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From: Dennis Drayna
Date: 31 Oct 2005
Time: 18:53:18 -0600
Remote Name: 165.112.46.123
Dear Liz, In my article, I tried to lay out the evidence that exists addressing the relative roles of genetics and environment in stuttering. While some stuttering is due to genetic causes, other stuttering is due to unknown causes. The one adoption study published showed that adopted children of stuttering parents have no higher rate of stuttering than the general population. The conclusion from this study is that children do not learn to stutter by listening to stuttering parents. Developmental stuttering (around ages 3-5) is very common, so common that some people believe it is part of normal speech development. Most of these young children recover, however, and persistent stuttering is clearly not normal.