A biological and neurological condition, it is caused by one or more of four possible triggers, the first being genetics, and the others, child development, the make-up of the brain, and family dynamics.įor some reason, stuttering is more common in boys than girls. Thankfully, science has provided clarity - for those ready to accept it - about the causes of stuttering.Īccording to, stuttering (or stammering, if you will) is a speech disorder that breaks up a speaker’s flow of speech. The remedies for stuttering in these circles border on the hilarious, from standing in front of a mirror and speaking to oneself, to eating a fruit pecked by a bird, and maintaining correct posture, to mention a few. In South Africa, for instance, stuttering is believed to result from leaving a baby out in the rain, failing to inform ancestors of imminent childbirth, emotional trauma, and tickling a baby too much, among others. Science trumps mythologyĪcross Africa, traditional beliefs about stuttering abound, varying from one location to the next. About 20% or 1.3 million of these children are at the risk of developing chronic stuttering in adult life, and approximately one million school-age children and over ten million adults stutter in Africa. Per a paper on the International Stuttering Association website titled, Increasing Stuttering Awareness in Africa, 11% of children in Africa - nearly 6.5 million - of pre-school age (between 2 and 5 years of age) stutter. Numbers don’t lieĪccording to The Stuttering Foundation, stuttering affects 1% of the world’s population depending on what global population you accept, that’s 78 or 79 million people. Mildly put, this is insensitive and hurtful, and Charles strongly believes that people should be kinder to not only stutterers but everyone dealing with a disability. In a world where social media is the go-to for content, many creators generate content from people’s challenges for their jokes. The best result they can get, however, is improved speech control. With the app, people learn and practice speech therapy exercises for stuttering.
Stamurai, for instance, is a mobile app available on Google Play Store and the App Store. Treatment at any age seeks to improve speech fluency while simultaneously building the stutterer’s confidence, thus helping them participate in school, work, and social settings.Įxpectedly, tech interventions exist, with many applications - Balbus Speech, Smarty Ears, and Stamurai (I like this name), to mention a few - for smartphones and tablets to help people with stuttering. People can get the most out of treatment if they address stuttering early enough - preferably as children. Stuttering has no known cure, and the best technology can currently do is what therapy does - treat or manage the condition like other speech defects. One can be forgiven for thinking that there is a tech solution somewhere that does away with stuttering. Sadly, being branded a liar because of a stutter is just one of the issues we stutterers face. As someone with a slight stutter, I’d be irked if people conclude I’m fibbing because I can’t get my words out coherently or quickly enough (for them).
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