Boys take longer to get over the stutters

By REBECCA WALSH

Most of us take talking for granted. We don't think twice about ordering a coffee or buying a plane ticket over the phone.

But most of us don't have a stutter. For those who do, such simple tasks can be a nightmare.

It may mean a person spending a lifetime socially embarrassed or not reaching his or her occupational potential.

An estimated 1 to 2 per cent of the population stutter.

Boys aged 3 to 6 are twice as likely as girls to have a stutter. By the time they reach adulthood about four or five men stutter for every woman - girls tend to get over stutters a lot quicker.

Mark Onslow, associate professor of speech language pathology at the University of Sydney, says there are many theories about why people stutter but the most common view is that it is a speech motor disorder.

"We all take talking for granted but it's really an extremely complicated process. It involves a great number of muscles.

"What happens with people who stutter is that somehow they don't quite manage to co-ordinate the muscles correctly. A lot of it is inherited."

In most cases, children start stuttering soon after they start talking - it is almost unheard of for an adult to begin stuttering.

"Why it's so distressing for parents is that it's unlike any other speech or language disorder in children.

"It appears after a period of perfectly normal development.

"And so you've got this beautiful child who's developing wonderfully and suddenly the child just can't talk. The child gets stuck on words and starts to become distressed. It can happen really rapidly.

"Some parents even go to bed and their child is speaking perfectly normally and they wake up in the morning looking at each other in horror because the child just can't get a word out."

Stuttering is not an emotional issue but it can cause emotional problems.

Research has shown that children aged 6 and 7 who stutter reported being teased and not feeling good about themselves.

Mr Onslow says that being able to communicate is the most fundamental thing to being a successfully functioning person.

Left untreated, a stutter can progress to a chronic condition in adulthood. In severe cases an adult will stutter on every second syllable and he or she may be "blocked" for several seconds to 30 seconds.

"Even something like ordering a train ticket or a coffee is impossible."

An estimated 50 per cent of adults who go to clinics for treatment have a social phobia, which means they suffer extreme anxiety about social interaction.

Traditionally, people ignored stutters, assuming that you shouldn't draw attention to it.

Often people would not ask the child questions or had unrealistic expectations about his or her language development.

Mr Onslow says that many people may find it tempting to finish a sentence for someone who stutters.

His advice is, don't. "If you're talking to an adult who stutters and they're having trouble just wait because it's you that's having the problem, not them. They're used to it."