Symptoms

Stuttering signs and symptoms may include:

• Difficulty starting a word, phrase or sentence
• Prolonging a word or sounds within a word
• Repetition of a sound, syllable or word
• Brief silence for certain syllables or words, or pauses within a word (broken word)
• Addition of extra words such as “um” if difficulty moving to the next word is anticipated
• Excess tension, tightness, or movement of the face or upper body to produce a word
• Anxiety about talking
• Limited ability to effectively communicate

The speech difficulties of stuttering may be accompanied by:

• Rapid eye blinks
• Tremors of the lips or jaw
• Facial tics
• Head jerks
• Clenching fists

Stuttering may be worse when the person is excited, tired or under stress, or when feeling self-conscious, hurried or pressured. Situations such as speaking in front of a group or talking on the phone can be particularly difficult for people who stutter.

However, most people who stutter can speak without stuttering when they talk to themselves and when they sing or speak in unison with someone else.

When to see a doctor or speech-language pathologist

It’s common for children between the ages of 2 and 5 years to go through periods when they may stutter. For most children, this is part of learning to speak, and it gets better on its own. However, stuttering that persists may require treatment to improve speech fluency.

Call your doctor for a referral or contact a speech-language pathologist directly for an appointment if stuttering:

• Lasts more than six months
• Occurs with other speech or language problems
• Becomes more frequent or continues as the child grows older
• Occurs with muscle tightening or visibly struggling to speak
• Affects the ability to effectively communicate at school, at work or in social interactions
• Causes anxiety or emotional problems, such as fear or avoidance of situations where speaking is required
• Begins as an adult

Causes of Stuttering

Researchers continue to study the underlying causes of developmental stuttering. A combination of factors may be involved. Possible causes of developmental stuttering include:

• Abnormalities in speech motor control. Some evidence indicates that abnormalities in speech motor control, such as timing, sensory and motor coordination, may be involved.
• Genetics. Stuttering tends to run in families. It appears that stuttering can result from inherited (genetic) abnormalities.

Stuttering resulting from other causes

Speech fluency can be disrupted from causes other than developmental stuttering. A stroke, traumatic brain injury, or other brain disorders can cause speech that is slow or has pauses or repeated sounds (neurogenic stuttering).

Speech fluency can also be disrupted in the context of emotional distress. Speakers who do not stutter may experience dysfluency when they are nervous or feeling pressured. These situations may also cause speakers who stutter to be less fluent.

Speech difficulties that appear after an emotional trauma (psychogenic stuttering) are uncommon and not the same as developmental stuttering.

Risk factors

Males are much more likely to stutter than females are. Factors that increase the risk of stuttering include:

• Delayed childhood development. Children who have developmental delays or other speech problems may be more likely to stutter.
• Having relatives who stutter. Stuttering tends to run in families.
• Stress. Stress in the family, high parental expectations or other types of pressure can worsen existing stuttering.

Complications

Stuttering can lead to:

• Problems communicating with others
• Being anxious about speaking
• Not speaking or avoiding situations that require speaking
• Loss of social, school, or work participation and success
• Being bullied or teased
• Low self-esteem

Homeopathic treatment for Stuttering

Homoeopathic remedies works well in stammering .The appropriate medicine is selected on individual study. Moreover Homoeopathic medicines are natural and safe, having no side effects. Some of the important remedies are given below-

Anacardium Orientalis

The Anacardium patient is found mostly among the neurasthenics  for example impaired memory, depression, irritability; diminution of senses (smell, sight, hearing), phobias, lacks self-confidence; irresistible desire to swear and curse. Fixed ideas. Hallucinations; thinks he is possessed of two persons or wills. Anxiety when walking, as if pursued. Profound melancholy and hypochondriasis, with tendency to use violent language.

Brain-fag. Impaired memory. Absent mindedness. Very easily offended. Malicious; seems bent on wickedness. Lack of confidence in himself or others. Suspicious. Clairaudient, hears voices far away or of the dead. Senile dementia. Absence of all moral restraint. Mouth: Painful vesicles; fetid odor. Tongue feels swollen, impending speech and motion, with saliva in mouth.

