TNN Jan 24, 2011, 05.06am IST
CHENNAI: Contrary to popular belief, stammering is not a psychological disorder but a hereditary condition, an expert said. "Genetic studies have been done in other countries and it showed that certain genes in our chromosome contribute to stammering," said S Rekha, a teaching assistant at the department of genetic engineering at SRM University. She said that studies on certain Indian families where stammering runs in the family was underway, for which she took blood samples of members of The Indian Stammering Association (TISA).
TISA was started in 2008 in Mumbai as a platform for stammerers to meet more people like them and share their experiences. The Chennai chapter, which was started in January 2009, celebrated its second anniversary on Saturday. All-India coordinator for TISA Dr Sachin Srivastav said, "This is a forum where we stammerers gather and speak about various things and we stammer freely and learn to lose our inhibitions." He said most stammerers feared job interviews and complained of being unable to perform well in job interviews despite having what it takes to get a job.
"All stammerers have perfect clarity in their minds about they want to say. It is when it comes to speech that they get stuck and have a problem. This can be addressed by meeting like-minded people and sharing experiences," Dr Srivastav said.
TISA, which has 500 members across the country, has helped many stammerers overcome their fears. "Till about two years back I would never have the courage to go and talk to people or address a gathering. Today, not only has my stammering improved but I feel more confident," said V Manimaran, the Chennai coordinator of TISA.
Speaking about how stammering could be a traumatic experience for children, assistant coordinator of TISA Vishal Dadha said that unlike adults who find ways to work around their stammering, children stammer a lot and get teased. "For example, I am a custom agent but I always get stuck on the alphabet 'cu' when saying the word custom and now I just tell people I am into shipping. As adults we come up with ways to work around our difficulties but children find it tough," he said. Dr Srivastav said speech therapy was ineffective as the relapse rate was very high. "Almost 90% of stammerers start stammering again after speech therapy. But self-help groups like TISA can help hone and enhance a person's personality," he said.
