A Few Known Stuttering Therapy Choices

December 15th, 2009 Posted in Anxiety and Depression

Sometimes children will simply outgrow stuttering and no stuttering therapy is needed at all. Yet, other times, kids will continue to stutter past age 5 or for more than six months, in which case speech therapy may be needed. Many parents feel that early intervention and training kids to monitor themselves are effective techniques to diminish the frequency of stuttering. Sometimes therapists will have children start off speaking very slowly and will gradually work them back up to a normal rate again. Delayed auditory feedback devices have been known to help some kids as well.

There is a hung jury over when to begin therapy for stuttering. Some people say that pre-k is too early and that most of these kids will simply outgrow stuttering on their own and that early intervention can undermine a child’s confidence levels. However, the tide is slowly turning toward sending kids in for stuttering control early-on. The latest research shows that the sooner a child receives treatment, the higher the chances of that child gaining lasting fluency. At the American Institute for Stuttering, kids ages 2 to 6 will arrive for weekly sessions that involve parents and caretakers.

Stuttering therapy for teens and adults is significantly more complex. Teens and adults will need to learn how they can change limiting beliefs, stop avoiding social situations and overcome road blocks to fluent speech. The stuttering program will also need to deal with emotional pain, like low self-esteem, depression and anxiety. Often the best mentors are people who have overcome stuttering themselves and who can offer a realistic light at the end of the tunnel. More information on adult programs can be found at www.stutteringtreatment.org.

Prescribed drugs are another form of stuttering therapy that has received a lot of attention in recent years. For 10 years now, dopamine-blocking stuttering medication has been used with some success. Some patients reported weight gain and blood sugar increases, although their stuttering decreased. Just this year, a revolutionary new drug called pagoclone is undergoing clinical trials to some success. Instead of blocking dopamine, this drug increases the natural neurochemical GABA, which has been hypothesized to play a role in speech problems like stuttering. In an early study of 130 adults, pagoclone was found to improve symptoms in more than 50% of the affected population. It also decreased speech anxiety in all of the patients. For more information on these trials, visit www.stutteringstudy.com.

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