Anna Deeter

rD9991 (24 мая 2013 - 01:07) писал:

You're right! You are the creator of your life. Noone can do a better job for you, but YOU!

Бахитжан (20 мая 2013 - 06:29) писал:

It depends on the way of education one choses. An individual Skype setting is designed for three days, but usually elimination of stuttering occures INSTANTLY, right after our student has understood how and began to perform correctly speaking actions of his/her body. I have witnessed as little as 10 minutes that it took for an ETALON student to begin speaking normally. However, the students that chose to learn the method on their own, may spend a lot of time on studying - depending on their commitment and deligence.

Уважаемый Новичек!
Как логопед, проработавший 17 лет в д/с для детей с тяжелыми нарушениями речи, я помогла избавиться не одному десятку малышей от этого диагноза : ОНР. Я, честно говоря, не поняла даже цели Вашей заметки здесь на сайте для заикающихся... Я предполагаю, что слово "лечение" Вы использовали по ошибке, неумышленно, потому что ответ на вопрос о том, каковы должны быть методы работы с такими детьми, очевиден из самого диагноза: Общее НЕДОРАЗВИТИЕ Речи. То, что НЕРАЗВИТО, надо РАЗВИТЬ! Как? Стимулирующим обучением на доступном уровне. Но никак не с помощью лечения.

