cath
09-11-2006, 01:12 PM
Hi
I have a four year old who has had a stammer from around the age of two.
A lot of the time it appears that his brain is going faster than his words can come out ...any way to cut a long story short I wonder if anyone on here that has a stammer/stutter could tell me if they think in pictures? That sounds a daft question I know :confused: let me explain:
Although my speach is fluent I loose track of what I'm saying in mid sentence and I'm forever saying..... 'what was I saying '?
I have always had problems with time keeping, organisation skills and remembering things like where I parked my car! Times table and maths just lost me completely.
I had an assesment that showed that I had poor working memory ( the part of the memory that holds information for a short time i.e instructions telephone numbers etc) I was therefore diagnosed with dyslexia, although I consider my problems more as dyscalculia but in the uk dyscalculia is not really well known about so I think everything tends to get lumpt together as dyslexic......
so anyway, ......I began to look into how people learn as my teenage daughter has just been assessed with poor working memory too. What I found was that most people learn auditory but some people think in pictures, I was chatting to my niece saying how I found that a little odd as everyone thinks in pictures and she asked me what I meant so I said 'well if I said there's a cup of tea in the kitchen for you, you would picture a cup of tea wouldn't you''? She began to laugh and said 'no, I would just think, oh there's a cup of tea for me in the kitchen'
I started to ask around and was amazed to find most people dont think in pictures because I have a mental picture for everything! Often if someone relates an experience it plays out like a video in my mind.
I also looked into working memory and found it interesting that part of it is called the phonological loop this is where (if I understand it correctly) sentence is held before speech as in a conversation.
I know my little boy thinks in pictures because he uses his hands to show me what he can see in his head and once when I told him there was no rush to tell me because I'm listening he said I have to tell you quickly or I wont remember.
So my point is:
Is there a link between thinking in pictures, dyslexia/dyscalculia, working memory and the phonological loop? For example if a person thinks in pictures AND has problems within working memory and the phonological loop, it could well be that the time it takes to 'see' what wants to be said and convert that into a sentence takes longer than the phonological loop part of the memory can hold on to it, hence, part of what wants to be said begins to fade out and results in stuttering while the mind is trying to relocate what wants to be voiced....if that makes sense??? I wanted to ask everyone elses opinion on this theory because if there is a link there are also memory programs to help strenthen the working memory which may, in turn help with the stammer.
Sorry for the long drawn out post but I've been looking into this for a while now and wanted to share what I've learnt :) It is heart breaking to watch other children walk away from my son when he is trying to get out what he wants to say :( and I want to help him early so that he has a chance of fleuent speech.
Thanks for reading please tell me what your thoughts are I'm really interested in what everyones oppinion is.
take care
Cath
Oh yes and one last thing....if I ask my son to repeat a sentence that I say first he doesn't have a problem with his stammer ...I wondered if that was because the whole process was so much shorter and he has time to get his words out before they fade away?? just a thought??
I have a four year old who has had a stammer from around the age of two.
A lot of the time it appears that his brain is going faster than his words can come out ...any way to cut a long story short I wonder if anyone on here that has a stammer/stutter could tell me if they think in pictures? That sounds a daft question I know :confused: let me explain:
Although my speach is fluent I loose track of what I'm saying in mid sentence and I'm forever saying..... 'what was I saying '?
I have always had problems with time keeping, organisation skills and remembering things like where I parked my car! Times table and maths just lost me completely.
I had an assesment that showed that I had poor working memory ( the part of the memory that holds information for a short time i.e instructions telephone numbers etc) I was therefore diagnosed with dyslexia, although I consider my problems more as dyscalculia but in the uk dyscalculia is not really well known about so I think everything tends to get lumpt together as dyslexic......
so anyway, ......I began to look into how people learn as my teenage daughter has just been assessed with poor working memory too. What I found was that most people learn auditory but some people think in pictures, I was chatting to my niece saying how I found that a little odd as everyone thinks in pictures and she asked me what I meant so I said 'well if I said there's a cup of tea in the kitchen for you, you would picture a cup of tea wouldn't you''? She began to laugh and said 'no, I would just think, oh there's a cup of tea for me in the kitchen'
I started to ask around and was amazed to find most people dont think in pictures because I have a mental picture for everything! Often if someone relates an experience it plays out like a video in my mind.
I also looked into working memory and found it interesting that part of it is called the phonological loop this is where (if I understand it correctly) sentence is held before speech as in a conversation.
I know my little boy thinks in pictures because he uses his hands to show me what he can see in his head and once when I told him there was no rush to tell me because I'm listening he said I have to tell you quickly or I wont remember.
So my point is:
Is there a link between thinking in pictures, dyslexia/dyscalculia, working memory and the phonological loop? For example if a person thinks in pictures AND has problems within working memory and the phonological loop, it could well be that the time it takes to 'see' what wants to be said and convert that into a sentence takes longer than the phonological loop part of the memory can hold on to it, hence, part of what wants to be said begins to fade out and results in stuttering while the mind is trying to relocate what wants to be voiced....if that makes sense??? I wanted to ask everyone elses opinion on this theory because if there is a link there are also memory programs to help strenthen the working memory which may, in turn help with the stammer.
Sorry for the long drawn out post but I've been looking into this for a while now and wanted to share what I've learnt :) It is heart breaking to watch other children walk away from my son when he is trying to get out what he wants to say :( and I want to help him early so that he has a chance of fleuent speech.
Thanks for reading please tell me what your thoughts are I'm really interested in what everyones oppinion is.
take care
Cath
Oh yes and one last thing....if I ask my son to repeat a sentence that I say first he doesn't have a problem with his stammer ...I wondered if that was because the whole process was so much shorter and he has time to get his words out before they fade away?? just a thought??