Stuttering Treatment in Children at Our Clinic

Stuttering, or logoneurosis, is another serious neurological condition whose danger many people do not fully appreciate. This may explain why so few children are treated for logoneurosis in Kyiv: the same age-old belief takes hold that it will "pass" on its own. But, as often happens with neurological conditions, it does not pass; it may get worse. This may be the future of your child if timely treatment of logoneurosis in children in Kyiv is not started:

• speaking becomes difficult: when trying to say something, the child tenses up, turns red, and makes abrupt movements with the hands and feet. It looks as if they are lifting something heavy rather than trying to say hello or answer a question;
• social withdrawal may become pronounced – the child understands very well how their attempts to speak look from the outside. It is easier for them to stop speaking altogether outside the home;
• depression may develop – the child becomes insecure and self-conscious, loses motivation for learning and communication, and the circle of contacts becomes narrower;
• against the background of these character changes, a drop in school performance and behavioral problems are possible.

Admittedly, not all children suffer greatly from stuttering: some of them ignore it, their physical symptoms are less pronounced, and psychological problems are very rare. But statistical data, both publicly available information and the experience of CSM specialists, indicate that stuttering causes significant discomfort for a child and makes them feel unable to cope, so it needs treatment. And note that this should be professional, varied, and planned treatment, which you can receive in Kyiv at CSM at any convenient time.

Stuttering: Causes and Features

If a person stutters, it is noticeable right away from frequent pauses and stops in speech and from syllables that are unnaturally stretched out or pronounced too quickly. Stuttering affects not only speech but also other areas.

The emotional and volitional sphere – children who stutter often cry and are prone to mood swings. The behavioral sphere – parents notice worsening behavior, especially at home with the family, where the child seems to take out on them the fact that they fail to communicate with peers at school or kindergarten. Health problems may appear, along with specific states that are triggered during speech: tachycardia, sweating, redness of the eyelids, nervous tics, and attention deficit. All these manifestations are consequences of stuttering; in children around 3 years old, treatment may take less time and may help reduce these manifestations.

Speech problems are caused by spasms of the articulatory muscles that are involved in pronouncing sounds and syllables. The other signs are secondary and result from the brain's inability to cope with sensory load. The mechanism of the problem is the same as in certain other speech disorders: for various reasons the brain needs too many resources to process sensory information from outside, so there are not enough left for the speech center to function adequately.

These "various" causes of stuttering in children include:

• heredity – if there have been cases of stuttering in the family, the child's risk of developing it increases;
• endocrine disorders – age-related or hereditary;
• overload of the nervous system due to organic underdevelopment, injuries, or past infectious diseases;
• stress factors – fright or psychological trauma (harsh treatment of the child by relatives).

Methods of Stuttering Treatment in Children at CSM in Kyiv

Stuttering most often appears between the ages of 3 and 8 – it is during this period that treatment may be especially effective, as the condition has not yet had time to progress. The difficulty is that during this same period speech problems can be seen as situational and attributed to the underdevelopment of the speech sphere and the specifics of its formation.

So as not to miss the moment, we advise contacting CSM at the first symptoms of speech difficulties, especially if they are accompanied by other speech difficulties.

CSM uses various methods of treating stuttering in children – consultations with a psychologist, speech therapy exercises for stuttering, modern hardware-based techniques (inTime, Tomatis, Interactive Metronome), and elements of art therapy. If necessary, medication treatment is used. The content of the treatment course and its duration are always individual and depend on the type of spasms, their location, the severity of the condition, and the causes that led to these changes.

Thanks to this approach, CSM selects the methods of influence for each child individually, which aims to achieve lasting improvement and reduce the risk of relapse in the future.