Good day Fabs,
How are you doing wonderful and exquisitely fabulous people?
Here I am having lunch at work and a thought propped up on my mind again. Could stuttering be primarily a disorder of some sort in the way motor neurons work in the brain? Well, I think so, and that is talking from personal experience.
Why do I think so? I shall expose my reasons as soon as I have a free time. Till then, keep cool, calm and collected.
Hi guys, I'm back and glad to be. How have you all been? Hope fabulous and strong. Did I hear a yes? Alright, that's good. I never expected less. You know what, one thing I have to say is this: I'm so glad I found an avenue to share my thoughts, feelings, experiences and hopes about the challenge of stuttering!
So, back to the matter. I said I think stuttering is a neural motor disorder. Yes that's right. I said so then and I still hold on to that belief. First of all, let me set the record straight, I'm not a neurologist- I am not even close, but i can say that I had a good biology teacher in high school. Therefore, my little epistle about secondary school experience was basically to drive home the fact that I have a science background and I damn well know what I'm saying...haha!
First things first, let's understand the terms in the title of this article. Neural suggest that it has to do with how the brain neurons (cells that transmit brain signals) are wired. Motor connotes movement (think SUV!). Disorder of course is when something has gone wrong or when a system isnt working right.
Now, a number of studies have pointed to the fact that stuttering is at least a problem with speech motor mechanism, that is, either the organs of speech (lips, tongue, vocal cords, diaphragm etc) don't receive the correct motor signal from the brain (think General to soldiers), or the organs of speech don't move in a coordinated manner because of some inherent motor deficit in the organs themselves. I am not here to say whether the assumptions are right or wrong, I am only going to express the opinion I have based on my own personal experience.
More often than not, when I stutter, first it's worst when I feel less coordinated generally, like when my mind is troubled about something. This I think is a prerequisite for the seeming disarray in speech production. Let me just assume that the brain is the organ of the mind. A troubled mind = a troubled or preoccupied brain. Brain therefore doesn't have the time or resources to send the correct speech motor signal. Result, a disordered, uncoordinated speech. Mind you, I'm basing this on the assumption that the stutterer's brain is not so skilled at making speech unconsciously hence the need for the brain's utmost attention during the process.
Second, my good days are days I'm less stressed or when I'm very comfortable in my skin. What does this seem to be saying? It still points to the fact that speech production in stutterers need a lot of brain resources for a coordinated and well-articulated speech.
Third, when I do stutter, it occurs mostly at the beginning word of a sentence. What usually comes to my mind when this happens is that I need an ignition to fire off the first word. It is probably when this kickstart doesn't happen that I find it difficult to start the word. Please note that this also happens in the middle of a sentence. It might be that the ignition goes off and fails to start again easily and automatically like it should.
All in all, I will be happy if someday, someone somewhere sees this article and decides to carry out an extensive research on it. That would be interesting!
