

Stuttering is commonly grouped into two types termed developmental and neurogenic. The precise mechanisms that cause stuttering are not understood. What are the causes and types of stuttering? Muscle movements are controlled by the brain and monitored through our senses of hearing and touch. We make speech sounds through a series of precisely coordinated muscle movements involving breathing, phonation (voice production), and articulation (movement of the throat, palate, tongue, and lips). For the remaining 25 percent who continue to stutter, stuttering can persist as a lifelong communication disorder. Approximately 75 percent of children recover from stuttering. Boys are 2 to 3 times as likely to stutter as girls and as they get older this gender difference increases the number of boys who continue to stutter is three to four times larger than the number of girls. Approximately 5 to 10 percent of all children will stutter for some period in their life, lasting from a few weeks to several years. It occurs most often in children between the ages of 2 and 6 as they are developing their language skills. Stuttering is sometimes referred to as stammering and by a broader term, disfluent speech. In general, speaking before a group or talking on the telephone may make a person’s stuttering more severe, while singing, reading, or speaking in unison may temporarily reduce stuttering. Symptoms of stuttering can vary significantly throughout a person’s day. Stuttering can also negatively influence job performance and opportunities, and treatment can come at a high financial cost. Stuttering can make it difficult to communicate with other people, which often affects a person’s quality of life and interpersonal relationships. These speech disruptions may be accompanied by struggle behaviors, such as rapid eye blinks or tremors of the lips. An individual who stutters exactly knows what he or she would like to say but has trouble producing a normal flow of speech. Stuttering is a speech disorder characterized by repetition of sounds, syllables, or words prolongation of sounds and interruptions in speech known as blocks. Congressional Testimony and the NIDCD Budget.Research Training in NIDCD Laboratories (Intramural).Types of Research Training Funding Opportunities.About NIDCD's Research Training Program.Scientific Workshop and Meeting Reports.Building a Diverse Scientific Workforce.
