What is developmental stuttering?

Developmental stuttering is the most common form, with an onset prior to the age of 12, and generally between the age of 2 and 5 years. Preschool children normally undergo a transient period of disfluency, and it is estimated that 50% - 80% of children with developmental stuttering will recover with or without therapy and generally before puberty. Persistent developmental stuttering is developmental stuttering that has not undergone spontaneous or therapy related remission. Proposed etiologies include abnormal cerebral dominance with differences in regional brain activation patterns, and a possible hyperdopaminergic origin with an overactive presynaptic dopamine system in regions of the brain that modulate verbalization. A genetic component has also been observed.

Developmental stuttering occurs around three to five years of age and is coincidental with the period when a much fuller use of connected speech is developing. The ever-increasing demands on linguistic competency and articulatory proficiency may act as a major factor in the onset of some disfluency. Developmental stuttering is initiated by completely rational responses to original childhood disfluencies that make the child's speech different from his/her model of fluent speech. These speech "difficulties" may be associated with any number of physical, mental, or developmental problems, including cerebral palsy, mental retardation, articulatory disorders or delays, delays in expressive language development, or even with imbalances in receptive and expressive language skills. Many children who exhibit original disfluencies are highly intelligent and seem to come from very stimulating (perhaps over-stimulating) language environments. These original disfluencies, which may be temporary, should not be confused with the so-called "core dysfluencies" of later, developed stuttering behavior.

Developmental stuttering is characterized by disruptions in the fluency of verbal expressions, which is characterized by involuntary, audible or silent, repetitions or prolongations in the utterance of short speech elements, namely, sounds, syllables and words. These disruptions are usually occur frequently or are marked in character and are not readily controllable. Sometimes the disruptions are accompanied by accessory activities involving the speech apparatus related or unrelated body structures or stereotyped speech utterances. These activities give the appearance of being speech-related struggle. Often there is presence of heightened emotional levels of tension, anxiety, excitement, to fear, embarrassment, irritation etc.

More information on stuttering