The causes of a speech disorder can be various: stress, inheritance, unfavourable home conditions, unexpected and sudden situations, developmental delay , brain damage or psychomotor hyperactivity.

The acquisition of a person's ability to speak is not an easy process. Especially children before the age of five have a rich vocabulary, but they encounter difficulties mainly due to their lip and tongue dexterity, which do not work as fast as in adults. The repetition of sounds and words is normal at this stage of human development, but too much focus on the child's fluent pronunciation can lead to its consolidation instead of elimination. The onset of stuttering is most often (90% of cases) at pre-school age and during this period it develops or may subside. It is important to distinguish between developmental speech fluency and stuttering. Developmental non-fluency of speech is manifested by: lack of awareness of the speech disorder, constant readiness to speak, no signs of excessive emotional and muscular tension, and improvement after 5 years of age in language skills.

On the other hand, continuously occurring features are considered to be characteristic of stuttering:

• Vowel repetition (m-m-mama);
• Repetition of syllables (ma-ma-ma);
• Stuttering of the vowel (mmmm-mama);
• Blocking of speech (...mama);
• Bursting words (ma...ma).

Other characteristics of stuttering are excessive muscle and emotional tension, avoidance and fear of speaking.

photo.ojoimages

The difficulties of a person who stutters also depend on the type of spasm causing it and where it occurs. The spasms most often occur in the muscles of the respiratory organs (causing its stoppage, uneven breathing) or in the phonatory organ (a spasm of the larynx may be responsible for the poor functioning of the vocal ligaments).