Free Essay Sample on Childhood-Onset Fluency Disorder (Stuttering)

Childhood-onset fluency disorder also known as stammering or stuttering is a prevalent condition. This condition reflects an obvious impairment in speech articulacy that is not attributable to stroke or any other therapeutic and mental illness. A person who stammers knows what he or she wants to say but has a problem saying it. For instance, he or she may replicate or lengthen a word, consonant, vowel or a syllable. People with this disorder may also break while speaking because they have reached a difficult word or sound.

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Stuttering is prevalent among young children as a usual part of learning to talk. Young children may stammer when their discourse and language capabilities are not developed enough to keep up with what they desire to say. Most children mature and stop stammering. In some cases, stammering is a severe disorder that continues into maturity. This form of stammering can have an effect on self-respect and relations with other individuals (Maguire, Yeh, and Ito, 2012).

According to the American Psychiatric Association (2013), 80-90 percent of youngsters that have issues with faltering will have problems by the time they are 6 years old. The difficulties often start between 2 and 7 years and usually the first symptoms are repeating the consonants at the beginning of words (w-w-w-what), the whole first word in a sentence (I-I-I) or with tougher or extended words. At the start, the child may not even know that they are stuttering. Once they realize it, they may start feeling afraid and attempt to avoid having to say the words that they have difficulties with. 65-85 percent of children having stuttering difficulties can overcome the problem. In case a child still shows extreme signs at about the age of 8, then issues could continue when a teen or an adult.

Symptoms of Childhood-Onset Fluency Disorder

As illustrated by DSM-5, there are specific standards that should be fulfilled for the diagnosis of this condition.

A. Disruptions in typical articulacy and time prefiguring of speech (incompatible with the person's age), demonstrated by recurrent incidences of one or more of the symptoms indicated below:

• Consonant, vowel and syllable replications
• Vowel extensions
• Interruptions
• Fragmented words
• Perceptible or soundless obstruction
• Monosyllabic whole-word replications
• Periphrases (word replacements to avoid difficult words)

B. The disruptions in fluency hinder educational and professional achievements. They also affect social interactions.

C. In case a speech-motor or neural insufficiency is obvious, the communication problems are in surplus and exemplify problems like:

Insufficiencies in intelligent roles like problem-solving, reasoning, scheduling, judgment, intellectual thoughts, learning from experience, and academic learning founded through the use of both medical evaluation and customized, uniform aptitude tests.

Beginning of intellectual and adaptive discrepancies throughout the development period and insufficiencies in adaptive functioning that lead to an inability to accomplish progressive and sociocultural principles for individual impartiality and societal obligation. The absence of continuous support deters effectiveness in one or more actions of everyday life comprising social interaction, communication, and autonomous living, across numerous settings like school, home, education institution and society (Yaruss, Coleman and Quesal, 2012).

Occurrence and extremity of stammering may vary from time to time and in relative to the speaking circumstance. Stammering is usually more extreme when there is augmented pressure to talk; for instance rivaling for talk time, interviewing for a job and providing a report at school.

Secondary behaviors that may influence overall communication entail; facial grimaces, distracting sounds, head movements, sound or word avoidances, fillers to mask moments of stuttering, distracting sounds, avoidance of social events, reduced verbal output and movement of the extremities such as fist clenching and leg tapping.

Associated language and verbal behaviors may entail;

Enunciation or phonological condition: The child has problems organizing his or her speech sounds into a system of sound patterns. The child can also replace a sound with another sound. The child may also make a distortion error when making a sound.

Language variations: A child who stammers scores within or above normal range on trials of philological aptitude. Nevertheless, a child who stammers tends to exhibit reduced functionality (though still in the normal range) on uniform trials of approachable and illustrative phonology and other dialectical measures when likened to a child who does not stammer. A child who stutters use substantially fewer verbs generally and fewer diverse verbs than those utilized by a child who does not stammer. A child who stammers may exhibit symbolic philological issues because of an inclination to avoid talking. Speech circumvention can result in less speaking and decreased etymological intricacy (Yaruss, Coleman and Quesal, 2012).

Causes

Muskin (2015) notes that stammering and some other communication problems tend to run in families. The risk of faltering among first-level biological relations with this condition is more than three times the risk in the general populace. Situations that lead to distress like feeling pressured or nervous are known to worsen stuttering (Muskin, 2014). Males are more likely to stammer than females.

