Content analysis was undertaken of the case records of 61 children who stuttered who were attending a specialist centre for children who stutter. The subjects were divided into two groups, on the basis of family history of stuttering. Positive family histories of stuttering were reported for 44 children and 17 had negative family histories. The two groups were compared in terms of gender ratios, the age of onset and the type of onset (gradual vs. sudden) of stuttering. Those with positive family histories began stuttering earlier than those with no reported family history of stuttering, though this difference was not statistically significant. The type of onset of stuttering was not related to the presence or absence of a family history of stuttering. The findings are discussed in terms of the practicability of this method of data collection.

Early intervention in fluency disorders such as stammering is desirable but this depends on early referral of disfluent children to speech and language therapists. The willingness to refer young disfluent children depends on, among other things, the knowledge and attitudes of primary care practitioners who are likely to be the main sources of referral. A postal questionnaire survey was carried out of all general practitioners (GPs) and health visitors (HVs) in the area of the former Highland Community NHS Trust to elicit this information. The results indicated that these professionals were more likely to refer young disfluent children to speech and language therapy if they themselves had received some post-graduate training about this disorder. More GPs than HVs were uncertain about the natural history of the disorder and about whether young disfluent children should be enrolled for therapy. GPs were more inclined to believe that there were personality traits characteristic of those who stammer and they were also more influenced by waiting lists in their decisions about referral. It would seem that some primary care professionals may have beliefs about stammering which were acquired in their training and which have not been updated. Appropriate post-graduate training seems to increase referral numbers. Training programmes that meet the needs of primary care professionals should be supported and evaluated.

The relationship between grammatical complexity and fluency is uncertain. To further elucidate this relationship, we carried out a pilot study with two groups of eight children, with and without language impairment. These groups were then further subdivided into those who stuttered and those who did not stutter. Imitation and modelling tasks were given for three grammatical structures. These failed to display a relationship of language to fluency.