speech. Certainly, the
younger the children, and the closer to onset they are, will advance our knowledge about the etiology of the disorder.
There is some evidence that age at onset may bear a relation to genetic factors, in particular there seems to be a trend for persistent stuttering to have a slightly later onset than recovered stuttering (Yairi & Ambrose, 2005). This, however, appears to be complicated-and as a large recent study found 57 genomic regions that mapped to 48 genes associated with stuttering (Polikowski et al., 2025).
Age is also a risk factor in regard to children’s awareness of disfluent speech. The belief that preschoolers who stutter lack in such awareness played a major role in theories and developmental models of the disorder. For many years, clinicians’ assumption that awareness would trigger strong emotions (e.g., anxiety) in children was the main reason for shunning direct speech therapy for preschoolers. Whereas some three-year olds are either clearly, or appear to be, aware of stuttering, available experimental data show a very large increase in awareness between ages 4 and 5, including normally fluent children (Ambrose & Yairi, 1994; Ezrati, Platzky, & Yairi, 2001). This information would seem to justify direct intervention techniques as well as
provide clues
for the timing of intervention
and should be considered in counseling of parents and teachers about reactions of normally fluent children to their stuttering peers.
“One of the intriguing questions is: does age at stuttering onset — prior to, or after, a certain point in language development — underlie distinct subtypes of the disorder?”
From early on, age is also critical regarding accuracy as well as interpretation of various childhood stuttering research outcomes. For example, studies of natural recovery initiated with children aged 4 and 5 years (e.g., Spencer &_Weber-Fox, et al, 2014; Leech
et.al, 2017; Gerwin et al., 2019; Walsh, et al., 2021) can be expected to yield lower, less accurate, recovery rates than those reported by studies initiated when the participating children were of younger age (e.g., Reilly et al., 2009, 2013; Yairi & Ambrose, 1999; 2005). This is so because the considerable number of natural recovery cases that typically occur in 2-3-year-olds will remain unknown, therefore not counted, as well as not addressed, in studies employing older preschoolers; even if only one or two years older.
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