B4072 - Subtypes of persistent developmental stammering - 20/05/2022
There are speech therapies that can help them to cope, but most children will recover on their own. However, about one person in every hundred keeps stammering into adulthood. Stammering is tends to run in families, which means that it is genetic. There are also markers in the brain that help us to understand how stammering happens. However, they don’t seem to be very consistent across people. This project proposes to use a big data base of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and genetics data covering thousands of parents and children, many of whom will have stammered. These data will be used to understand both how the brains of people who stammer are different from fluent speakers, and how they are different from each other. With a greater understanding of what makes some brains stammer, it is hoped that we can inform the development of better speech therapies. People who stammer also have a strong interest in understanding why they are the way they are and are growing community advocacy movements around the idea of neurodiversity. These advocacy groups will benefit as we learn just how diverse their brain can be.