The role of the skull in voice production

By this time it should be clear why a person stutters. He has learned to make poor use of his skull as a sound-producing instrument, and for that reason it sometimes happens that the stream of sound stops while he is speaking. As soon as he has been taught to use his skull properly, this would not occur any more. It is also now clear why the cause of stuttering has remained a mystery for so long. The role of the skull in the production of the vocal sound has so far been unknown.

For the skull to be able to perform its sound-producing function, the outflowing breath must come into direct contact with the skull. This means that the stream of breath must not flow out directly through the mouth, but must first be pushed up behind the uvula into the sinus cavities, through which direct contact between the vibrating breath and the skull is then effected. Audible sound is then produced.

It is important to note that no sound is produced without direct contact between the outflowing breath and the skull. This is what happens when a person whispers. All the breath flows out directly through the mouth, without coming into contact with the skull.

Experts on stuttering have so far been mystified by the fact that stutterers can whisper and sing without stuttering. The reason for this should now be clear. When a person whispers, no vocal sound is produced, and therefore there is no flow of sound that can stop, causing the person to stutter. When a person sings, there is a slightly stronger and firmer pressure behind the outflowing breath stream and then there is less of a tendency for the flow of sound to stop.

Why the onset is usually between the ages of three and five

The "normal" speaker speaks with sufficient pressure behind the outflowing stream of breath, so that enough breath is pushed up into the sinus cavities to produce vocal sound. Every child is born with the natural ability to do this. This is why no child stutters when he begins to speak. According to statistics most children start stuttering between the ages of three and five years. This also proves that stuttering is not an inborn problem, but a learned behavior. The question now to be answered, however, is what causes the child to speak with insufficient pressure behind the outflowing stream of breath? The answer might surprise you.

When all or most of the outflowing breath is pushed up into the sinus cavities, the resultant vocal sound has a relatively loud, ringing quality. When they are still small, all children speak with this "loud," ringing quality in their voices. Usually, parents are so excited when their child starts speaking that at first they do not mind that the sound of the child's voice is initially rather loud.

Unfortunately in Western civilization most people believe that is it "unrefined," even "uncivilized," to talk loudly. Therefore, children have to be taught to speak softly, because this is supposedly more refined and civilized. Therefore, after the initial excitement about the child that can now talk, when their children are about two or three years, many parents are intent on toning down the child's voice, so that the child will learn to speak in a more "refined" manner. However, the only way in which the child can produce a softer sound is by producing it in a manner that differs from the natural one in which he has so far been producing his voice. This means that he has to speak with less pressure behind the breath stream, so that less breath will be pushed up into the sinus cavities, thereby producing less sound.

As a result of the idea that it is "refined" and "civilized" to speak softly, many parents themselves speak softly. Children are born imitators, and especially during their preschool years they slavishly follow the examples set by their parents. Even without insistence from the parents, therefore, some children follow their parents' example and start speaking softly.

Once the child has learned to speak with less pressure behind the stream of breath, the parents are happy that the softer sound is now more "refined." The resultant manner of voice production is dangerous, however, and can lead to all kinds of vocal problems, among others also stuttering. The following experiment should illustrate why speaking softly is a dangerous method of speech.

Open a tap completely, and then try to stop the flow of water with the thumb. You will find this to be impossible. Close the tap a little, so that a mere trickle of water flows out. Now you will find it quite easy to stop the flow of water with your thumb. In the same way, if a person speaks with too little breath pressure so that the flow of breath to the skull — and thereby the volume of sound — is reduced, it can quite easily happen that the flow of breath stops completely, in which case no sound will be produced.

It should now be clear to you why Demosthenes was successful in his efforts to get rid of his stutter. You noticed that Demosthenes did exercises and ran daily to strengthen his breathing. These exercises made him stronger, so that he was able to speak with stronger breath pressure. He also walked on the beach and practiced speaking over and over. You will remember that it was stated that Demosthenes was a "timid" little boy. This must imply that he spoke very softly. A person who speaks loudly will not be described as timid. When he walked on the beach, the noise of the waves in his ears caused him to speak louder. This, together with the regular exercise, helped him to speak with stronger breath pressure. That was why he succeeded in overcoming his stutter.

