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Stuttering children often victims of bullying
Stuttering is not a rare phenomenon, but more than 800,000 people in Germany are affected, according to the Federal Stuttering & Self-help e.V. Despite the frequency, many stutterers in everyday life are prejudiced or even marginalized, so experts like Anja Hüsing are increasingly pushing for greater acceptance. In conversation with the "General-Anzeiger", the state-certified speech therapist reports from her practical experience.
Strengthening the child is a central topic in therapy
More than one percent of the German population stutters. The interruption of the flow of speech by conspicuous blockages, repetitions or strains is not related to the intelligence. Nevertheless, prejudices such as "stutterers think slower" or "stutterers are less intelligent" would persist, explains Anja Hüsing. Affected children would often be "annoyed, laughed at or bullied", so in the strengthening of the child is very important in therapy, so the expert, who cares in a Alfterer practice, inter alia, stuttering children and adolescents. Besides that, it is also important that parents, relatives, friends and teachers are involved in order to provide appropriate information about the environment.
When children stutter, they often experience bullying at school. Image: Christian Schwier - fotolia Speech disorder has nothing to do with intelligence
But how does stuttering actually happen? The exact causes are not sufficiently researched according to the federal association Stottern & self-help e.V. However, it is believed that most sufferers have a predisposition to stutter, to which then in the course of language development triggering and sustaining factors are added, the information of the association on. A triggering factor could be e.g. An isolated event such as the birth of a sibling, the separation of parents or a trauma, adds Anja Hüsing. As "sustaining factors", according to the expert, e.g. the reaction of the environment or the own handling of the stuttering count.
Have those affected pronounced and not interrupted
According to the speech therapist, when dealing with those affected, care should be taken to have the person pronounced and not interrupted. "One should actively listen, keep eye contact, pay attention to the content of what is said and respond to it. The suffering of the person affected should be taken seriously, "explains Hüsing. Anyone who "takes over" speaking by completing sentences in case of difficulty does no favor to a stutterer. For this meant no relief for him - and is often even perceived as tutelage.
In therapy, two different approaches would be used, aimed at either strengthening self-esteem and self-awareness training, or learning a specific technique of speech. Even if there could be no absolute promise of healing according to Hüsing, it was assured "that it is possible to improve the handling of one's own stuttering."
Transient speech fluids in infancy are normal
To support affected children in the best possible way, it is important that "as many people as possible get on board and educate," explains the 33-year-old expert. In addition, openness in dealing with the topic should prevail, e.g. in the school about characteristics and characteristics of the children is spoken. "The classmates recognize that stuttering is just one of many characteristics that make up a person's personality," says Hüsing. Whether their own child is affected, parents could recognize by persistent Speununflüssigkeiten and increased effort in speaking. On the other hand, if the disturbances in the flow of speech occur only intermittently at the age of three or four years, this is "quite normal"..
"When a child repeats whole words loosely, it can be a so-called" developmental stuttering ". Repeats of individual sounds, strains or blockages, however, indicate "real stuttering", "explains the expert. If the abnormalities do not disappear after six months at the latest, the pediatrician will prescribe a speech therapy. (No)