Young children's family history of stuttering and their articulation, language and attentional abilities: An exploratory study.

The sample was small, especially the 25 children who stuttered, so null findings may reflect limited power rather than no effect. The study was exploratory and did not adjust for multiple statistical tests, so some positive findings could be chance. Family history came mainly from one caregiver and was not verified by genetic testing or multiple informants, so false-positive or false-negative reports are possible. Children were excluded if caregiver reports were inconsistent across 16 months, which lowered the positive family history percentage; adding those children back raised it to 42.4% among children who stuttered. The children who stuttered group had many more boys than girls, so gender imbalance may affect comparisons. Recruitment may have attracted caregivers of children who do not stutter because of family history concerns, which could inflate positive family history in that group. The study did not measure genetic or environmental causes, so it cannot show why family history relates to language or attention. The language difference was found in a normal-range sample, so it does not indicate a language disorder.

The paper is tagged as supported by NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support. No author conflict-of-interest declaration appears in the supplied text.

Do not read a positive family history of stuttering as identifying children who will stutter. The CWS and CWNS groups did not differ significantly. The language finding was within a normal-range sample and is exploratory, not a tested predictor.