Stramonium

Stramonium is one of the top remedies for stammering. Devout, earnest, beseeching and ceaseless talking. Loquacious, garrulous, laughing, singing, swearing, praying, rhyming. Sees ghosts, hears voices, talks with spirits. Rapid changes from joy to sadness. Violent and lewd. Delusions about his identity; thinks himself tall, double, a part missing. Religious mania. Cannot bear solitude or darkness; must have light and company. Sight of water or anything glittering brings on spasms. Delirium, with desire to escape. Locomotor ataxia. Seem prominent, staring wide open; pupils dilated. Loss of vision. Parts of the body seem enormously swollen. Strabismus. All objects look black. Dry; dribbling of viscid saliva. Aversion to water. Stammering. Rises sardonicism.

Hyoscymaus Niger

Very suspicious. Talkative, obscene, lascivious mania, uncovers body; jealous, foolish. Great hilarity; inclined to laugh at everything. Delirium, with attempt to run away. Low, muttering speech; constant carphologia, deep stupor. Tongue dry, red, cracked, stiff and immovable, protruded with difficulty; speech impaired. Foams at mouth. Uvula elongated.

Causticum

Causticum is  indicated  for stramonium  when a person is mentally or emotionally excited. It is also useful for stammering from paralytic condition of tongue. Child does not want to go to bed alone. Least thing makes it cry. Sad, hopeless. Intensely sympathetic. Ailments from long-lasting grief, sudden emotions. Paralysis of right side. Warts. Pain in facial bones. Dental fistula. Pain in jaws, with difficulty in opening mouth. Bites inside of cheek from chewing. Paralysis of tongue, with indistinct speech. Rheumatism of articulation of lower jaw. Gums bleed easily.

Hyosymus Niger

Very suspicious. Talkative, obscene, lascivious mania, uncovers body; jealous, foolish. Great hilarity; inclined to laugh at everything. Delirium, with attempt to run away. Low, muttering speech; constant carphologia, deep stupor. It is indicated when the patient doubts that he will not be able to speak correctly. Brain feels loose, fluctuating. Inflammation of brain, with unconsciousness; head is shaken to and fro. Tongue dry, red, cracked, stiff and immovable, protruded with difficulty; speech impaired. Foams at mouth. Teeth covered with sordes. Lower jaw drops. Cannot swallow liquids. Uvula elongated.

Calcarea Carbonicaum

Apprehensive; worse towards evening; fears loss of reason, misfortune, contagious diseases. Forgetful, confused, low-spirited. Anxiety with palpitation. Obstinacy; slight mental effort produces hot head. Averse to work or exertion. Submaxillary glands swollen. Goiter. Itching of pimples in whiskers. Pain from right mental foramen along lower jaw to ear. Mouth fills with sour water. Dryness of tongue at night. Burning pain at tip of tongue. Difficult swallowing. Goitre. Parotid fistula.

Lachesis

Great loquacity. Amative. Sad in the morning; no desire to mix with the world. Restless and uneasy; does not wish to attend to business; wants to be off somewhere all the time. Jealous .  Euthanasia. Suspicious; nightly delusion of fire. Gums swollen, spongy, bleed. Tongue swollen, burns, trembles, red, dry and cracked at tip, catches on teeth. Aphthous and denuded spots with burning and rawness. Throat sore, worse left side, swallowing liquids. Quinsy. Septic parotitis. Dry, intensely swollen, externally and internally. Diphtheria; membrane dusky, blackish; pain aggravated by hot drinks; chronic sore throat, with much hawking; mucus sticks, and cannot be forced up or down.

Veratrum Album

Tongue pale, cold; cool sensation, as from peppermint. Dry in center not relieved by water. Salty saliva. Toothache, teeth feel heavy as if filled with lead. Melancholy, with stupor and mania. Sits in a stupid manner; notices nothing; Sullen indifference. Frenzy of excitement; shrieks, curses. Puerperal mania. Aimless wandering from home. Delusions of impending misfortunes.

Bothrops Lenceolatus

Amaurosis; blindness from hemorrhage into retina. Tongue paralysis. Hemeralopia, day blindness, can hardly see her way after sunrise; conjunctival hemorrhage.

Gelsemium

Desire to be quiet, to be left alone. Dullness, languor, listless. “Discerning are lethargies. ” Apathy regarding his illness. Absolute lack of fear. Delirious on falling to sleep. Emotional excitement, fear, etc, lead to bodily ailments. Bad effects from fright, fear, exciting news. Stage fright. Child starts and grasps the nurse, and screams as if afraid of falling. Tongue numb, thick, coated, yellowish, tremble, paralyzed.