SPEECH AND STUTTERING
Professor R.A. Snezhko


Human’s speech is the result of thinking and is closely connected to thinking.
We are going to talk about speech first because stuttering appears as an inability to speak. I will demonstrate why this is so in several examples.
First, what is speech? Speech is an auditory expression of thoughts. We all have 5 senses, such as: vision, hearing, smell, taste, and tactile perception. Speech is an expression of information that we hear. We do not see, smell, touch, or taste sounds of speech. We can only hear them. Therefore, visual associations are being formed on the foundation of sound codes.
For example, a newborn baby does not know any language yet. No matter what race, nationality, color or gender they are born, all children possess the same speech apparatus. I am excluding biological abnormalities, such as: gene deformities. Technically, all children all over the world have the same set of speech organs – teeth, tongue, lips, palate - everything is the same. Also, right after babies are born they all produce the same first sound –“A-a-a”. We should clearly understand that the skill of speaking is not present in newborn babies. If we place a Chinese baby in a Russian-speaking family, he or she will not begin speaking Chinese language all of a sudden. Language genes do not exist.
Traditionally, stuttering is being treated medically as it is a disease. It’s like the speech has suddenly become ill. But we know that speech is a set of skills and the skill cannot be sick.
Every baby is like a foreigner to an adult, no matter what family he is born in. A Russian child appears a foreigner to his Russian-speaking parents because he does not know any language yet. He has to learn the language from the very beginning. All babies start acquisition of the speech sounds with the same ringtones, such as: “Ы”, which is produced when our speech apparatus forms the specific articulatory position, which the flow of air is passing through. So, our speech apparatus is a simple instrument that is built to make sounds. These sounds are made in nature and babies learn to use them just like we learn to write. We all have to train our hand to draw letters because we do not have this skill yet at birth. The same way, we learn to drive a car or play musical instruments. All these skills are not inherent, not transferred through our genes, and they have to be learned.
Modern speech professionals are talking about gene of stuttering. They claim that stuttering is caused by some kind of a brain abnormality. However, our brain supports our ability to remember and store information. If we did not download a certain language as a set of skills in our memory, we would not be able to retrieve it from there. Our brain cannot create a language if it has not been learned yet. Like, we would not be able to recall Spanish language if we never studied it before. Therefore, if a human’s memory functions within the norms, then, his brain (which is his memory storage) cannot be sick.
It’s amazing what’s happening with stuttering now. A person who stutters is simply not taught appropriate speaking skills. For example, all stutterers have difficulty moving their lip and face muscles into appropriate articulatory positions. Since their early school years, Russian-speaking people who stutter have been taught to produce all consonant sounds with their lips positioned for the sound /?/. They say: /f?/, /m?/, /sh?/, /k?/. They do not say it the way necessary for production of these sounds in words: /f, m, sh, k/. When I need to say, for example “TOM”, I will first move my lips forward for the sound “O” and then say “To”. The stutterer will produce this word starting with the sound “T”(which is automatically being recalled as /t?/) and his lips will take an articulatory position of the sound /?/ (instead of “O”). As a result, he hesitates to say the word, as physiologically his vocal cord cannot turn on. Try the following yourself: protrude your lips into articulatory position for the sound “U” and try to say “A”. Now, you are in a position of a stutterer.
In 99% of the cases, stuttering occurs in young children when their parents teach them early writing skills incorrectly. Normal speech development of the child becomes disturbed at the moment of the very first letter introduction done incorrectly. An adult shows/labels the letter, for example: “Tee”, but there are 2 sounds in this name: /t’/ and /ee/. So, the child memorizes this label: “TEE”. Then, trying to sound out this letter together with a vowel letter, for example, /O/, he attempts to say /tiou/ in his mind instead of /TO/ because he has been psycho-programed that that’s how the letter ‘TEE’ should sound. However, we obviously do not say it this way. We speak in a completely different way; we speak in a natural way, which requires us to produce specific, precise sounds in words only.
When a person mixes up these two totally different skills of speaking and writing, it forms a great confusion in his head. These two skills follow different rules for their development. When we write, we activate a visual part of our brain, see letters with our eyes, and write with our hand muscles. This is the path of the energy flow inside of our body for recognition, remembering and performing writing skills. Acquisition of speech, involves a totally different path. It employs our hearing and speech apparatus.
Your eyes and hands are involved with the process of writing. Your ears and mouth are responsible for your speech production. However, when a child has been taught in the way that these skills (writing and speaking) are combined in his mind, he becomes confused and, as a result, his attention becomes split off. This child does not understand the difference between writing and speaking because they appear the same for him. Here is an example. We write the word, for example, Tina with the sequence of the following four letters: ‘T’/t’?/, ‘I’/?j/, ‘N’/?n/, and ‘A’/?j/. However, we do not say /t’?-?j-?n- ?j/, instead, we sound out just the required sounds: /t’/+/i/+/n/+ /?/. Also, there is a ‘softening influence’ of the vowel “i” on the first sound /T’/ in this word: we produce /t’/ instead of /t/ (like in ‘Tom’). In order to produce this word correctly, our speech apparatus should move into the specifically required position. Nobody explains this to a young child. Most of the time, he is simply presented with the names of the letters and then, left on his own to figure all these things out. As a result, the child begins to experience lack of understanding, panicking, hesitations, and finally, he turns into a stutterer.
Several psycho-programs that young children are being loaded with in school make the stuttering even worse. One of them is reading under time pressure, a speedy reading fluency program, which is impossible even for adults.
If you ask an adult person to read a story about Indian Epos heroes with very long names, this person will slow dawn, switch to syllable-by-syllable reading, and still, may not be able to sound out these unfamiliar words correctly from the first attempt. So, naturally, each word is new for young children that learn to read as they are foreigners and they have to become familiar with it first at their own pace.
That’s why the demand of a speedy fluent reading is ridiculous. However, the students are forced to participate in these absurd competitions and their ability to read fast is being graded at school. Children are not given the opportunity to focus because they are being pushed by their teachers, parents, and even classmates: “Read faster, faster, and faster!” Instead of focusing on the process of reading at the moment, the child concentrates on a “pusher’s” voice and as a result, his attention splits off and becomes destructed from a reading task.
Here is another example. If you are hammering a nail (let’s assume that it’s a very simple task for you) and at the same moment, someone begins to criticize you or tell you how to do it better, what the chance of you missing that nail and hitting you finger may be? It will increase dramatically, will it not? So is the child that is placed under such pressure and conditioned to speed up instead of focusing on the quality transfer of written information. Poor kid begins to hesitate and split off his attention. This makes it even more difficult for him to learn how to discriminate between and then co-join in his mind two separate properties – an auditory channel of speech and a visual channel of writing. That’s how the child acquires several ways of reading (of the same text), which causes a STUPOR and the disruption of his attention.
