LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) — Not every child who stutters struggles the same way, and Michigan State University researchers want to know why.

The effort is backed by a $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will span five years at MSU’s Developmental Speech Laboratory.

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Researchers say while stuttering is often treated as a single condition, children experience it very differently. Some move through it with limited disruption, while others face lasting social, emotional, or academic challenges. The study aims to pinpoint what makes the difference.

“We don’t yet understand how the negative effects of stuttering develop in children,” Bridget Walsh, an associate professor in MSU’s Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, said. 

The project will examine a range of factors that may influence outcomes, including a child’s environment, personal characteristics, and the support systems around them. Researchers say identifying those risk and protective factors could help clinicians step in earlier, before stuttering leads to long-term setbacks.

The new study follows earlier federally funded work that examined how stuttering first emerges in early childhood. This phase shifts the focus to impact, asking why similar speech patterns can lead to very different life experiences.