Impediments and Stammers

We deal with a wide range of common articulatory problems. There are many children and adults who cannot produce certain speech sounds, and in nearly all cases we see 100% success. The ideal age to start is 4 and most problems can be cured at this age, but this should not deter adults who have struggled with a speech impediment all their life.

Sounds are made by placing the tongue and lips in a particular configuration in relation to the teeth and palate. The client learns where to place these organs of articulation and where and how to move them. It is slow and arduous work and takes a lot of practice, but improvement is nearly always possible, even in the worst cases. Clients then have exercises to practice, repeating the sounds until they are fluent enough to be introduced into everyday speech. As always, practice makes perfect.  Since all of the adults’ session are recorded in MP3 format onto your USB recording device clients have the sounds to listen to and copy during the week and exercises can be repeated regularly leading to a more rapid improvement.

Speech impediments can often be caused by or linked to other conditions.  Hearing impairment is a key factor in speech and language development and should always be investigated if a child is having difficulties.  A child’s bite may be affecting their speech so a visit to the orthodontist is sometimes recommended.  We have considerable experience of working with hearing impaired children as well as those with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and mild Aphasia.  Our tried and tested methods have been very successful in helping them to overcome their speech and language problems.

Stammering

We see a lot of people – as many adults as children – who are desperate to learn how to control their stammer. The method that we have developed is to breathe correctly and open the mouth, while speaking slowly and supporting the voice with the abdomen.   It is not a miracle cure for stammering but it is very successful, often producing great improvement after just one session. However, it requires a lot of practice and discipline on the part of the client to apply the methods on a day to day basis.

There are usually many problems with posture which are contributing to and exacerbating the stammer.  Also there are often emotional or psychological issues which have caused the blocking in the first place and these need to be explored and addressed.  

Worried parents are often told to ignore a child’s stammer and it will go away.  The advice which they have been given is that drawing attention to it will only make it worse.  In our experience nothing could be further from the truth.  The child is usually acutely aware of the problem and feels isolated and scared that everyone around them is ignoring their plight.  The most useful approach which parents can take is to tell a stammering child to stop, take a breath and start again much more slowly.  The same approach is very helpful for adults as well.

You can read more about these methods in the article from the Student British Medical Journal which Helen co-authored with a student. www.studentbmj.com November 2003 “When Words Don’t Come Easily”.