STAMMERING

Stammering is a communication disorder in which the normal flow of speech is broken by repetitions, prolongations, or abnormal stoppages (no sound or block) of sounds and syllables. A person who stammers may exhibit one of these or a combination of all these characteristics. There may be unusual facial and body movements, associated with the efforts to speak.
Stammering affects about four times as many males as females.
There is a wrong belief amongst a section of the people that stammering means severe speech problem.  It may be minor, medium or severe, the extent of problem varies from person to person, even varies from situation to situation for a particular person.
There is no difference between stammering and stuttering.  Stammering is commonly used in UK and India also.  Stuttering is the term used in US and some other countries.

Causes-
The following factors may also trigger/cause stuttering:
1.Developmental stuttering - as children learn to speak they often stutter, especially early on when their speech and language skills are not developed enough to race along at the same speed as what they want to say. The majority of children experience fewer and fewer symptoms as this developmental stage progresses until they can speak flowingly.
2.Neurogenic stuttering - when the signals between the brain and speech nerves and muscles are not working properly. This may affect children, but may also affect adults after a stroke or some brain injury. In rare cases neurogenic stuttering results in lesions (abnormal tissue) in the motor speech area of the brain.
3.Psychological factors - it used to be believed that the main reasons for long-term stuttering were psychological. Fortunately, this is not the case anymore. Psychological factors may make stuttering worse for people who stutter, such as stress, embarrassment, etc., but they are not generally seen as underlying long-term factors. In other words, anxiety, low self-esteem, nervousness, and stress therefore do not cause stuttering per se. Rather, they are the result of living with a stigmatized speech problem which can sometimes make symptoms worse.
4.Family history

Symptoms-
Even though stammering starts around the age of 5, it reaches its zenith by teen age. In the meantime, the sufferer gets accustomed to managing the condition. Anyway, it can flare up any time with emotional stress or changes. Symptoms of stammering vary from person to person. Stammerers may have a few or most of the following symptoms:

• Hesitation to speak
• Difficulty in finding a proper word - feels brain had been wired
• May stop in the middle of a speech to come to a standstill with fear, anxiety and tension
• Need more time to complete speech or could not finish it
• Loss of control over speech
• Pause for specific word or sound in the speech
• Swallow words often
• Words/speech come in parts
• Repeating the same words or using unnecessary words often
• Can speak well with subordinates and could not with high officials
• While worrying more about it, it causes more and more problems
• Repetition of initial consonants especially with vowels - A, E, I, O, U
• Felt as if vocal cord gets tightened with prolongation of sounds especially with sounds of A,P,S,T,V,X
• Usually try to avoid eye contact (to whom they speak) to avoid stammer
• Speak fluently when emotionally relaxed