Rethinking Early Stuttering Support: What Parent-Child Interactions Really Tell Us

For decades, parents of young children who stutter have been given familiar but unhelpful tips: slow down your speech, pause more, ask fewer questions, and simplify what you say. These suggestions appear everywhere—from clinic handouts to online forums—and are usually offered with the best intentions. 

But do they actually make a difference?

Nan Bernstein Ratner

Nan Bernstein Ratner, distinguished researcher and recipient of the National Stuttering Association’s (NSA) 2022 CASE Research Grant, set out to examine just that. Her project asked a simple yet critical question: Do commonly recommended strategies for parents influence whether a child’s stuttering resolves or persists? 

“Our findings did not support any of these recommendations,” Dr. Bernstein Ratner said. “Parental speech rate, turn-taking, questioning and language sophistication did not differ between parent-child interactions with children who stutter/didn’t stutter, or those who did/did not recover.”

Revisiting Data from Families 

Dr. Bernstein Ratner’s team analyzed archival recordings from a large federally funded study of 80 families, tracking parent-child interactions over three years. The children included those who stuttered and recovered, those whose stuttering persisted, and children who never stuttered. Every interaction was transcribed and made available through FluencyBank, an open-access research database.

Using computer-assisted analysis, Dr. Bernstein Ratner’s team examined key aspects of parent speech: rate, turn-taking, number of questions, and language complexity. The goal was to see whether these factors influenced stuttering outcomes. 

“We were able to examine typical components of advice to parents of children who stutter… and determine whether any of these variables appeared to play a role in distinguishing among groups of children, or predicting which children recovered from stuttering, and which did not,” Dr. Bernstein Ratner said.

Surprising Insights: What the Research Revealed

The results challenged decades of conventional wisdom. None of the commonly recommended changes—speaking more slowly, pausing more, reducing questions, simplifying language—distinguished between children who recovered, persisted, or never stuttered. Parents naturally interacted with their kids in very similar ways across all groups.

“This was surprising,” Dr. Bernstein Ratner said, “in light of the long-standing nature of recommendations to parents of children who stutter, dating back many decades.” She notes that even what seem to be simple and benign recommendations can unintentionally create guilt or frustration if they don’t appear to change a child’s stuttering.

Why This Changes How We Think About Early Intervention

The findings point to a bigger question: are we focusing too much on reducing stuttering itself, rather than supporting children and families in meaningful ways?

“If interventions solely aimed at symptoms do NOT substantially change persistence outcomes, we will need to substantially change the focus of our early work with families,” Dr. Bernstein Ratner explained. “Such work would better address managing the impacts of stuttering, rather than the stuttering itself.”

Other developmental conditions—like seizure disorders, allergies, tics, and late talking—prioritize management and quality of life over “cure.” Stuttering research may need a similar approach, emphasizing connection, confidence, and coping skills rather than just fluency.

Sparking New Research and Conversations in the Field

Dr. Bernstein Ratner’s work is already influencing the field. Findings have been published in leading journals, presented at international conferences, and shared with professional communities and families. 

“Our results suggest the urgent need for prospective research to validate recommendations that are made to parents of children who stutter,” Dr. Bernstein Ratner said. 

The team continues to explore later years of the dataset and is preparing proposals for new federally funded research. Their next big question: Do early interventions aimed only at reducing stuttering frequency meaningfully change long-term outcomes?

What Families and Professionals Can Take Away

This research reassures families that everyday parenting behaviors are not responsible for a child’s stuttering. 

“Even what seem to be simple and benign recommendations… can have undesirable consequences (guilt, frustration) if they do not appear to change a child’s stuttering profile,” Dr. Bernstein Ratner says. 

More importantly, it encourages a shift toward interventions and support strategies that focus on well-being, communication confidence, and quality of life—goals that matter far beyond fluency.

Hear directly from Dr. Bernstein Ratner in her interview with us at this year’s American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) Conference