When you were younger and first began talking, you may have lisped, stuttered, or had a hard time pronouncing words. Maybe you were told that it was "cute," or not to worry because you would soon grow out of it. But if you're in your teens and still stuttering, you may not feel like it's so endearing.
You're not alone. More than 3 million Americans have the speech disorder known as stuttering (or stammering, as it's known in Britain). It's one of several conditions that can affect a person's ability to speak clearly.
Some Common Speech and Language Disorders
Stuttering is a problem that interferes with fluent (flowing and easy) speech. A person who stutters may repeat the first part of a word (as in wa-wa-wa-water) or hold a single sound for a long time (as in caaaaaaake). Some people who stutter have trouble getting sounds out altogether. Stuttering is complex, and it can affect speech in many different ways.
Articulation disorders involve a wide range of errors people can make when talking. Substituting a "w" for an "r" ("wabbit" for "rabbit"), omitting sounds ("cool" for "school"), or adding sounds to words ("pinanio" for "piano") are examples of articulation errors. Lisping refers to specific substitution involving the letters "s" and "z." A person who lisps replaces those sounds with "th" ("simple" sounds like "thimple").
Cluttering is another problem that makes a person's speech difficult to understand. Like stuttering, cluttering affects the fluency, or flow, of a person's speech. The difference is that stuttering is a speech disorder, while cluttering is a language disorder. People who stutter have trouble getting out what they want to say; those who clutter say what they're thinking, but it becomes disorganized as they're speaking. So, someone who clutters may speak in bursts or pause in unexpected places. The rhythm of cluttered speech may sound jerky, rather than smooth, and the speaker is often unaware of the problem.
Apraxia (also known as verbal apraxia or dyspraxia) is an oral-motor speech disorder. People with this problem have difficulty moving the muscles and structures needed to form speech sounds into words.
What Causes Speech Problems?
Normal speech might seem effortless, but it's actually a complex process that needs precise timing, and nerve and muscle control.
When we speak, we must coordinate many muscles from various body parts and systems, including the larynx, which contains the vocal cords; the teeth, lips, tongue, and mouth; and the respiratory system.
The ability to understand language and produce speech is coordinated by the brain. So a person with brain damage from an accident, stroke, or birth defect may have speech and language problems.
Some people with speech problems, particularly articulation disorders, may also have hearing problems. Even mild hearing loss can affect how people reproduce the sounds they hear. Certain birth defects, such as a cleft palate, can interfere with someone's ability to produce speech. People with a cleft palate have a hole in the roof of the mouth (which affects the movement of air through the oral and nasal passages), and also might have problems with other structures needed for speech, including the lips, teeth, and jaw.
Some speech problems, like stuttering, can run in families. But in some cases, no one knows exactly what causes a person to have speech problems.