What causes....stu-stu-...?

Question

studerring?

Answer 1

A physiologically lazy tongue.

Answer 2

for some, it deals with a "lazy tounge." for many, it's a minor form of brain malfunction. most kids who have it grow out of it as their brains develop and grow.

Answer 3

Stuttering, also known as stammering in the United Kingdom, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases; and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer 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 stutterers as blocks, and the prolongation of certain sounds, usually vowels. Much of what constitutes "stuttering" cannot be observed by the listener; this includes such things as sound and word fears, situational fears, anxiety, tension, shame, and a feeling of "loss of control" during speech. The emotional state of the individual who stutters in response to the stuttering often constitutes the most difficult aspect of the disorder. The term "stuttering", as popularly used, covers a wide spectrum of severity: it may encompass individuals with barely perceptible impediments, for whom the disorder is largely cosmetic, as well as others with extremely severe symptoms, for whom the problem can effectively prevent most oral communication.

Stuttering is generally not a problem with the physical production of speech sounds (see Voice disorders) or putting thoughts into words (see Dyslexia, Cluttering). Despite popular perceptions to the contrary, stuttering does not affect and has no bearing on intelligence. Apart from their speech problem, people who stutter are generally normal. Anxiety, low confidence, nervousness, and stress therefore do not cause stuttering, although they are very often the result of living with a highly stigmatized disability.

The disorder is also variable, which means that in certain situations, such as talking on the telephone, the stuttering might be more severe or less, depending on the anxiety level connected with that activity. In other situations, such as singing (as with country music star Mel Tillis or pop singer Gareth Gates) or speaking alone (or reading from a script, as with actor James Earl Jones), fluency improves. (It is thought that speech production in these situations, as opposed to normal spontaneous speech, may involve a different neurological function.) Some very mild stutterers, such as Bob Newhart, have used the disorder to their advantage, although more severe stutterers very often face serious hurdles in their social and professional lives. Although the exact etiology of stuttering is unknown, both genetics and neurophysiology are thought to contribute. Although there are many treatments and speech therapy techniques available that may help increase fluency in some stutterers, there is essentially no "cure" for the disorder at present.
No single, exclusive cause of stuttering is known. A variety of hypotheses and theories suggest multiple factors contributing to stuttering.

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Genetics
Stuttering has been correlated with certain genes29; however, a genetic cause for stuttering has yet to be proven. Many studies have investigated stuttering in families, yet typically have yielded results that could be interpreted as either genetic or social environment ("nature" or "nurture").Neurology of adult stuttering
Brain scans of adult stutterers have found several neurological abnormalities:

During speech adult stutterers have more activity in their right hemispheres, which is associated with emotions, than in their left hemispheres, which is associated with speech. Non-stutterers have more left-hemisphere activity during speech. It is unknown whether this abnormal hemispheric dominance results from something wrong with stutterers' left-hemisphere speech areas, with right-hemisphere area unsuited for speech taking over speech tasks; or whether the unusual right-hemisphere activity is related to fears, anxieties, or other emotions stutterers associate with speech.
During speech, adult stutterers have central auditory processing underactivity. One study suggested that stutterers may have an inability to integrate auditory and somatic processing, i.e., comparing how they hear their voices and how they feel their muscles moving.36
A brain scan study examined the planum temporale (PT), an anatomical feature in the auditory temporal brain region. Typically people have a larger PT on the left side of their brains, and smaller PT the right side (leftward asymmetry). A brain scan study found that stutterers' right PT is larger than their left PT (rightward asymmetry).37
Adult stutterers have overactivity in the left caudate nucleus speech motor control area. Because stuttering is primarily overtense, overstimulated respiration, vocal folds, and articulation (lips, jaw, and tongue) muscles, it should be no surprise that the brain area that controls these muscles is overactive.
No brain scan studies have been done of stuttering children. It is unknown whether stuttering children have neurological abnormalities.

Another prominent view is that stuttering is caused by neural synchronization problems in the brain. Recent research indicates that stuttering may be correlated with disrupted fibers between the speech area and language planning area, both in the left hemisphere of the brain. Such a disruption could potentially be due to early brain damage or to a genetic defect.

The first brain imaging studies in stuttering were done on two subjects using SPECT scanning before and after the administration of haloperidol. The researchers found that the subjects with stuttering had less blood flow in the Broca's and Wernicke's area and associated this with dysfluency. They found that haloperidol not only reduced stuttering but reversed this functional abnormality. Numerous PET and functional MRI studies have presented data that is in agreement with this first study.

Volumetric MRI studies have found that portions of the Broca's and Wernicke's areas are smaller in people who stutter and this corrolates well with the hypometabolism in these two brain regions. New forms of structural MRI have found that there is a disconnection in white matter fiber tracts in the left hemisphere and greater numbers of white matter fiber tracts in the right hemisphere.

