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What is “Stuttering?”
Stuttering is a communication disorder involving disruptions in the forward flow of speech. These speech disfluencies are moments when a child has difficulty “getting his words out.” As a result, he may repeat parts of a word (“li-li-like this”), stretch out sounds (“llllike this”) or experience a complete blockage of speech when no sound comes out at all (“l---ike this”).
Many times, young children are not aware of their speech disruptions at all; they simply repeat parts of words or prolong sounds until they are able to continue speaking. Other times, children become frustrated, frightened or confused because of their speaking difficulties. This may lead them to try to do different things to “fix” their speech, such as tensing the muscles in their mouth in an attempt to “push” words out, tapping their mouth with their hand or simply giving up and not talking at all. Although all of these behaviors can be considered part of the child’s overall stuttering pattern, they vary from child to child.
All children exhibit disfluencies in their speech—making mistakes is a normal part of learning to talk. Furthermore, some types of disfluencies are actually a normal part of the communication process. We all occasionally produce interjections, such as “um” or “uh,” while we are thinking about what we want to say. Similarly, we sometimes make changes in what we want to say, and then revise our speech accordingly (e.g., “I want- I need that”). These examples of “normal” or “typical” types of disfluencies are different from stuttering, which involves a seemingly involuntary interruption in speech—or a moment when the child knows what he or she wants to say but has difficulty saying it.
What causes stuttering?
Researchers have been looking for the cause of stuttering for centuries. Dozens of theories have been proposed, though each has been found to be inadequate for one reason or another. Clinicians and researchers have learned much about what does and does not cause stuttering. Because of years of research, we now know that stuttering is not caused by a psychological problem. It is not solely the result of a trauma, either physical or emotional. And, it is not caused by over-protective or over-concerned parents. There are some things families can do that help children speak more fluently and some things that may make it more difficult for a child to speak; however, these things do not cause the speaking difficulties.
Today, it is widely accepted that there is no single cause of stuttering. It is not “just” a difficulty with the movement of the mouth and it is not “just” a psychological problem. Instead, stuttering is now thought to be caused by several different factors that interact with one another.
Examples of the factors that may contribute to a child’s development of stuttering include:
- linguistic ability (i.e., the child’s ability to put words or sentences together)
- motoric ability (i.e., the child’s ability to move her mouth in the rapid and exact manner needed for speaking)
- personality or temperament (i.e., the ways a child tends to react to events in his environment or within himself)
- environment (i.e., the requirements placed on the child for producing speech)
These and other various factors are believed to interact within a child to cause a situation where the child produces speech disfluencies.
Many studies have found that stuttering tends to run in families. Therefore, there does seem to be a genetic aspect to the cause of stuttering. So, children of parents who stutter are at a somewhat greater risk for stuttering than children of parents who do not stutter.
Adapted from the NSA’s publication Preschool Children Who Stutter: Information and Support for Parents (2nd ed.)
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