Treatment

Early diagnosis for children with childhood-onset fluency condition is crucial for early intervention. This condition impacts interaction progress and social abilities negatively. A few approaches can be utilized to treat children and adult people that stammer. It is essential to evaluate individual desires and problems to establish the most efficient treatment approach for the person.

A highly recognized form of therapy is mental behavioral treatment. This method entails psychosomatic therapy which assists the psychotherapist in recognizing and transforming potential approaches of thoughts that can degenerate the person's stammering. It can also help the person in ascertaining how to identify any fundamental apprehension, pressure, problems with self-assurance and self-respect that may be likened to stammering (Yaruss and Reardon-Reeves, 2017).

According to Muskin (2014), parental guidance and contribution are fundamental in helping a child overcome stammering, particularly with the help of the speech-language pathologist and potential devices. Another method of intervention is that of measured articulacy. With this method of speech psychoanalysis, the person is trained to lessen the rate of speaking to focus on the time when stammering occurs. Through this undertaking, the person can avert faltering, slowly snowballing the speech array to a more natural flow. Parental involvement in undertaking therapeutic approaches at home is important in helping a child cope with faltering.

The utilization of some automatic tools can be effective in curing this condition. There are numerous electronic tools developed for treating this condition. One approach commonly referred to as delayed auditory feedback entails either reducing the frequency of the person's speech or altering the speech. Another one duplicates the person's speech so it seems that the dialogue is in equivalence with another individual (Yaruss and Reardon-Reeves, 2017).

The alternatives for therapy can be conducted either at home, with the utilization of a speech-language pathologist or through the help of an extensive platform. Nowadays, no prescriptions have been medically verified to help with the condition; although there are some that have been tested. The most positive method has been antidopaminergic agents, although none has been formally sanctioned by the FDA.

Most children with articulacy conditions illustrate both visible inarticulacy and adverse life effects. When establishing treatment objectives, the physician deliberates the level in which stammering impacts a child's life. For instance, negative responses (in regards to the presenter or the listener) and problems communicating in different speaking circumstances may influence a child's value of life (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

According to Mash and Wolfe (2016), objectives that emphasize on reducing these problems may assist a child in decreasing the determination used to conceal or avoid inarticulacy and help him or her start to interact with more affluence. Such objectives may lead to intensified visible inarticulate actions, because a child may begin interacting more easily. The personal background is a crucial element in the assortment of therapeutic alternatives. When stammering and cluttering occur together, physicians need to comprehend the collaboration of signs and the approaches that are most operative for coping with each condition. The eventual objective is for the youngster to comprehend these connections and the best way he or she can cope with the condition.

Recommendation

Childhood-onset fluency disorder often comprises repetitions of sounds or parts of sounds, in addition to extensions of words. Although this is observed in the typical populace, it is more prevalent in those who stammer. A few people who stammer may seem to be suffering from shortness in breath while speaking. In some situations, even when the mouth seems to be in the course of reviewing a speech, the child may not make an audible sound.

Looking at a person who stammers, living with this fluency condition can have a serious effect on his or her psychological and physical wellbeing. Such a person may have fear while saying some words, talking in public, socializing and holding leadership positions. In most cases, children with childhood-onset fluency disorder experience victimization from their peers because of the way they speak. In absence of a constructive coping method, children may be impacted in their decision on occupations or position in the community. Therefore, it is important to devise ways to reduce their stress and anxiety levels because they can worsen stuttering (Peters and Matson, 2018).

It is important for parents to listen attentively to their child. This can involve maintaining natural eye contact when the child speaks. The parent should also wait for their young ones to say the word he or she is attempting to say. Parents should also praise instead of criticizing their children. It is crucial to approve a child for talking clearly instead of drawing attention to stammering. It is advisable to avoid exposing a child to circumstances that generate a sense of determination, pressure or a need to rush or that necessitate the child to talk in front of others (Peters and Matson, 2018).

It is crucial for children, parents, and adults who stammer to connect with other people who stutter or who have children who stutter. Many organizations provide support groups. These support groups provide encouragement, advice and coping tips that may important in developing speech fluency.

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Maguire, G. A., Yeh, C. Y., & Ito, B. S. (2012). Overview of the diagnosis and treatment of stuttering. Journal of Experimental & Clinical Medicine, 4(2), 92-97.

Mash, E. J., & Wolfe, D. A. (2016). Abnormal child psychology. Australia; Cengage Learning.

Muskin, P. R. (2014). Study Guide to Psychiatry: A Companion to the American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychiatry. Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Peters, W. J., & Matson, J. L. (2018). Communication Disorders. In Handbook of Childhood Psychopathol...