Approximately, 3 million people in United States stutter. Children aged between 2 and 5 are mostly affected. This is because, it is the age when they develop their language and communication skills. An estimation shows that around 5% of the children stutter in some of the other point in their lifetime. It is twice as more likely to be seen in boys than girls.
Symptoms of Stuttering:
- Repetition of Sounds: Stuttering causes the repetition of sounds. People who stutter tend to use letters or words more than once while speaking. For example, “I dont want” would be phrased as “I-I-I dont want it.” The letters just slip out while speaking.
- Pause in sentences and Dragging Words: Stutter may also be related to basic everyday things like pausing while speaking or dragging out words. Sentence like “Where was I going?” would be spoken as “Where was I -uhh-going?” The “uhh” sound in the middle is the 2-4 seconds pause while speaking. This is pausing.
Example for drawing or dragging words is “The water looks greeeeeeen”. The word “green” is elongated by a second.
- Incomplete Phrases: There are lots of time when stutterers eat up words. “I want to sit on the chair” would change into “I want….sit….chair.” The rest of the words aren’t pronounced.
- Signs of Discomfort: When an individual suffers from the problem of stuttering, he finds speaking very stressful. He shows signs of tension and feels uncomfortable while speaking before someone. This also reduces his power to imagine things.
- Lip Tremor: While speaking, there would be a strange tremor on the lips of the person. This is partly due to tension and partly involuntarily (without knowledge).
- Unusual Body Movements: People having problem of stuttering have strange types of body movements while speaking. This is due to nervousness and uneasiness in them.
