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From: Joe Klein
Date: 02 Oct 2008
Time: 15:36:07 -0500
Remote Name: 66.195.12.193
Wow, Rick, that's a difficult question. Because we do not know exactly why people stutter, it is hard to know why they recover, but let me answer at least part of the question, and hopefully others can add to this. First, I think it is no accident that stuttering starts between the ages of 2 and 4. This is a time of tremendous change and growth: physical growth, language growth, speech growth, cognitive growth, etc. Whatever the cause of stuttering is, it's no wonder that the stuttering "shows up" during this time of great change, which places big demands on tiny people. While the change is great, children's ability to adapt seems to be great, as well, and so in a matter of time, many children appear to be able to overcome whatever the "stuttering" is, and, like you said, 70 to 80% seem to "outgrow" the stuttering, or at least the speech symptoms of the stuttering -- the neurological or genetic cause of the stuttering may still exist, yet the child becomes a normally fluent speaker. I am a pws and have two children, ages 4 and 6, who are normally fluent speakers, although both went through short periods of "borderline stuttering." My son continues to have mild word finding difficulties, but with no associated speech tension. I would have to say that, no, I don't think that just because a parent stutters the children should automatically be in therapy. Being a really good listener, taking your time, having lots of periods of silence while you are together, I believe, are important. If the child does begin to show some signs of stuttering for a period of time, then a speech evaluation may be a good thing. Hope this was helpful. Take care, Joe