When they are forced to speak softly, with some children this is sufficient to let them become stutterers. In other cases, however, the real onset of the stutter is brought on by tension or some traumatic experience. With others, another factor may also play a role. Many children go through a so-called "disfluent" stage. Because their knowledge of language is still uncertain, they often start a sentence without knowing in advance how to finish it. Along the way they have to somehow gain time in order to think what to say. Then it sometimes happens that certain words or sounds are drawn out or repeated, sometimes even several times. Some parents become very anxious about this, and continually criticize the child on his speech. These parents will maintain that they do not criticize their children in any way. However, when a person quotes sentences like the following, they often recognize their own reactions to the child's disfluency:

Such criticism causes the child to become excessively sensitive about his speech, and may give them the idea that there is something wrong with his speech.

The implication of everything that has so far been said is that parents should not interfere with the way in which children produce the sound of their voices. Naturally, children must be corrected on language and pronunciation errors. That is something which the child does wrong, and which he must learn to do correctly. However, every child is born with the natural ability to produce the sound of his voice correctly, and by interfering with that a parent makes something wrong that was right.

What to do to stop your preschool child from stuttering

With most children aged six (sometimes seven) and younger it is still relatively easy to help the child to learn to speak "normally" again. He only has to be taught to produce the sound of his voice in the natural manner again.

Pretend to be deaf: Your child must again learn to speak naturally, which is loudly. If you have so far been in the habit of reprimanding your child on what you regard as too noisy speech, you must stop this immediately. Do the opposite of what you have been doing so far. Start now to encourage your child to speak louder. When your child speaks to you, you must pretend to be a little deaf. Especially when he stutters, your reaction must in no way give the impression that there is anything wrong with his speech. Cup your hand behind your ear and say: "Can you say that a little louder, I can't hear you!" The implication is that there isn't anything wrong with the child, but with you. You are a little hard of hearing. Do this every time that your child speaks to you and speaks too softly, and not only when he stutters. Remember that you have to get him into the habit of speaking loudly again. If you only pretend to be deaf when he stutters, he will quickly get wise to this, and then he will again experience this reaction as a reproach because he stutters.

Get a set of earplugs for every member of the family. Not only your child, but also every member of the whole family must use the earplugs. You stuttering child must wear the earplugs as often as possible. The parents and all other children in the family only need to wear them when they are in the company of the stutterer. When the whole family is at home together, everybody should therefore have a set of earplugs in his or her ears.

The result of this will be that everybody, including the stutterer, will start talking louder. This should enable your stuttering child to regain what he has lost through the interference in his manner of voice production. In most cases, this will be sufficient to help a preschool stutterer to speak normally again.

When your child stops stuttering, you should not be in too much of a hurry to stop using the earplugs. If you stop using them too quickly, a relapse may occur. A period of at least three months is advisable. After that, it should be safe, provided that you never again force your child to speak softer. If he does find himself in situations where speaking loudly is truly inappropriate, don't tell him to speak softer. Tell him to whisper instead.

What to do when your child is already of school-going age

Stuttering is a difficult problem to overcome in the case of an older stutterer. As already explained, if a person has a thorn in his foot, he will limp until the thorn has been removed. However, if he limps for ten of fifteen years with the thorn in his foot, he will go on limping even if the thorn is removed. After having limped for so many years, it will require much effort to get rid of the habit. The same is true of stuttering. After stuttering for so many years, the stutter becomes a habit. Moreover, it is a habit that can cause much tension, frustration and inner conflict. In some cases, the years of misuse of the voice can eventually also cause damage to the vocal cord muscles, causing them to contract spasmodically — the so-called "laryngospasm" mentioned above. It is relatively easy to diagnose if physical damage has already been done to the vocal cords muscles. When a stutterer only stutters on words that start with a consonant — like "some," "never," "dog," "cat," etc. — and never on words starting with vowels, it can mostly be accepted that there is no physical vocal damage. However, the stutterer who goes into a "complete block" when attempting to say "I am," very possibly has already suffered physical damage to his vocal cords, as a result of years of misuse.

In cases of older children, in order to rid the child of the habit of stuttering, it is usually necessary to follow a structured program. Unfortunately the facilities available on the Internet do not allow a demonstration of this program. However, even in cases of older children, the above-mentioned advice ("What to do to stop your preschool child from stuttering") has shown to be sufficient to overcome a stutter IN SOME CASES. I therefore encourage you to give it a try. In the case of a preschool stutterer, this method is often effective in ridding the child of his stutter in a remarkably short time. However, when dealing with an older child — i.e. one who is already in school — even in those cases where this simple method proves successful, it usually takes considerably longer before the child is completely rid of his stutter.

Copyright 2006: Dr. Jan Strydom (MA, HED, DEd)