For more information, see Neurology of Stuttering
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Stress-related changes in stuttering
In certain situations, such as talking on the telephone, stuttering might increase, or it might decrease, depending on the anxiety level connected with that activity.

Under stress, people's voices change. They tense their speech-production muscles, increasing their vocal pitch. They try to talk faster. They repeat words or phrases. They add interjections, such as "uh." These are normal dysfluencies. A study found that under stress, non-stutterers went from 0% to 4% dysfluencies, for the simple task of saying colors. Stutterers went from 1% to 9%.38

Stuttering reduces stress 10%, as measured by systolic blood pressure.39 But stuttering causes stress in listeners.40 Stuttering appears to reduce stress temporarily, but then cause stress, creating a cyclical pattern in which the stutterer stutters on the first syllable of the first word, then says the rest of the word and several more words fluently, then stutters again, then says a few more words fluently, and so on.

One study found that developmental stuttering and Tourette syndrome may be pathogenetically related.41 Tics are exacerabated by stress, and when the affected person tries harder to control the undesired movement, the conditions can become more pronounced.
Onset and development
Stuttering is a developmental disorder. Children develop capabilities in a certain order, e.g., most children crawl before thay walk. An unknown factor or combination of factors causes some children's speech to develop abnormally. As the child grows what appeared as a minor disfunction can develop into a major disability.

The mean onset of stuttering is 30 months, or two and a half years old.30 Stuttering rarely begins after age six.

65% of preschoolers who stutter spontaneously recover, in their first two years of stuttering.31 Only 18% of children who stutter five years recover spontaneously.32 The peak age of recovery is 3.5 years old. By age six, a child is unlikely to recover without speech therapy.

Among preschoolers, boys who stutter outnumber girls who stutter about two to one, or less.33 But more girls recover fluent speech, and more boys don't.34 By fifth grade the ratio is about four boys who stutter to one girl who stutters. This ratio remains into adulthood.35

Some pediatricians tell parents to "wait and see" if a child outgrows stuttering on his own. That advice is wrong. Children who stutter should be treated by a speech-language pathologist as soon as possible.

All children experience normal dysfluencies as they learn to talk, which they will outgrow. A current issue is whether stuttering develops progressively from normal childhood dysfluencies, or whether stuttering is something entirely different. Many parents are unsure whether their child's dysfluencies are normal, or whether he or she is beginning to stutter. The Stuttering Foundation of America has written and video materials to help parents differentiate normal dysfluencies from beginning stuttering. Or parents can consult a speech-language pathologist.

To find a speech-language pathologist for your child, start by calling your school. American schools provide free speech therapy to children as young as three years old.

As speech and language are difficult and complex skills to learn, almost all children have some difficulty in developing these skills. This results in normal disfluencies that tend to be single-syllable, whole-word or phrase repetitions, interjections, brief pauses, or revisions. In the early years, a child will not usually exhibit visible tension, frustration or anxiety when speaking disfluently and most will be unaware of the interruptions in their speech. With young stutterers, their disfluency tends to be episodic, and periods of stuttering are followed by periods of relative fluency. This pattern remains through all stages of a stutter's development, but as the stutter develops, the disfluencies tend to develop more into repetitions and sound prolongations, often combined together (e.g., "Lllllets g-g-go there").

Usually by the age of 6, a stutter is exacerbated when the child is excited, upset or under some type of pressure. Also around this age, a child will start to become aware of problems in his or her speech. After this age, stuttering includes repetitions, prolongations, and blocks. It also becomes more and more chronic, with longer periods of disfluency. Secondary motor behaviors (eye blinking, lip movements, etc.) may be used during moments of stuttering or frustration. Also, fear and avoidance of sounds, words, people, or speaking situations usually begin at this time, along with feelings of embarrassment and shame. By age 14 , the stutter is usually classified as an "Advanced stutter," characterized by frequent and noticeable interruptions, with poor eye contact and the use of various tricks to disguise the stuttering. Along with a mature stutter come advanced feelings of fear and increasingly frequent avoidance of unfavorable speaking situations. Around this time many become fully aware of their disorder and begin to identify themselves as "stutterers." With this may come deeper frustration, embarrassment and shame.

It is important to note that stuttering does not affect intelligence and that stutterers are sometimes wrongly perceived as being less intelligent than non-stutterers. This is mainly due to the fact that stutterers often resort to a practice called word substitution, where words that are difficult for a stutterer to speak are replaced with less-suitable words that are easier to pronounce. This often leads to awkward sentences which give an impression of feeble mindedness. Stuttering is a communicative disorder that affects speech; it is not a language disorder—although a person's use of language is often affected or limited by a stutter. 1 2