People with Stuttering are Entitled to Get ATENSI Service

Writer :

Humas Ditjen Rehabilitasi Sosial

Editor :

David

Translator :

Karlina Irsalyana

JAKARTA (October 31, 2021) - Secretary General of the Ministry of Social Affairs Harry Hikmat, represented by the Director of Social Rehabilitation for Persons with Disabilities, Eva Rahmi Kasim attended a webinar organized by Hellosehat and the Indonesian Stuttering Community (ISC) which will discuss a theme entitled Pros and Cons of Stuttering as a Disability.

Indonesia Stuttering Community (ISC), this community is the largest forum for people with stuttering, ISC activities around education related to stuttering, to create an Indonesian society that is inclusive and friendly to stuttering, and further increases public knowledge about stuttering.

The Director of Social Rehabilitation for Persons with Disabilities, Eva Rahmi Kasim said that Persons with Disabilities are part of Indonesia's large population. Based on the National Socio-Economic Survey (SUSENAS, 2020) there are around 22 million more Indonesians with disabilities.

Law No. 8 of 2016 Article 1 stated that any person who experiences physical, intellectual, mental, and/or sensory limitations in the long term who is interacting with the environment may experience obstacles and difficulties to participate fully and effectively with other citizens based on equal rights.

Law No. 8 of 2016 Article 4 Paragraph 1 Letter d stated that "Persons with Sensory Disabilities" are disturbances in one of the functions of the five senses, including visual and/or speech disability. In the elucidation of Article 4 Paragraph 2, what is meant by "for a long period" is at least 6 (six) months and/or permanent.

Based on the Regulation of the Minister of Health No. 81 of 2014 on Standards of Speech Therapy Services, Stuttering is characterized by a fluency when speaking that is not following the age of the speaker and this disfluency affects the rhythm, the average number of words produced when speaking and creates a strong effort from the speaker to be able to speak fluently.

The role of the Ministry of Social Affairs through the Social Rehabilitation Assistance (ATENSI), persons with sensory disabilities can get direct community, family, and residential-based services that are carried out at the rehabilitation center belonging to the Ministry of Social Affairs. The services provided are in the form of supporting the fulfillment of decent living needs such as clothing and food.

Furthermore, social care and/or child care, family support, physical therapy, psychosocial therapy, and mental-spiritual therapy, vocational training and/or entrepreneurship coaching, social assistance, and accessibility support.

To deal with stuttering requires proper accommodation in the family environment, education, and also access to work. The management of stuttering is expected to be holistic, not just medically, but also for a good quality of life. People with stuttering have the right to receive social rehabilitation services through ATENSI at social rehabilitation centers of the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Hikmatun Sadiah as a speech therapist said that stuttering is a communication disorder in the form of fluency "because when you experience stuttering, the fluency of speech will be disturbed in rhythm, prosody, and speed of speech," explained Hikmatun Sadiah.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Stuttering is a speech rhythm disorder in which the individual knows exactly what wants to say, but at that time cannot say it due to repetition, prolongation, and stopping.

Hikmatun Sadiah also said that stuttering is caused by multiple factors, it can be internal and external. Internal factors include heredity, temperament, cognitive abilities, language skills, information processing mechanisms (attention, perception, memory, and reasoning), and speech motor control.

While external conditions include culture, parental expectations, parenting practices, educational experiences, and relationships with siblings and peers.

A psychologist, Yoza Azda also had the opportunity to explain about stuttering, signs of stuttering, namely repetition of sounds or syllables, the extension of vowels and consonants, interrupted words, silence or pauses in speaking, long words to replace words problems, there appears to be physical pressure when saying words.

Factors that cause stuttering are also mentioned including genetics, about 60% of those who stutter have family members who stutter; child development, children with problems or delays in language development, and other speech disorders are more likely to stutter.

In addition, other causative factors are neurophysiology, neurological research shows that people who stutter have speech and language processes slightly different from those who are not stuttering, and family dynamics. Stuttering can occur when a combination of factors come together and each person may have a different cause.

"Stuttering therapy can be a method that can be done, not stuttering when talking alone and singing, and condition it by thinking that 'I don't stutter' can help speak fluently", explained Yoza Azda.

In closing, Yoza said, it is hoped that friends who join this community will support each other and live life cheerfully so that they can be creative and innovate.

This webinar was also attended by members of the Indonesian Stuttering Community and Medical Editor Hellosehat as well as students of the Speech Therapy Academy.

2021-10-31
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