Influence of upbringing

Speech block can manifest itself not only in case of a foreign language, but it can also be connected with the conditions of one’s upbringing. There are families where communication does not really seem to play such an important role. Parents and kids either simply have no time to talk or, what is much worse, children are asked to “keep their mouths shut’. There is a syndrome called “alexythymia,” where a person suffering from it is not capable of identifying emotions and expressing them. There are also cases when a child stops talking, as a result, of a deep emotional trauma. These reactions are called “selective mutism’ (Shevchenko, Y.S. et al., 2007/ Шевченко Ю. С. с соавт., 2007).

A gag in the mouth

A colleague of mine once told me that he had to work with a girl who involuntarily stuffed handkerchiefs or paper tissues into her mouth. From their sessions and the conversation with her parents, he found out that she had often been told to “keep her mouth shut’. When she did not obey, she was often punished. It is no wonder this patient developed a major neurosis14.

Tensions in the relationship with the parents or with the teachers can often have a negative effect on the speech.