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An essay on how stuttering effects a person
Developing therapeutic communication skills
An essay on how stuttering effects a person
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What is the relationship between anxiety levels and stuttering in adolescents? The answer is still unclear. Many researchers have attempted to find out whether stuttering causes anxiety or if it is vice versa. Adolescence is a very emotional time, in which teens try to fit in and create their own identity and are experiencing who they want to become. Having a speech problem only makes the phase of adolescence the more stressing and difficult. That is why I wanted to see if adolescents who stutter have higher anxiety levels than fluent adolescents. One thing that has been proven however, is that anxiety levels in adolescents seem to be higher when the stuttering adolescents has had treatment for the disorder. This paper will review the outcomes of four different studies that looked at the relationship between stuttering and anxiety in adolescents.
Blood, Blood, Maloney, Meyer, & Qualls (2007) examined the anxiety levels in adolescents who stutter to increase their understanding of the role of anxiety in stuttering across the lifespan. The participants were 36 students, chosen from public schools in Pennsylvania, who were in the 7th through 12th grade. However, only participants who have had treatment for their stuttering were included in the study. The control groups were chosen from public schools as well, and were chosen to match the stuttering participants in grade, gender, ethnicity and approximate age. To assess the stuttering severity of the participants, the Stuttering Severity Insturment-3 (SSI-3) was used. The outcomes classified the participants’ stuttering as either mild, moderate, severe, or very severe (profound). In measuring anxiety levels the researchers used the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS)....
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...he interviewers were trained to ensure that interviews were conducted in a fully confidential and relaxed mode, free from any consequence to the respondent.
Works Cited
Blood, G. W., Blood, I. M., Maloney, K., Meyer, C., & Dean Qualls, C. (2007). Anxiety levels in adolescents who stutter. Journal of Communication Disorders, 40, 452-469.
Craig, A., Hancock, K., Tran, Y., & Craig, M. (2003). Anxiety levels in people who stutter: A randomized population study. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 46, 1197-1206.
Davis, S., Shisca, D., & Howell, P. (2007). Anxiety in speakers who persist and recover from stuttering. Journal of Communication Disorders, 40, 398-417.
Mulcahy, K., Hennessey, N., Beilby, J., & Byrnes, M. (2008). Social anxiety and the severity and typography of stuttering in adolescents. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 33, 306-319.
He described stuttering as having a glass wall preventing him from moving forward, regardless of the attempts made. I believe that this is a sound description of the ongoing and difficult battle of stuttering. I also feel that many people can relate to Liben’s statement as they may also go through frustrating situations in their lives. However, it is important to remember that a person with a stutter experiences frustrating situations more frequently. Not only as a clinician, but as a human being, I will be mindful of the daily struggles that come along with a fluency
The Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS-2) is a revision of the Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (CMAS) created by Cecil Reynolds and Bert Richmond in 1985 (Reynolds & Richmond, 2008). The RCMAS-2 includes an updated standardization sample, improved psychometrics, and broadened content (Reynolds & Richmond, 2008). Although these revisions occurred, the brevity, elementary reading level, and content-based item clusters were retained, offering an updated and effective tool for understanding and treating anxiety in school-aged children (Reynolds & Richmond, 2008).
This silent fear reflects that I grew up with a history of speech impediments. Spending countless hours as a child driving from one speech therapist to another, repeating a range of exercise from “fee-fi-fo-fum” to watching my tongue placement in a mirror, I was your
Vogel, S. A. and M. Moran. "Written language disorders in learning disabled college students - a preliminary report." In Coming of Age: The Best of ACLD - 1982. Eds. W. Cruickshank and J. Lerner. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1982.
Along with being the most widespread mental health disorder, women are more likely to be affected by most anxiety disorders than men. Anxiety disorders are often characterized by feelings of worry, uncertainty, anxiety, or fear, which can be so intense, it can interfere with a person’s daily activities. Therefore, it is likely for a person struggling with an anxiety disorder will find themselves unemployed, financially dependent on others and even have poor quality social relationships as well. As an anxiety disorder may affect other functional impairments, it is also important to be aware of its development considering an anxiety response affects various populations and individuals differently.
