MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Jan. 1, 2007) — Cutting the tongue and stuffing a dishtowel in a child’s mouth were two ways people treated stuttering just a few decades ago.

We’ve come a long way since the Stuttering Foundation started shattering misconceptions about this mysterious disorder 60 years ago.

Today, we know that people who stutter are just as smart as those who don’t, that early intervention in children is the best way to prevent stuttering, and that there is some preliminary evidence that stuttering is genetic. Some have suggested that stuttering isn’t a very common problem. However, one percent of the world’s population stutters, including more than 3 million Americans.

“It wasn’t such a long time ago that parents were told to remain hands off when their child began to stutter,” says Foundation President Jane Fraser.“We now know that early intervention with very young children offers the real key to prevention. This represents a huge change in thinking about the way we tackle the problem in 2007.”

For 60 years, the Foundation has trained clinicians and published authoritative books and videos for speech therapists and the general public.

In the 1940s, founder Malcolm Fraser was told that stuttering was “all in his head.” However, current research indicates that there are true physiological differences between those who stutter and those who don’t.

People have long suspected that stuttering ran in families, but thanks to recent genetic research, we now know this for a fact. Dr. Dennis Drayna of the NIDCD suggests that genes play a role in as many as 50% of all people who stutter.

“While the Foundation’s ultimate hope during the past 60 years has been to find a cure, its focus and energies are devoted to providing real help today for people of all ages,” emphasizes Fraser.

For more information and local resources for all 50 states and worldwide, visit the Stuttering Foundation’s Web site atwww.stutteringhelp.org or call 800-992-9392.