Stuttering affects approximately 1 percent of Canadian adults and as many as 4 percent of young children. It is a universal phenomenon, found in different cultures and races and is not dependent on the language that a person speaks. Persons who stutter know what they want to say but have trouble saying it in a smooth, continuous way. Stuttering is something that happens to them while speaking, not something they do intentionally.
Stuttering usually begins between the ages of 2 and 5 years. While approximately 80 percent of young children recover from early stuttering, about 20 percent continue to stutter beyond the age of 6 years, when natural recovery becomes less likely. Girls are more likely to recover naturally from early stuttering than boys. This helps explain why there are more adult males who stutter than adult females. Stuttering changes and develops as children grow and develop. School-age children, adolescents and adults experience emotional, cognitive, and attitudinal aspects of stuttering that are not commonly present, or not in the same way and not to the same extent, in young children who are in the early stage of stuttering development.
Stuttering and Stammering - Different Words, Same Meaning
Stuttering and stammering refer to the same phenomenon. Stammer and stammering are used in the United Kingdom and India, while stutter and stuttering are used in Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Other English-speaking countries will use either terminology.
A Good Life is Possible for People who Stutter.