Leahy, R. L. (2008, April 30). How Big a Problem is Anxiety?. Psychology Today: Health, Help,
Beck, A. T., & Steer, R. (1993). Beck Anxiety Inventory 1993 Edition. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Stuttering is a neurological disorder of communication, from which the normal flow of speech is disrupted by repetitions (neu-neu-neuro), prolongations (biiiii-ol-ooogy), or abnormal stoppages (no sound) of sounds and syllables. Rapid eye blinking, tremors of the lips and/or jaw, or other struggle behaviors of the face or upper body may accompany speech disruptions ((3)). Why does stuttering worsen in situations that involve speaking before a group of people or talking on the phone, whereas fluency of speech improves in situations such as whispering, acting, talking to pets, speaking alone, or singing ((1))? In ancient times, physicians believed that the stutterer's tongue was either too long or too short, too wet or too dry. Therefore, practitioners from the mid-1800s tried surgical remedies such as drilling holes into the skull or cutting pieces of the tongue out to eliminate stuttering (1).
It is perfectly normal for any human being often to be nervous before making an important decision or before taking a test. But in some cases, the nervousness is extreme leading to a condition known as Anxiety Disorder. This is a serious and un-preventable mental condition where by worry and fear is constantly overwhelming. It affects people from all age groups starting in childhood. The most common symptoms of anxiety disorders includes: dizziness, dry mouth, shortening of breaths, nightmares, sleeping problem, not able to concentrate or stay calm, panic, fear and uneasiness amongst others. Anxiety disorder can reach to a point of the patient not being able to lead a normal life (Chakraburtty, 2009).
During my demonstration speech, I was affected by my speech anxiety. Some of the viewable symptoms were the shaking of my hands and also the stuttering of speech. I was able to control myself and relax after I started getting into my information. I did use some of the suggested relaxation techniques to relieve my anxiety. Before I got up to speak I thought confident of myself to help give me courage and confidence.
For example one question was, “does it prevent me from doing ordinary things?” It’s a yes and no answer because I still walk, and run it does not prevent me from doing things physical things, but when it comes to talking it’s a little bit more difficult and I struggle more. Stuttering makes things more challenging which is alright but you have to work more on how you talk. “Why can’t you speak correctly?” That is another question that anyone can ask and the truth is that it is a disorder in our speech sound of word, we repeat some of the words. “How does it feel to stutter?” To me as a stutter person it affects emotionally because sometimes I rather be quite and prevent talking and embarrassing myself. It affects us because of the way we communicate, it is not easy but we try to make it fluently as possible. (Question
Communication is very crucial in life, especially in education. Whether it be delivering a message or receiving information, without the ability to communicate learning can be extremely difficult. Students with speech and language disorders may have “trouble producing speech sounds, using spoken language to communicate, or understanding what other people say” (Turkington, p10, 2003) Each of these problems can create major setbacks in the classroom. Articulation, expression and reception are all essential components for communication. If a student has an issue with articulation, they most likely then have difficulty speaking clearly and at a normal rate (Turkington, 2003). When they produce words, they may omit, substitute, or even distort sounds, hindering their ability to talk. Students who lack in ways of expression have problems explaining what they are thinking and feeling because they do not understand certain parts of language. As with all types of learning disabilities, the severity can range. Two extreme cases of expression disorders are dysphasia and aphasia, in which there is partial to no communication at all (Greene, 435, 2002). Individuals can also have a receptive disorder, in which they do not fully comprehend and understand information that is being given to them. They can experience problems making sense of things. “Children may hear or see a word but not be able to understand its meaning” (National Institutes of Health, 1993, p1). Whether children have difficulty articulating speech, expressing words, receiving information, or a combination of the three, there is no doubt that the tasks given to them in school cause frustration. These children experience anxiety when...
National Institute of Mental Health. (2009). Studying anxiety disorders. NIH Medline plus, 5, 13-15. Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/anxiety-disorders/complete-index.shtml
Anxiety has a main definition; a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease. Although, it has its single definition, each person diagnosed with anxiety has different symptoms. With that, some have more severe cases of the actual diagnosis. It has been noted that anxiety has had an increase in teens recently. In the last 30 years, the statistics for anxiety in fifteen to sixteen year olds have doubled for both girls and boys (“Increased Levels of Anxiety…” 1). It is said, “in societal moments like the one we are in…it often feels as if ours is the Age of Anxiety”(Henig 1). Anxiety affects teenagers profusely because the emotions of a teenager are more vulnerable than those of an adult. The brain of a teenager is not fully developed and the stress put on teenagers to start putting their life together takes a toll on their emotions. The daily life and activities are interfered with by anxiety when the amount of stress put on a teenager becomes unbearable. Unfortunately, the effects of anxiety become so intense that the mental health is eventually toyed with. So many different components of life contribute to anxiety and cannot be prevented.