Accepting verbal communication to include the content, as well as the delivery of your message, then stuttering can affect both. The content, including the main idea, words you choose, and organization structure you use will only be affected if you let it. If you’re distracted from what you want to share by your negative thoughts and perceptions of your stuttering, the clarity of your content can be compromised. Rather, if you are focused on getting your message across, your content will be in your full control. In addition to content, there is delivery-- the speech sounds, volume, pitch and overall melody of your voice. Stuttering tends to impact the way you produce sounds, with certain sounds taking longer to realize, and others coming out more than once. Since the sounds themselves stay much the same, intelligibility tends to be at 100%.

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The origin of stuttering is multifactorial, including both nature and nurture. Research has demonstrated 30-60% of individuals who stutter also have family members who stutter. Contrastively, only less than 10% of fluent speakers have family members who stutter (Ambrose et al., 1993; Yairi & Ambrose, 2005). Research also shows that a child’s upbringing, including the speaking pace of the parents, the lifestyle pace of the household, as well as frequency of interruptions, has an immense impact on a child’s fluency. Specifically, when a parent talks to the child quickly, the child may unconsciously try to match their speech, realize their cognitive and motor skills are not fit for such a pace, and develop a habit of stuttering. It may be the same case with children with a busy schedule including after-school commitments, as they may be feeling as if they’re having to catch up. Further, when a child is frequently interrupted in the household--possibly due to several siblings wanting a speaking turn-- the pressure to speak quickly may once again develop a habit of stuttering. Overall, the cause of stuttering can be both genetics and environment.

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Stuttering tends to happen when there is an interruption in your airflow. Since airflow is the foundation of your speech, an impedance to airflow will affect an impedance in sound. There are two general types of stutters-- a block and a repetition. Blocks occur when the airflow stops at the level of your neck, particularly your vocal folds. When you experience a block, it will feel like you have stopped breathing. This expression is an accurate description of what is happening, as literally, your vocal folds have closed shut, no longer allowing air to come in or come out. Blocks can be obvious to listeners, but can also go unnoticed. Nonetheless, the speaker experiencing the block will feel a buildup of tension and have difficulty restarting their voice. The other kind of stutter is a repetition. This can be repetition of sounds (i.e. b), syllables (i.e. ba), words (i.e. back) and even phrases (i.e. I mean).  In the case of repetitions, the blockage of air is more so inside the mouth, beyond the neck. Due to buildup of tension, the lips or tongue loses control and the outcome is reproductions of the same sound, syllable and word.

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