Research into stuttering: Can your family help?

I am a regular EB member and mum and I also do research at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. Together with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute my group are investigating the neurological basis of childhood stuttering. We still don’t know what causes childhood stuttering, but it is a common and often distressing disorder. I would like to invite children who stutter to participate in a research project examining brain structure and brain activation patterns during speech using MRI.

We are looking for children who stutter who;
- Are aged 5 to 10 years
- Do not have any major learning or developmental difficulties

What is involved?
For the child, taking part will involve attending two appointments.
1. A session of speech, language and IQ assessments. This session will take place at the Royal Children’s Hospital or in your home if you prefer and will take about 1 hour. Parents can receive a report of their child’s results if they choose.
2. An MRI scan. The MRI scan appointment will take place at the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg and will take about 1.5 hours. The scan will be reported by a neurologist and families can keep some pictures from the scan if they choose.
For the parent, participating will involve completing a short questionnaire about your child.

This project was granted ethics approval by the Royal Children’s Hospital #28061. If you think your child might be eligible to take part, or you would like more information about the project, please contact Libby Smith. Thank you for your help!
Contact details: (03) 93456654, libby.smith@mcri.edu.au

Can't help with your research, but I always thought it was interesting that my Dad, born a left-hander) became a stutterer when he was in primary school and he was forced to be right handed. The brain is an amazing thing ... good luck!

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pity you are in Melbourne I have the perfect candidate

Have you got hold of the research on the diphragmatic breathing that has been shown to reduce and even stop stuttering??

Great project BTW!

Would be interested if you were looking at the link between diet and stuttering. Two of my kids get a stutter (as do I!) if we eat the wrong foods.

http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/fac...Factstutter.htm

I was a stutterer as a kid and it was directly related to self confidence due to a teacher who did not like me and I was ostracised......

I thought it was a confidence thing!!!

wow sounds interesting.

both my children had a toddler stutter.. My dd had one from 2years 5months to 2years 8months. quite a verbal toddler and didn't seem to worry her. Now 7 and no problems, quite bright at school etc. She is right handed and a late walker 16months old.

My ds currently 3years 2 months has had a fairly pervasive stutter for the last two months. Right when he gained a language explosion and starting to want to speak in sentences. He is left handed (like his mum) and a late walker at 20months and I believe he had/has some very slight low muscle tone. I have always thought there has been a nuero component to his slight gross motor delays and stuttering. He was also slow with speech development (slightly) I tend to thing his word retrevial process is hard wired slightly differantly to the norm and would not be suprised if an mri confirmed this.
He is very bright, chatty and fun though...so developmentally normal or even bright normal.Stuttering not stopping him talking at present!

good luck with candidates...will be interested to hear of outcomes.
CB