Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Neurological stuttering

I just read that 50% of people who have neurological stuttering (after a neurological incident) stuttered as kids. Did the incident destroy or weakened a compensatory mechanism?

Note: Neurological stuttering differs from PDS (persistent developmental stuttering), because it typically occurs in (late) adulthood due to a stroke or accident.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello,
it occurs in late adulthood?
My mother has told me that I experienced a shock in the age of two.
I don't believe this being the cause for my stuttering because it was gone for a wile, when I was a small child.
But what if it was the cause?
Would this be possible?

Sorry for my bad english. It's early morning...

Tom Weidig said...

When something like stuttering starts, people naturally look for a cause. The most prominent event that happened to you around that time what the shock. So she naturally associates it with stuttering. But this is not a proof. Maybe you would have stuttered anyway even without the shock. Maybe the shock just made you start stuttering earlier?

Anonymous said...

Hm.
I experienced the shock in the time "normal children" get their first feeling for speech.
Maybe it WAS a cause...But my mother also told me that I spoke very eloquent very early (for a little child).
Can there be a relation between using (too) difficult language for a small child and stuttering?
Or could the shock have somewhat blocked the final development of my speech-section in the brain?

...

Tom Weidig said...

I dont really know.

But there are millions of kids that had a shock and they dont stutter.

My guess is that you had a neurological weakness anyway.

The shock might have helped, but I doubt it was the main cause.

A bit like the last drop.

Anonymous said...

So I am insane.
I knew it!

;)

Anonymous said...

Most disorders are not 100% genetic. There are a few exceptions, like Huntington's, but they are exceedingly rare.

I suspect that stuttering isn't 100% genetic either - which means the environment must play a role too.

We must then ask ourselves what component of the environment contributes to the onset of stuttering. Some say it's childhood trauma. While there isn't sufficient evidence to support this, I'd also point out that there isn't sufficient evidence to refute it either.

Until there is, my view is that childhood trauma is as good a guess as any other.