How to Stop Stuttering
More than three million Americans stutter. Stuttering occurs normally in
children during their speech development years. However, if you’re an adult and you still stutter, then you’ve got
to do something about it before your life becomes a total disaster.
In medical parlance, people stutter when their natural flow of speech is hampered by repetitions of syllables,
sounds, or words. Some people who stutter find it difficult to start a word when speaking. This speech disorder may
be accompanied by symptoms such as shaking of the lips, jaw, or both as well as rapid blinking of the eyes. If left
untreated, the condition may cause side effects, which can ruin one’s performance in social situations. People who
usually stutter are fearful of speaking in front of many people or even simple interactions such as talking on the
phone.
So how do you control your speech condition? Here are the ways:
- Breathe in deeply before you speak. That way, words and sounds will smoothly flow out of
your mouth. Also, learn to exhale while you’re speaking. To help yourself relax before you start speaking, you
need to learn some breathing or relaxation techniques. Controlled breathing is crucial in treating speech
disfluency. Yoga and meditation prove to be useful for that purpose.
- Refrain from pressuring yourself to speak fluently. The more you pressure yourself, the
more anxious you become. And anxiety help increase your chances of stammering.
- Before you speak the words, think about them first. Be sure what words you want to say
before you blurt them out. Project the words you want to say in your mind so that they come clearly once you
speak. To make that a bit easier for you, try to visualize the letters of every word you are going to
say.
- Practice pronouncing words by letter. In doing so, you ease up your speech, making it more
comfortable for you to say a word without stammering.
- Speak in a slow and relaxed manner. The faster you talk, the harder it will be for you to
speak fluently. Try to sing the words to lessen your chance of stammering. Normally, most people don’t stutter
when they sing. So sing your words to make yourself sound more pleasant as you speak.
- Speak loudly. It may seem to be counteractive because the louder you talk, the more people
would notice your stutter. But that’s not completely true. Speaking loudly in fact helps you vocalize each
sound of your words properly, keeping you from repeating certain syllables or words.
- Practice, practice, practice. If you frequently stutter, avoiding any situation in which
you have to talk will not help you in any way. In fact, it will only worsen your condition because you will
never learn how to pronounce words smoothly.
There are many ways to control stuttering. Give them a shot now to gain more confidence when you have to talk to
somebody.
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