How does stuttering usually occur in childhood? What factors contribute to this?
Fright is often cited as the cause of stuttering in childhood. For example, stuttering occurs after a child is frightened by a dog or something traumatic has happened.
However, fright can be a trigger, but it is not a sufficient condition for stuttering to appear and perpetuate. Several factors are superimposed and summed up, several threads are woven, knots of negative feelings and beliefs are tied, which lead to the appearance of this state.
Let's trace the general, schematic history of stuttering.
For example, a child carelessly plays with other children, or walks calmly, holding his mother's hand, or with curiosity, as is typical for many children, explores the world around him. And suddenly something happens that shows him the world from a completely different side. It can be frightened by a scary dog or any other trauma. What is happening in the mind of the child?
The familiar and safe picture of the world is crumbling. For example, this situation can force him to come to the conclusion that the world can not only be kind to him, that you cannot just play carelessly and express all your impulses, etc.
Of course, this does not mean that the child, after thinking hard, scratching in his head, comes to this conclusion. This happens emotionally and unconsciously, automatically.
The first thread appears - the conviction that one cannot just live carefree, it can be dangerous and painful. Trust in the "good" world is lost. You need to somehow defend yourself, be in constant tension, because life is unsafe.
Perhaps after this, something unusual may appear in the child's speech. Houses are beginning to pay attention to this. Perhaps, if the child lacked attention, he will like it. This is the second thread. Now in this "bad" something "good" has appeared, and this "good" is important and now it is necessary to keep it.
What happens next?
Perhaps his comrades will laugh at him in the group. Or it will happen later in school. If this is repeated several times, then the child will think that something is wrong with him. The child will begin to pay constant attention to his speech. This is the third thread - the feeling that "something is wrong with me", I am worse than others.
If the child fails to achieve some of his goals, then perhaps he will scold and condemn himself and his stuttering, which can gradually become in his mind the cause of many failures. Here is the fourth thread.
Our situation is conditional and only illustrates how some experiences, flowing into others, cause a contradictory tangle of fears and negative beliefs. And only literate parents are able to prevent negative states from developing with their love for a child.
