Fluency disorders are interruptions in speech flow beyond what is considered normal, including stuttering, neurogenic dysfluency, mixed fluency failures, and psychogenic dysfluency. Stuttering is the most common, often accompanied by physical behaviors, while neurogenic dysfluency is caused by neurological problems and psychogenic dysfluency is triggered by emotional crises. Mixed fluency errors can result from combined causes.
Fluency refers to how smoothly sounds and syllables, as well as words and sentences, come together while speaking. Fluency disorders are conditions characterized by the involuntary interruption of a person’s speech flow beyond what is considered normal. While each of the fluency disorders has its own causes, symptoms, and effects, there are several main categories. Types of fluency disorders include stuttering and neurogenic dysfluency, as well as mixed fluency failures and psychogenic dysfluency.
Stuttering is the most common of the fluency disorders, characterized by a high frequency or prolonged duration of interruptions in the flow of speech. Stuttering is often confused with the normal developmental dysfluency a child may have as they learn and perfect their language skills. The difference is that stuttering disorders occur alongside physical behaviors. These physical behaviors are called physical concomitants, including blinking, nodding, or total body rotations.
Neurogenic dysfluency is a set of fluency disturbances caused by a neurological problem. These are identified in patients who have not had previous fluency problems, but who have experienced an event that directly led to fluency problems. For example, a stroke survivor may have lost blood flow to the area of the brain that affects language. As a result, you may have trouble choosing or forming words. The difference between neurogenic dysfluency and other disorders is that this is not a fluency problem at all, but a matter of an inability to control the muscles needed to speak correctly.
Psychogenic dysfluency is dysfluency that was triggered by a sudden identifiable emotional crisis. There are three categories of psychogenic disfluencies: emotion-based disfluencies, manipulative disfluencies, and simulating disfluencies. For example, those who stutter when fearful suffer from psychogenic dysfluency. The treatment for this would be psychological in nature, helping the patient to overcome his fears and control his reactions during stressful situations.
There are also mixed fluency errors. These fluidity disturbances can result from any number of combined causes. For example, a child may be a developmental stutterer. While it may grow, as an adult it can also return to stuttering in stressful situations. He may have undergone developmental speech therapy as a child and later psychotherapy to control his fear in stressful situations.
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