Studies Show Stuttering Has Complex, Interrelated Roots

When the Academy Awards show airs on Sunday, Texas speech therapist Lana Dodgen will be rooting for “The King’s Speech,” up for a dozen Oscars for its depiction of British King George VI’s struggle with stuttering.

Ms. Dodgen, who runs the Mesquite Independent School District’s chapter of the National Stuttering Association ’s children’s-support group, said she and other advocates hope the film will bring awareness to stuttering the way “Rain Man” did to autism. The movie has already drawn broad interest in the disorder, which affects about 5 percent of preschoolers at some point in their language development and leaves 1 percent, or more than 3 million Americans, permanently struggling to speak.

Yet new findings discussed at a research symposium on stuttering, held in Washington on Sunday, Feb. 20, during the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, suggest educators are just beginning to understand the interconnected...