Lycopodium Clavatum

Melancholy; afraid to be alone. Little things annoy, Extremely sensitive. Averse to undertaking new things. Head strong and haughty when sick. Loss of self-confidence. Hurried when eating. Constant fear of breaking down under stress. Apprehensive. Weak memory, confused thoughts; spells or writes wrong words and syllables. Cannot bear to see anything new. Cannot read what he writes. Sadness in morning on awaking. Tongue dry, black, cracked, swollen; oscillates. Mouth waters. Blisters on tongue. Ulceration of vocal bands.

Day-blindness. Night-blindness more characteristic. Sees only one-half of an object. Ulceration and redness of lids. Eyes half open during sleep. weak memory, indistinct sleep, lack of self confidence and poor self esteem. Fear of public speaking may also prevail among persons in need of Lycopodium.

Spigelia

Afraid of sharp, pointed things, pins, needles. Pupils dilated; photophobia; rheumatic ophthalmia. Severe pain in and around eyes, extending deep into socket. Ciliary neuralgia, a true neuritis. Tongue fissured, painful. Tearing toothache; worse, after eating and cold. Foul odor from mouth. Offensive taste. Spigelia is indicated when  stammering on the first few words of a sentence followed by normal, clear, uninterrupted speech. Spigelia patients  repeats the first syllable around three to four times before he can go on to the next part of the sentence.

Silicia Tera

Yielding, faint-hearted, anxious. Nervous and excitable. Sensitive to all impressions. Brain-fag. Obstinate, headstrong children. Abstracted. Fixed ideas; thinks only of pins, fears them, searches and counts them.. Vision confused; letters run together on reading. Stys. Iritis and irido-choroiditis, with pus in anterior chamber. Perforating or sloughing ulcer of cornea. Abscess in cornea after traumatic injury. Cataract in office workers. After-effects of keratitis and ulus cornea, clearing the opacity.

Bufo Rana

Anxious about health. Sad, restless. Propensity to bite. Howling; impatient; nervous; imbecile. Desire for solitude. Feeble-minded. Numbness of brain. Face bathed in sweat. Epistaxis with flushed face and pain in forehead, better, nosebleed. Paralysis of tongue; lapping motion before attacks. Stuttering and stammering; angry when not understood. Bloody saliva; fetid breath.

Bovista

Dejection and sadness, when alone. Placid melancholy, with inquietude and sombre thoughts. Sad, depressed, and desponding. Severe sensitiveness; irritable, takes everything amiss. Severe loquacity and unreserved conversation. Weakness of memory. Absence of mind. Awkwardness; allowing everything that is taken hold of to fall. Misapplication of words in speaking and writing. Laughs and cries alternately. Accumulation of saliva in the mouth. Sensation of torpor in the buccal cavity. Stuttering. Incisive pains in the tongue. Ulcers on the edges of the tongue, with pain like excoriation. Putrid smell from the mouth. Sore throat, with scraping and burning pains.

Mercurious

Teeth loose. Gums purple, swollen, and spongy. Tongue swollen and inflamed. Salivation. Pyorrhea. Ptyalism. Taste salty and bitter. Burning pain, vesicles, blisters, aphthae and ulcers in the mouth. Ulceration of orifice of salivary duct, and profuse discharge of excessively fetid saliva, which is sometimes bloody (or tenacious). Tongue moist, coated with white and thick, or dry, brown, or blackish mucus. Longitudinal furrow on tongue with pricking pains. Needle pricks in tip of tongue. Tongue swollen, soft flabby, the edges become indented by the impression of teeth. Tongue red and swollen; ulcerated; black, with red edges; moist with intense thirst; grey patches on edges, dirty-yellow coat on upper surface. Sensation in tongue as if burnt. Quivering of tongue.-Rapid and stammering speech; entire loss of speech. Loss of speech and voice.

Selenium

Lascivious thoughts, with impotency. Mental labor fatigues. Extreme sadness. Abject despair, uncompromising melancholy. Pain under root of tongue. Tongue loaded with a thick white coating in morning. Stammering speech; articulates with great difficulty.

Staphysagriya

Impetuous, violent outbursts of passion, hypochondriacal, sad. Very sensitive as to what others say about her. Dwells on sexual matters; prefers solitude. Peevish. Child cries for many things, and refuses them when offered. Submaxillary glands swollen. Swelling of glands under tongue.

Zinc Metallicum

Teeth loose. Gums bleed. Gnashing of teeth. Bloody taste. Blisters on tongue. Difficult dentition; child weak; cold and restless feet. Falling down and paralysis of eyes and/or eyelids. Luminous flakes before eyes when looking into the air. Diplopia, strabismus .