• Question: Hi, I was just wondering what causes speech impediments? If everybody’s biology is the same why do some people have lisps or stammers?

    Asked by to Suzanne, Sophie, Nadine, Ioannis, Daniel, Carolyn, Alyssa on 8 Jan 2018. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Sophie Scott

      Sophie Scott answered on 8 Jan 2018:

      There’s probably not one single reason – sometimes it’s to do with anatomy (e.g. having one paralysed vocal cord can make your voice sound very ‘different’). More commonly there are brain systems implicated – for example in stammering – and sometimes there are genetic issues (for example some spoken language disorders have a hereditary component), which will likely still be having it’s effects in the brain.

Comments

  • Photo: Wendy

    Wendy commented on :

    Biology is the same for all of us, but it acts differently on each of us, and we see that in the many differences in personal characteristics people show – hair color, height, how fast we can run all are influenced by our individual genes as well as the circumstances in which we live and the training we get. Speech impediments are no different; they happen for all sorts of reasons, as Sophie Scott indicated above.

  • Photo: 15imranl

    15imranl commented on :

    Thanks !