SUMMARY

Physicians are often the first point of contact when children's speech begins to be disrupted by stuttering behaviors such as sound repetitions and prolongations. For this reason, we feel it is important that they are accurately informed with regards to the nature of stuttering and the available treatment options before making referrals to speech-language pathologists.

Until recently, intervention options for children and adults who stutter have generally been limited to behavioral therapies. These therapies usually consist of countless hours of speech retraining (teaching people ‘how to talk again’), while attempting to bring the disorder under voluntary control. The common end-results of these procedures include unnatural speech patterns that are difficult to maintain in all situations and highly prone to relapse, thus, reinforcing the notion that stuttering is highly resistant to treatment.