Stuttering (/ˈstʌtərɪŋ/) or stammering (/ˈstæmərɪŋ/) (more generally the first in US and the second in British usage) (alalia syllabaris, alalia literalis or anarthria literalis) is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the person who stutters is unable to produce sounds. The term stuttering is most commonly associated with involuntary sound repetition, but it also encompasses the abnormal hesitation or pausing before speech, referred to by people who stutter as blocks, and the prolongation of certain sounds, usually vowels or semivowels. According to Watkins et al. stuttering is a disorder of "selection, initiation, and execution of motor sequences necessary for fluent speech production." For many people who stutter, repetition is the primary problem. The term "stuttering" covers a wide range of severity, encompassing barely perceptible impediments that are largely cosmetic to severe symptoms that effectively prevent oral communication. In the world, approximately four times as many men as women stutter, encompassing 70 million people worldwide, or about 1% of the world's population.
The impact of stuttering on a person's functioning and emotional state can be severe. This may include fears of having to enunciate specific vowels or consonants, fears of being caught stuttering in social situations, self-imposed isolation, anxiety, stress, shame, being a possible target of bullying (especially in children), having to use word substitution and rearrange words in a sentence to hide stuttering, or a feeling of "loss of control" during speech. Stuttering is sometimes popularly seen as a symptom of anxiety, but there is actually no direct correlation in that direction (though as mentioned the inverse can be true, as social anxiety may actually develop in individuals as a result of their stuttering).
You've been stool-pigeon-towed Along a dark strait narrow road Where the winds of our civility Blow away As another of the zealots explode Attache-case-in-point Impressionable youths we anoint In the blood of an endless violent circle Forgiveness to heavy a load Down the wrong fucking way we strode All stammering 'bout how We longed for lesser human rights to be wronged The wayward pilgrims thronged As a huddled mass yearning to breath free We just don't care or see That buried inside a vengeful T H E M Is equally culpable M E We are all flawed Our bullshit meandering self-righteousness Carve the human carcass on which we trod In two pieces Specious species increases
The pop singer, who has a stammer, appeared on Loose Women on Monday (20 January) where he opened up about the incident ... career, as well as raising awareness of the struggles those with stammers face.
The Pop Idol runner-up went on to have a string of hit singles before turning to musical theatre - and he says a Scots pop legend helped him overcome his speech impediment ... .
‘Children don’t just need butterflies and rainbows’, 30 November) brought back quite a few painful memories, as I stammered from the age of 11 to about 18 .......
‘Children don’t just need butterflies and rainbows’, 30 November) brought back quite a few painful memories, as I stammered from the age of 11 to about 18 ... So there is hope for some of us who stammer.
I lived in a town that had a Carnegie library, an imposing stone building with a spiral staircase and very idiosyncratic smell of polish and print ... When the Stammer Came To Stay by Maggie O’Farrell (Walker Books, £14.99) is published on 21 November ... .
Like most sufferers, Maggie O’Farrell was a child when she developed a stammer. She was, she reckons, six or seven-years-old. “I remember thinking, ‘Maybe nobody else has noticed it, maybe it’s just me,’” the Edinburgh-based author recalls now ... UK ... ARTS.
