Why do people stutter? Stuttering or stammering is a complex speech disorder in which the flow of speech is broken by abnormal stoppages, repetitions or prolongations of sounds and syllables.
There may also be unusual facial and body movements associated with the effort to speak. There is no single cause, but current research suggests a connection between stuttering and neurological co-ordination of the speech mechanism.
About half of those who have speech and voice defects suffer from stuttering.
In 65 per cent of stuttering cases, there is a family history of the disorder, suggesting that it may be hereditary.
And boys are more likely to stutter than girls.
Stuttering is common between the ages of two and five. Stuttering goes away on its own by school age in about 80 per cent of children.
In many cases, stuttering appears to be brought on by situations such as a change of environment, the birth of a younger child in the family, or, most frequently, by a family environment in which parents are over-concerned with childhood speech problems which occur normally.
