GENETICS OR NOT, --- THAT IS THE QUESTION??

Hello:

Recently I asked the assistant superintendent where my wife and I live, if he knew anyone who stuttered??   After a brief hesitation, he said that he himself stuttered when he was young.   If he had not admitted it, I would never have known.  He spoke with total fluency.

So how do those who believe that stuttering is genetic explain this situation?   Invariably they say that if it was truly genetic, then he would still be stuttering right now but since he is not, --- it wasn’t genetic to begin with.

Then the question becomes, --- what was it that caused his stuttering?   After all, if you are going to say that stuttering is genetic, shouldn’t you also know why it is not?  Their answer is that the cause of stuttering is unknown and this example fits into this scenario.

Isn’t it more than likely that the cause is distorted fear?   If in the future, the person achieves fluency, then they have, in their own way, overcome that fear, or the multitude of fears that stuttering can cause to happen inside the mind of a person who stutters.  

In the case of the above mentioned person who stuttered, bullying by others while he was young was definitely a factor in developing the stutter.   I am not sure how he developed the necessary hierarchal approach to fear that allowed him to overcome them.   At least in regard to those fears that caused the stuttering to start in the first place.

However, I will take an educated guess.   He told me that he did not read except perhaps the local newspapers now and then.   I think this forced him to decide that either he would become fluent or he would not have any other pertinent form of communication to fall back on.

It also allowed him to avoid getting into discussions where he was less than confident about his response.  Not reading gave him an “excuse” not to get too involved when he was in the stuttering stage.

It is my unequivocal belief that the above ideas are much closer to the truth than trying to invoke the genetic principle to explain this stuttering problem, or for that matter, stuttering in general.   It is my hope that you will agree with me in this matter, which I believe should be considered self-evident.