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Just dying to speak?

Updated on: 03 March,2011 09:26 AM IST  | 
Prachi Sibal |

The King's Speech is based on the true story of King George VI, who was known to have a stammer. the critically acclaimed film has helped bring the speech defect into the spotlight. Active! checks in with the experts to find out whether stammering is more than just a question of mind over matter

Just dying to speak?

The King's Speech is based on the true story of King George VI, who was known to have a stammer. the critically acclaimed film has helped bring the speech defect into the spotlight. Active! checks in with the experts to find out whether stammering is more than just a question of mind over matter

Stammering is a fluency disorder characterised by prolongation, repetition, over-articulation or a lack of continuity in speech patterns. The unclear speech patterns in people who stammer are produced by disruption or blockage due to physiological or psychological reasons.

"Stammering is not a disease. I would prefer to refer to it as a psychosomatic disorder that has its roots in a psychological problem with physiological manifestations," says Dr Jyotsana Dinkar Nadkarni, audiologist and speech language pathologist, Bombay Hospital.

Gender Divide
Visible in children aged around three or fouru00a0-- at the time when they first start to talku00a0-- stammering can have a series of causes attached to it. Males are more predisposed to the symptoms of stammering than females, according to the experts. "I would say stammering is mostly a male disorder. About 80 to 90 per cent of the cases of stammering that I deal with are males," says Dr Ajit Harisinghani, Speech Therapist, The Speech Foundation, Pune.

Clinical Psychologist Seema Hingorany says, "Boys are four times more likely to stammer than girls, according to research. 25 per cent of all children go through a stage of development during which they stutter. Around 4 per cent may stutter for six months or more. As children get older, the prevalence drops to about 1% in primary and secondary school, and to about 1 per cent for adults".

Children Vs Adults
Adults are equally, if not more prone to stammering. When an adult stammers it results in a cascading effect on his/ her personal and professional life. "Almost 70 per cent of the stammering cases that come to me are that of adults. Sometimes, people don't accept stammering as a problem in childhood," says psychologist Dr Varkha Chulani, Lilavati Hospital. Dr Harisinghani agrees. "Most of my casesu00a0-- almost 90 per centu00a0-- are young adults between the ages of 20 and 40, who are looking for different forms of therapy," he says.

Nature Vs Nurture
Stammering has physiological and psychological causes, but its recurrence within families encourages debate of its likely genetic connection. "Stammering is neurological issue largely affected by the emotional status of the individual. With 65 per cent cases that can be linked to family history, there is likely to be a genetic predisposition but it has not been proven. It is most likely to occur in the first-born male child. Only 30 per cent of cases that come to me have no family history linkage," says Dr Harisinghania.

In many cases though stammering can be linked to imitation of family members or surroundings, anxiety and a stressful environment at home or at the workplace. "Two out of 10 cases that I receive have a family history of stammering. At other times children tend to pick up speech patterns from those around and that may not necessarily be from somebody in the family," says Dr Nadkarni.




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