Is your child stuttering?
By Henrylito D. Tacio

NO one knows -- not even science -- what causes stuttering. "Our best guess is that it is due to a combination of psychological, neurological and genetic factors," says Dr. Barry Guitar, American professor of communication science and disorders at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

But they do know that it is habit forming and is usually related to stress, according to Dr. Martin F. Schwartz, executive director of the U.S. National Center for Stuttering in New York City.

When a child is learning to speak, or when an adult has to speak in stressful situations (before a large audience, for instance), the stress focuses tension on the vocal cords, closing and locking them. The person struggles to speak but can't do so easily: The struggle becomes a stutter.

"The Book of Lists" enumerated 14 famous stutters. Most of them beat this speech disorder. Let's start with film actor Bruce Willis. He began stuttering at th ... Read more »