We are often asked whether a child's stammer could have been caused by a trauma or an upset in the family. There is no research evidence that this can happen, but there are many anecdotes linking stammering to all sorts of events. For example a new baby, starting school or nursery, being told off, an illness, an accident, etc. While these incidents are obviously important, they are also events that occur in the lives of many families, often with no obvious consequences for a child's fluency.
It seems more likely from our clinical experience that, while these important events may have happened at the same time as the child was beginning to stammer, these may have been a trigger for a child whose speech was already vulnerable and may not be the cause of the problem.
Personality
It is often assumed that people who stammer are shy or nervous. In actual fact this is not true. Children and adults who stammer have exactly the same range of personality types as everyone else. However, stammering can affect a person's self-esteem and confidence in some situations - shyness or reticence may be the result of the stammering.
Many parents tell us that their child can be a bit sensitive, or a worrier or a perfectionist (characteristics of lots of children!), and it may be that while these traits do not cause the stammer, a child is more sensitive to their stammering and more aware of the difficulties and mistakes.
Conversely, a child who is more laid-back and relaxed about life may not be so affected by moments of hesitancy or bumpy talking.
While it is clearly important to try to find the origins of stammering, it is probably more important to consider issues that may affect recovery from the problem and whether there are other factors which influence the continuation of the stammering.
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