Australian researchers lead international study on stuttering

Researchers are hoping to gain support from 3000 Australians who stutter as they build the biggest study of its kind into the biological causes of the speech disorder. See how to get involved.

Boys are more likely to stutter than girls.

A massive international effort to uncover the genetic basis of stuttering is being led by Australian scientists determined to find its causes, rather than treat its symptoms.

The researchers are hoping to gain support from 3000 Australians who stutter as they build the biggest study of its kind into the biological causes of the speech disorder.

By scanning the genes of more than 10,000 stutt­erers from around the world, ­researchers from The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, the ­Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Griffith University and the University of Melbourne hope to find common clues hidden in their DNA.

Professor Angela Morgan said the project could lead to better treatments of preventive measures for the speech disorder, which affects one in 100 Australian adults.

“At the moment there are some treatments for stuttering that work for some people some of the time, but they don’t work for everyone all of the time,” Prof Morgan said.

Males are two to five times more likely to be affected by stuttering.

“That is because we are just treating the symptoms and speech … If we can get to understand the cause we might have treatments that are targeted to those underlying mechanisms, whether they are genetics, environment, diet-based or something else.”

Previous smaller studies have identified four genes linked to stuttering, however Prof Morgan said those ­discoveries only explained ­disorders in a handful of ­families.

She said the full underlying cause of stuttering was likely to be much more complex, involving several areas of the genome and external triggers such as stress, diet, and other conditions.

“It is not likely that stuttering will be due to changes in a single gene. We think what is happening is changes in multiple genes or gene and environment interaction,” Prof Morgan said.

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“It is not like we are searching for one gene here, there are going to be a number of hot spots where you have certain genes or regions on a chromosome.

“The other challenge is whether there are other environmental influences, because nobody has been able to untap that yet.”

In Australia 8.5 per cent of three-year-olds and 11 per cent of four-year-olds stutter, with males two to five times more likely to be affected.

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