Stuttering and ADHD

There have been many different thoughts on the cause of stuttering. One of them, the possibility of genetic factors involved has received a lot of attention recently. So there have been many studies on that recently and it has shown that stuttering often runs in families and that about 70% of the variance in liability to stutter can be accounted for through inheritable factors.

I myself however, cannot say that it runs in my family save for an uncle who has a little bit of it. For some people who have no family history of stuttering, it has been said that congenital factors and early neurological incidents might have contributed to their problem. With the possibility of neurological factors involved, adults stutterers who have no apparent genetic causes seem to be more likely to have increased ADHD(Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) characterictics.

Though much further research needs to be done on the subject before we can be sure of anything, reports suggest that the presence of ADHD among children who stutter is much higher than in the general population. Because of this, researchers and pathologists are getting ready to look deeper into this and prepare for strategies to better help people with stuttering and ADHD or ADHD characteristics.

ADHD and it's characteristics can have big impact on the effectiveness of therapy on a child. They may find it difficult to moniter their behaviors in real life, especially under pressure. These kids will have trouble monitering their speech and make the necessary corrections despite the fact that they may know exactly what to do. This has been mistaken for not wanting to use the strategies or lack of motivation.

There is also the question of pharmacutecals. The most common treatment of ADHD is the use of drugs. If the person has ADHD and stuttering, we must be careful of what kind of effects the drugs have on the stuttering because there is the very real possibility that certain drugs increase stuttering. Then there are ways to find out if the medicine can be changed.

So basically, even though we cannot be fully sure of the connections between ADHD and stuttering, the possibility is too big to ignore and I'm sure there certainly are many people with both conditions. Pathologishts, parents and stutterers should be aware of this issue.


1. Healey, E., C., & Reid, R. (2003). Tutorial on Stuttering and ADHD. Journal of Fluency Disorders. Volume 28, Number 2.

2. Felsenfeld, S., Kirk, K.M., Zhu, G., Statham, D.J., Neale, M.C., & Martin, N.G. (2000). A study of the genetic and environmental etiology of stuttering in a selected twin sample. Behavioral Genetics. Sep;30(5):359-66.

3. Yairi, E., Ambrose, N., & Cox N. (1996). Genetics of stuttering: a critical review. Journal of Speech, Language, Hearing Research. Aug;39(4):771-84.