Don't
Stop
Speech impediments, however conspicuous, can
be overcome with therapy and, in some extreme conditions, surgery
Hiten Vyas, 33, from Leicester in UK first realised he had a speech
impediment at the age of 10. His teacher asked him a question, and though he
knew the answer, he found himself unable to do so despite repeated attempts.
Every time he tried to speak, he would stammer.
What followed next was 13 years of ordeal. Vyas stopped talking
altogether for the fear of being laughed at. He missed out on a normal teenage,
missed having girlfriends, shied away from classroom presentations. He was so
upset with his speech abnormality that he could not focus on his selected field
of study computer science, which required minimum public speaking.
“Most of my formative years were spent in anxiety, fear and pain. I was
so afraid of being mocked that I could not share the problem of stammering even
with my family. I had learnt to hide my defect by either keeping quiet or
skipping the problem words,” says Vyas, who is now a certified master
practitioner of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and a life coach who teaches
people the art to build self-confidence.
“When I was pursuing a PhD it struck me that by shying away from my
problem, I was making things worse. I took several rounds of speech and
language classes, NLP training and joined online forums for self-help. Failed
many times but kept going and slowly won my selfconfidence back,” he says. Vyas
now talks almost fluently. He has also created ebooks to help people overcome
speech defects, available on pothi.com.
According to speech therapists, at
least 1% of all population suffers from some kind of a speech defect. In India,
there are at least 12 million people suffering from speech problems.
Such disorders have different causes, and may range from a few speech
sound errors or repetitions of sounds or words to a total loss of the ability
to use speech to communicate effectively.
“Why does this happen is a big question. One doesn’t always have answers
to this question, especially in cases of sudden onset of stammering. However,
some known causes of speech impediments are hearing loss, neurological
disorders, brain injury, mental retardation, autism, physical impairments such
as cleft lip, and vocal abuse or misuse,” says Dr Raj Sharma, consultant speech
and language therapist at Fortis group of hospitals.
“About 50% more number of children are suffering from these problems,”
says Sharma. He attributes this trend to decreasing interaction between parents
and children. “Children get most of their verbal knowledge and skills from
television, laptops and radios. It is a reality that in most nuclear families
kids are left to the maids — as they are their first point of contact for most
part of the day — children acquire their language skills,” he adds.
Experts, however, believe that most of the developmental speech defects
can be easily corrected with the help of speech therapy. “Therapy will vary
depending on the nature and severity of the problem, the age of the individual,
and the individual’s awareness of the problem,” says Dr Mani Bansal, consultant
speech therapist at Max group of hospitals.
“The process to cure physical deformities might include surgical
intervention followed by therapy,” she says.
In most cases, therapists usually teach patients breathing and oral
exercises, primarily to train them to correct the pitch and improve rate of
speech and voice modulation. “These are the basic interventions especially when
working with children, to overcome developmental errors such as stammering and
lisping,” said Dr Bansal. “We train children using lots of toys and books as it
keeps them occupied and happy and they learn much quicker,” she says.
TYPES
OF SPEECH PROBLEMS
Fluency
disorder: An interruption in the flow or rhythm of speech characterised
by hesitations, repetitions, or prolongation of sounds, syllables, words, or
phrases
Articulation
disorder: Having difficulties with the way sounds are formed and strung
together, usually characterised by substituting one sound for another (wabbit
for rabbit), omitting a sound (han for hand)
Voice
disorder: Characterised by inappropriate pitch (too high, too low,
never changing, or interrupted by breaks); quality (harsh, hoarse, breathy, or
nasal); loudness, resonance
p. 10 of Hindustan
Times (Mumbai), 23.12.12
>>>>
SPEECH
THERAPY CENTRES (in Mumbai)
Dr LH
Hiranandani hospital at Hiranandani Gardens, Powai
Fortis Hospital at
Mulund, Kalyan and Navi Mumbai.
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