PURPOSE: To characterize the factors gender, age, duration and typology of the disfluencies; physical and emotional stresses in children with high risk for stuttering and with familial recurrence of the disorder. METHODS: Sixty-five children with high risk for developmental familial stuttering of both genders, with ages between 3 and 11 years and 11 months. The data were gathered through the Protocol of Risk for the Developmental Stuttering. RESULTS: In our findings the ratio male:female was 2.8:1, and the majority of the children were aged 3 years old. Significantly more children presented more than 12 months' duration of the disfluencies when compared to children that presented 6 to 12 months' duration. The majority showed some emotional stress and didn't show any physical stress. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that children with familial recurrence of stuttering, male, with 3 years old, with stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) lasting for more than 12 months and with the occurrence of emotional stresses are the children that present the higher risk for the development of the persistent stuttering.
Stuttering; Risk factors; Genetics; Speech, language and hearing sciences; Speech disorders