As a well controlled stutterer in his 60s, I have evolved from a pre-teen and teenager who stuttered very severly, to someone who, with the help of of tools ranging from metronome therapy, to meditation to prescription drugs, has largely overcome this dibilitating condition (i.e., it in no way interferes with my personal or professional life). I'm skeptical of the implication that genes are the cause of anyone's stuttering. How can you rule out that familial associations among stutterers could be due to imprinting where parental behavior, communicated to their children by sounds and sights are simply mimicked by their children.

This is important news and development for people that stutter and speech pathologists, and researchers'. Knowing that suttering is genetic through DNA research and is hereditary to family members is a big step forward. Now speech pathologists and researchers can 'focus' on a particular gene or genes within a stutterers heritage and hereditary characteristics. The problem will still be, how do we 'treat' the stutterer or what is the the solution to the problem. What 'drug' will help, will be one of the big questions concerning treatment. If a certain drug with speech therapy would work on that certain gene or genes.., then we have come a long ways in curing a major speech impediment. I knew three people that stuttered and all had a 4.0 GPA in high school and college. When someone would pick on a stutterer.., I always felt the person picking on the stutterer was dump and ignorant, and had a lack of knowledge on stuttering. Now, with this information and research and more research to follow..., I was right about the person that was picking on the stutterer. I also remember one student that stuttered and would always beat me in chess, and never stuttered when he talked to a dog or cat. Never did figure out that one. Well, in closing.., I am very happy for the stutterers, speech pathologists and researchers in this interesting development that could change speech pathology treatment forever. Mike in Montana P.S.: I am fluent.., however, I have known a lot of people that stutter and believe me, they do not have a mental or an emotional problem on why they stutter. They are actually very bright people.., just don't play them in chess.

I knew this long ago,, I had some "jeans" that made me stutter.

They were too tight in the crotch.

(but seriously, I have good friends who stutter and it's no laughing matter).

Even so, they still maintain a great sense of humor about it.

I have worked on aircraft for over 33 years and am tone deaf, we all joke about it.

Stuttering or not, life must go on. As a stutterer, I don't see my condition as an obstacle to my ambitions.

I am wondering if it is possibly related to Fragile X Syndrome. It would be wonderful to find something for those who are suffering from both Fragile X Syndrome and stuttering.

Perhaps genes play a role in stuttering in members of some families but in mine, severe stuttering in my 5 year old brother was completely stopped after my parents took him and my sister, who was having reading problems, to Children's Hospital in Philadelphia in 1960. There, they learned about Psychologist Carl Delacato's work with neurological patterning...it was about determining the dominant side of each sibling's brain. During the couse of their patterning training at home, which took several weeks, there could be no music in the house (as teens, we hated that)....each child had to learn to crawl and then walk in a certain way pointing a finger at the opposing foot as they walked around in a circle. We even tried it and were chagrined to learn that you had to "think" about the way you crawled to ensure the sequence was correct! But, I can tell you that the patterning worked! My brother, who's stuttering got so bad he could not even speak beyond "I-I-I..." and my sister, who had trouble with dyslexia and other issues with reading, improved 100%. The stuttering stopped. The reading flowed. So, we are forever indebted to Dr. Delacato and his colleague and Dr. Fay's earlier research for helping my brother and sister determine the dominant side of their brains....and flourish in speaking and reading.

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You can learn more about his theories and patterning practice in the following book:

Delacato CH: The Diagnosis and Treatment of Speech and Reading Problems. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C Thomas, 1963.

Get back to cancer research and stop fooling around.

What are the names of the three genes? No mention of them in the article.

As a school basedSpeech Language Pathologist I have often thought that stuttering somehow had a neurological connection. I have seen it run in families, usually in the males. I have noted many of my students who stutter are also left handed and lately, mostof my students who stutter have also been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. In my 20 years as an SLP, I have only treated 1 female who stuttered. Could these behaviors be conneted to a gene? Why not? I have also considered the possibility that these children have the predisposition (genetic?) to stuttering and some event, medical, emotional, or developmental, triggers the behavior. I once had a student who began to stutter during the summer between 1st and 2nd grade following a traumatic family event. All in all, these findings are encouraging and will assist SLPs in lessening the "guilt" factor that parents sometime feel which will lessen the emotionality and the stuttering the behaviors.

As a nurse I also noticed a pronounced occurence of stuttering in males. It struck me as similiar to a tic disorder, a sort of "short circuit" if you will. In observing stutterers, the glitch seemed to be in starting and stopping, as if a part of the brain was triggered and until that synapse stopped firing, the stutter would go on. While some have, according to these letters, overcome stuttering, it sounds very much like re-training the brain to bypass those faulty areas, not unlike trains being diverted to other tracks. The preponderance of stuttering in males also reminded me of hemophelia in males, except that the gene seemed to pass male to male, rather than through the female and expressed in males. The psychologist able to "re-track" the brain sounds like an individual who also saw this glitch and re-trained the brain. Tic disorders also seem like "glitches" in that sounds or movements are repetitive until, it appears, the synapses no longer respond, or are depleted of the chemical responsible.

In general, I find this research very interesting. It often takes years and years to track and discern the cause of an ailment. Perhaps this research will pay off significantly and I laud researchers in an area frought with dispute and disagreement.

This is w..w..w..w..w..wonderful n..n..n..n....n...n.....NEWS!

When are they going to find the defective gene that causes scientists to seek grants for useless studies?

ddd

hello, I just want to say i think all you out there who stutter and dont think in effects your life, good for you! i am glad something like this has not stopped you from accomplishing what you love and what not. but for thinking that we are all like you is just ignorant. I have stuttered my whole life and i hate it. it does make me feel insignificant when i cant order anything off a menu, or when i have to order something i dont want because i cant say the thing i want. telling a joke and it takes so long no one knows that you said so it isnt funny anymore. or worse case, being with the person you love most and not being able to have the most simple exchange or words without feeling like an idiot. I am very happy that this is gene could help people like me who just want to be able to speak right. and by the way, i am an engineer who is very intelegent, i just have issues relaying either what i know or what in thinking. . . just think what could be accomplished if the brilliant stutterers could relay what they wanted to in words. thank you

It can be a major life trauma. I was a premature baby in the 1930's. Have stuttered all my life, and hated it! Yet, had sucessful careers as both an engineer and an industrial salesman. Highly successful as a salesman because I tried to listen more and talk less!

Am also a member of Mensa - the high IQ group. Records show that a much higher percentage of Mensa members than the normal percentage of the population are stutterers.

No one that stutters wants to. Anything they can develop to overcome this will be wonderful for stutters. Too late for me, but maybe future stutters will not have to put up with this embarrassing problem.