Editing Stuttering (section)

==Epidemiology==
The lifetime [[prevalence]], or the proportion of individuals expected to stutter at one time in their lives, is about 5–6%,<ref name="Mansson2000">{{cite journal |last1=Månsson |first1=Hans |title=Childhood stuttering |journal=Journal of Fluency Disorders |date=March 2000 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=47–57 |doi=10.1016/S0094-730X(99)00023-6 }}</ref> and overall males are affected two to five times more often than females.<ref name="Yairi96">{{cite journal |last1=Yairi |first1=Ehud |last2=Ambrose |first2=Nicoline |last3=Cox |first3=Nancy |title=Genetics of Stuttering: A Critical Review |journal=Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research |date=August 1996 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=771–784 |doi=10.1044/jshr.3904.771 |pmid=8844557 }}</ref><ref name="fn 28">{{cite journal |last1=Kloth |first1=S.A.M. |last2=Janssen |first2=P. |last3=Kraaimaat |first3=F.W. |last4=Brutten |first4=G.J. |title=Speech-motor and linguistic skills of young stutterers prior to onset |journal=Journal of Fluency Disorders |date=June 1995 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=157–170 |doi=10.1016/0094-730X(94)00022-L |hdl=2066/21168 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> As seen in children who have just begun stuttering, there is an equivalent number of boys and girls who stutter. Still, the sex ratio appears to widen as children grow: among preschoolers, boys who stutter outnumber girls who stutter by about a two to one ratio, or less.<ref name="fn 28"/> This ratio widens to three to one during first grade, and five to one during fifth grade,<ref>{{harvnb|Guitar|2005|p= 22}}</ref> as girls have higher recovery rates.<ref name="Ward16"/><ref name="Yairi99">{{cite journal |last1=Yairi |first1=Ehud |last2=Ambrose |first2=Nicoline Grinager |title=Early Childhood Stuttering I: Persistency and Recovery Rates |journal=Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research |date=October 1999 |volume=42 |issue=5 |pages=1097–1112 |doi=10.1044/jslhr.4205.1097 |pmid=10515508 }}</ref> the overall prevalence of stuttering is generally considered to be approximately 1%.<ref name="Craig">{{cite journal |last1=Craig |first1=Ashley |last2=Hancock |first2=Karen |last3=Tran |first3=Yvonne |last4=Craig |first4=Magali |last5=Peters |first5=Karen |title=Epidemiology of Stuttering in the Community Across the Entire Life Span |journal=Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research |date=December 2002 |volume=45 |issue=6 |pages=1097–1105 |doi=10.1044/1092-4388(2002/088) |pmid=12546480 }}</ref>

===Cross cultural===
Cross-cultural studies of stuttering prevalence were very active in early and mid-20th century, particularly under the influence of the works of [[Wendell Johnson]], who claimed that the onset of stuttering was connected to the cultural expectations and the pressure put on young children by anxious parents, which has since been debunked. Later studies found that this claim was not supported by the facts, so the influence of cultural factors in stuttering research declined. It is generally accepted by contemporary scholars that stuttering is present in every culture and in every race, although the attitude towards the actual prevalence differs. Some believe stuttering occurs in all cultures and races at similar rates, about 1% of general population (and is about 5% among young children) all around the world.<ref name="Guitar5–6"/><ref name="craig2005"/> A US-based study indicated that there were no racial or ethnic differences in the incidence of stuttering in preschool children.<ref name="Proctor">{{cite journal |last1=Proctor |first1=A |last2=Duff |first2=M |last3=Yairi |first3=E |title=Early childhood stuttering: African Americans and European Americans |journal=ASHA Leader |date=2002 |volume=4 |issue=15 |pages=102 |url=https://www.sid.ir/paper/661746/en }}</ref><ref name="Yairi2005">{{cite book |last1=Yairi |first1=Ehud |last2=Ambrose |first2=Nicoline G. |title=Early Childhood Stuttering |date=2004 |publisher=Pro Ed |isbn=978-0-89079-985-7 }}{{pn|date=February 2025}}</ref>

Different regions of the world are researched unevenly. The largest number of studies has been conducted in European countries and in North America, where the experts agree on the mean estimate to be about 1% of the general population.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bloodstein |first=Oliver |title=A Handbook on Stuttering |date=1995 |publisher=Singular Pub. Group |location=San Diego}}{{isbn missing}}{{pn|date=February 2025}}{{Obsolete source|date=March 2024}}</ref> African populations, particularly from West Africa, might have the highest stuttering prevalence in the world—reaching in some populations 5%, 6% and even over 9%.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nwokah |first1=Evangeline E. |title=The imbalance of stuttering behavior in bilingual speakers |journal=Journal of Fluency Disorders |date=October 1988 |volume=13 |issue=5 |pages=357–373 |doi=10.1016/0094-730X(88)90004-6 }}</ref> Many regions of the world are not researched sufficiently, and for some major regions there are no prevalence studies at all.<ref name="reese">{{cite journal|author= Sheree Reese, [[Joseph Jordania]]|title= Stuttering in the Chinese population in some Southeast Asian countries: A preliminary investigation on attitude and incidence|journal= "Stuttering Awareness Day"; Minnesota State University, Mankato|year= 2001|url= http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad4/papers/reese2.html|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110606033525/http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad4/papers/reese2.html|archive-date= 2011-06-06}}</ref>

=== Bilingual stuttering ===

==== Identification ====
[[Bilingualism]] is the ability to speak two languages. Many bilingual people have been exposed to more than one language since birth and throughout childhood. Since language and culture are relatively fluid factors in a person's understanding and production of language, bilingualism may be a feature that impacts speech fluency. There are several ways during which stuttering may be noticed in bilingual children including the following.{{fact|date=February 2025}}

* The child is mixing vocabulary ([[code-mixing]]) from both languages in one sentence. This is a normal process that helps the child increase their skills in the weaker language, but may trigger a temporary increase in disfluency.<ref name="Stuttering and the Bilingual Child">{{Cite web|url=https://www.stutteringhelp.org/stuttering-and-bilingual-child|title=Stuttering and the Bilingual Child|website=Stuttering Foundation: A Nonprofit Organization Helping Those Who Stutter|date=6 May 2011 |access-date=2017-12-18|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926020934/http://www.stutteringhelp.org/stuttering-and-bilingual-child|archive-date=2017-09-26}}</ref>
* The child is having difficulty finding the correct word to express ideas resulting in an increase in normal speech disfluency.<ref name="Stuttering and the Bilingual Child"/>
* The child is having difficulty using grammatically complex sentences in one or both languages as compared to other children of the same age. Also, the child may make grammatical mistakes. Developing proficiency in both languages may be gradual, so development may be uneven between the two languages.<ref name="Stuttering and the Bilingual Child"/>

It was once believed that being bilingual would 'confuse' a child and cause stuttering, but research has debunked this myth.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kornisch |first1=Myriam |title=Bilinguals who stutter: A cognitive perspective |journal=Journal of Fluency Disorders |date=March 2021 |volume=67 |pages=105819 |doi=10.1016/j.jfludis.2020.105819 |pmid=33296800 }}</ref>

Stuttering may present differently depending on the languages the individual uses. For example, morphological and other linguistic differences between languages may make presentation of disfluency appear to be more or less depending on the individual case.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aAbPBQAAQBAJ&q=bilingual+stuttering+wiki&pg=PA362|title=Multilingual Aspects of Fluency Disorders|last1=Howell|first1=Peter|last2=Borsel|first2=John Van|date=2011|publisher=Multilingual Matters|isbn=978-1-84769-358-7}}</ref>