Nobody takes this in consideration at school or at home. Moreover, when the child stumbles on certain words, his teachers and parents recommend avoiding use of this word and substituting it with a synonym instead. This is another psycho-program – teaching that a word could be substituted in speech. We all know that each word is a code created to express a unit of very precise information, which cannot be changed. If we change only one symbol in the word, it’s meaning may become totally opposite. Sadly, the child is specifically being taught to avoid “difficult” words and substitute them for the “easy” ones. The child quickly learns that there are “difficult” and “simple” words and that he should avoid difficult ones. So, instead of learning HOW to produce these new words, the child acquires a bed habit of constantly substituting words in his speech. This makes him really insane because he is running away from words instead of learning how to say them correctly. This appears as an onset of a psychiatric disorder. This bad habit prohibits him from normal acquisition of new vocabulary and from ability to speak normally ( without the word knowledge!).
Next, this child is brought to a Speech and Language Therapist who begins to train, for example, his breathing (although people in their daily life never think how they breath!) So, as soon as the child focuses on the process of breathing, he cannot concentrate on the information that he is supposed to sound out (what to say) because we have ONE ATTENTION ONLY and it should not be split off. Normal speech production becomes even more difficult for the child now as this additional grotesque breathing movement has been added and the child is expected to consciously focus on it! This poor kid becomes a professional stutterer. They claim him ill as he has several psycho-programs loaded in his head. They begin pushing prescription drugs. Instead of teaching him how to produce words correctly and forming his speech skills, they cure him from unknown disease, called stuttering.
This appears as ridiculous as if they were curing a human from, for example, lack of ability to play piano or inability to speak a foreign language. This is insane and this mass insanity has been spread all over the world. Such medical influence dramatically alters children’s mentality and they become totally crazy. No matter how many pills they take, they will never learn how to produce correctly sounds and words.
It’s a common belief that writing and speaking are the same. However, they are not. Take a look at the big variety of letters that exist in the world today. Different languages use different ways to write their sound symbols: from right to left, from left to right, from top to bottom in columns, or in various hieroglyphs. At the same time, we know that no matter what language a person speaks, he produces the same sounds with the same speech apparatus. People always produce sounds in the same way. For example, would a black man produce the sound /o/ differently from a white one? No. What about sound /a/? Just like all people of other color or race! Also, all newborn babies produce sounds in the same way as well. We just mark these sounds in different languages with different symbols.
So, if there is only one rule for speech sound production, why are there so many different methods to cure stuttering today? Countless number! What’s amazing is that every next curing specialist comes up with even more ridiculous treatment than the previous one. For example, some hit the stutterer’s head with electricity and hope to somehow cure their patient from stuttering (which as we know, is a lack of speaking skills!). If a person has to protrude his lips to say the sound /o/, nobody can do that for him. A person who stutters has to move his lips himself; otherwise, this sound is not going to come out.
However, instead of explaining to a stutterer how to place his lips in the correct position for the sound /o/, “healers” may electrocute his head or may even offer a head surgery. They may also prescribe medications, perform breathing exercises, or involve their patients in psychological therapy for working out their behavior in stressful situations.
They say that stress is the reason for stuttering and that this is a common scientifically proven fact. This is nonsense! No one would experience stress in a situation where a person knows what to do and how to proceed. A person who stutters is never confident and never knows for sure whether he would be able to say words. Why? Because he simply does not know HOW to speak.
Ordinary people speak without stuttering in the same situation that stutterers consider stressful. What makes the situation stressful for a person who stutters? It’s the lack of ability to say a word correctly at the very moment when it’s needed.
For example, for a person who is not able to say ‘carrots’ at the vegetable department of the store, the situation becomes really stressful because he simply does not know how to say correctly this word and he cannot ask a salesman for carrots he want to buy. So, stress has nothing to do with stuttering! The problem is lack of speech skills.
Here is another example. We experience stress when we come to school unprepared for an oral exam. However, our stress level would decrease significantly if we were prepared.
People who stutter need to learn how to use their speech apparatus because there is only one way of doing this for each and every person on the planet. For example, in order to say the word ‘parachute’, I have to position my lips for the sequence of three vowels: /?-?-u/ and any human would have to do the same. It is like a piano player places his fingers on the keys in a certain sequence in order to play the scale. Without that, he will not be able to play it correctly. We would not not call him sick if he made a mistake while playing the scale. No, we realize that he does not know yet how to play and needs to learn. So do stutterers. They need to learn this one and only way of “playing” their speech instrument. This way has been invented by nature and I have simply described it and given my name to it – Snezhko’s Method.
All the other medical methods of curing stuttering are quackery because there is nothing to cure. It’s the same as if we said that there was another way of playing piano other than to sit in front of it and place the right fingers on the right keys. Do we have another way of driving a car? No, obviously, there is only one common driving technique is known to us.
The same goes for speech skills. We all have 32 teeth, one tongue, two lips, one set of vocal cords, and two lungs. How could it be two different ways of using this speech apparatus when we all have the same ones?
This is nonsense, delirium. There is only one way of using our speech apparatus. It’s invented by nature.
I’ve described all the sound positions in our speech apparatus, explained how the speech apparatus is being used each time we produce sounds, outlined and worked out the step-by-step 3-day study course, in which one could quickly learn how to use his speech apparatus correctly and re-program his speech processes. This will require not much more attention than for what a person learning to hummer nails or play piano requires. It is simple. Has it been difficult, then, young children would not be able to acquire these skills. Also, it’s easy because it’s natural. Even parrots can learn to speak! Does it mean that a human that cannot learn how to speak is dumber than a parrot? Or, is he lazier? It does not require that much attention in order to make sure that 5 major articulatory positions stay in place during speech. However, when a person starts to complicate this simple way of the use of his speech apparatus, he experiences stuttering.
People who stutter think that speaking is very difficult. Why? Because they do not know that in reality, it’s very simple and also because they are convinced that they are sick. They wait for somebody to cure them. They have this psycho-belief that there is something wrong with their head and that surrounding them people are not good. They appear nuts. Development of such mental confusion has been happening in stutterers gradually, starting in their childhood. Without awareness, their parents usually play an active role in this process. Quite often, because of his parents, a child who stutters gradually looses his touch of reality, continues having his handicapped speech, which in terms, forces him to struggle through his whole handicapped life.