What Do Experts Belive To Be The Cause Of Stuttering?

While no striking differences have been detected in the vocal mechanism of stutterers as compared to nonstutterers, it could well be that the larynxes of stutterers are more sensitive or more readily tensed than those of others. So there would be a slight inherited predisposition to stuttering.

It also appears that, as a rule, children start out well, but around the age of three some begin to hesitate or repeat their words and soon begin to stutter. What brings this about? Research has shown that the home environment and the attitudes of the mother, should she be a perfectionist or overly anxious or excessively concerned about the impression her child makes on others, may be the precipitating factor. Stuttering is not necessarily caused by the child's having undergone some "trauma," that is, some harmful experience, such as an accident, great fright or serious illness.

So some conclude that a child "learns" to stutter because of the home environment. It is said by some to be the result of instilled doubt and fear, a doubt that causes the child to expect to stutter and then to try not to stutter because of the fear of stuttering. These very factors cause the child to stutter, because the negative emotion inhibits freeness of speech. Even as it is recognized that thinking and worrying about one's heart can cause it to act up, and having one's mind on one's stomach all the time can cause one to have indigestion, so doubts and fears as to speaking can bring about stuttering.