International Stuttering Awareness Day

When worried or in an emergency situation, many people have speech problems. However, there are those living next to us for whom pronunciation problems do not appear periodically or in emergency situations. We are talking about those who repeat sounds, syllables or words when pronouncing, and also often stop in conversation, breaking its rhythmic flow, that is, about stutterers. This speech defect occurs due to convulsions that affect the muscles of the speech apparatus. There are a lot of such people. Another sign of the disease is the rate of interrupted words or sentences in a person’s speech. If it exceeds the 10% threshold, this is a reason to visit a specialist doctor. Nervous tics or facial grimaces, blocks of silence, difficulties in everyday communication, personal life and professional activities, as well as others, haunt people who stutter, forcing them to isolate themselves from society. Until now, speech therapists and representatives of other medical professions have not decided on the reason why the completely natural difficulties in pronunciation that every child experiences when learning to speak and express their thoughts develop into logophobia (verbophobia). Most representatives of the medical community believe that the cause of the onset and development of the disease is a complex of problems affecting from genetic defects to the psycho-emotional component of a person’s life. Problems with word pronunciation most often occur in children aged 2 to 5 years. It is during this period of a person’s life that intensive development of speech occurs and, as a result, all sorts of problems with diction are most acutely manifested. Depending on the classification of stuttering, from 0.5 to 10% of people living on our planet suffer from this illness. However, the most serious speech difficulties occur in 2–5% of children and 1–2% of adults. The existing International Association of Stuttering People supports people with this disease and helps solve many problems in their lives. Following the release of the People who Stutter Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, which highlighted the challenges in the daily lives of people with logophobia, the organization not only achieved recognition of the problem, but also established International Day of People who Stutter, celebrated annually on October 22. Among the many projects carried out around the world by the International Association of People who Stutter, this day holds a special place. Not only are numerous diverse symposiums being held at which medical workers, along with representatives of social sciences, share methods of combating the disease, but also volunteer work is being intensified, carried out by both ordinary people and representatives of show business who were able to defeat or learned to control this disease. By sharing their experiences and research, all of these people contribute to greater socialization for people who stutter. At the same time, propaganda work is carried out not only among people suffering from logophobia, but also among those who do not experience difficulties in communication.