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| Sunday, 4 August 2002 |
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Helping the hearing and speech disabled to communicate by Carol Aloysius Do you stammer when you talk to strangers? Do the words you utter sound like a string of gibberish noises even to your own ears?
In other words, are you one of those unfortunate persons who has trouble making yourself understood even when making a brief statement? If the answer is "Yes", then two young women specialising in the field of speech therapy have the answer you have been waiting for.... "Your speech disability, however serious, need not be an embarrassment to you. With the right therapy you can overcome any disability in communication within a short period of time. Give us two weeks to work that miracle", say these two young women audiologists and speech therapists, who are currently on a mission to help those with hearing and speech disabilities to communicate more effectively. Lasni de Alwis and her friend Savithri Panagoda who have recently returned from India having successfully completed a special degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences, insist that their claim to cure, especially stammerers from their speech disability, is no idle boast." We have had very encouraging results from the patients we have handled so far. Nearly all of them are able to talk without stammering after going through the therapy we gave them on a voluntary basis", says Lasni.
Although they have still to set up a proper clinic of their own, these two young women have lost no time in putting the knowledge they acquired during their four years at the Bangalore University to good use. They have also conducted a few random surveys of their own to find out the extent of these disabilities among the local population. One such finding was that both hearing loss and impaired speech are fairly common and often inter-connected. "People who have hearing loss often develop delayed speech and language disorders as well. Stammering is just one of them", says Lasni. She lists, cleft lip and palate, aphasia (loss of language due to brain damage) mental retardation, cerebral palsy among the other contributory factors leading to language disabilities. One of the findings that has disturbed them, says Lasni, was that there appeared to be very little proper diagnosis of speech impairment and its causes by skilled personnel." Stammering which is by far the commonest of the disabilities found in speech and hearing impaired persons in Sri Lanka, can be caused by various reasons; It can be psychogenic (i.e. due to psychological problems, as when a young girl or boy begins stammering shortly after the death of a close relative), Neurogenic (where the nerve is affected), or cluttering where a person speaks so fast and stammers that it is difficult to understand what he or she says. Each of these categories, she stresses, must be individually and correctly diagnosed before treating the patient. So how does she and her friend Savithri set about doing this? We start by observing the 'patient' closely and taking a speech sample. Once we have identified the correct nature of the disability, we begin our therapy sessions, which are custom tailored according to the needs of each patient. A "psychological stammerer" will for example first require counselling in order to help him deal with his personal mental trauma. We also observe the behaviour of our clients. Many of stammerers, we have found, have abnormal or secondary behaviour patterns such as sinking, blinking or moving their hands about while talking. All these unusual behaviour patterns are a clue to identifying their particular illness. A stammerer is usually at his worst when he is talking to strangers, says Lasni. "This is why we first try to help them to overcome their shyness when meeting strangers by instilling greater self confidence in them through therapy which is both practical and theoretical. Each session lasts for about 45 minutes . We do not use just one technique but a combination of techniques which includes breathing exercises, physical exercises and voice exercises." So far both she and Savithri have treated over 20 stammerers - with success, they claim. "Our next mission is to do a comprehensive survey on hearing and speech impairment prevalence in this country, and we welcome any help we can have in that direction. Such a study would be invaluable to anyone dealing with speech and hearing patients", she feels. |
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