Help for Those Who Stutter

Interestingly, people who stutter can usually sing, whisper, talk to themselves or their pets, speak in chorus, or impersonate others with little or no stuttering. Moreover, 80 percent of children who stutter recover spontaneously. But what about the other 20 percent?

Today there are speech-therapy programs that can improve fluency. Some techniques involve relaxing the jaw, lips, and tongue and breathing from the diaphragm. Patients may also be taught to do “gentle onsets,” which involve taking smaller breaths from the diaphragm and releasing a little air as a lead-in to speaking. Additionally, they may be encouraged to prolong vowels and certain consonants. The rate of speech is gradually increased as fluency improves.

Acquiring such skills may take just a few hours. But using those approaches successfully in high-stress situations may involve thousands of hours of practice.