ZAGREB, 22 Oct 2021 - An online seminar on stuttering, at which people who stutter, including Croatia's basketball great Dino Rađa, will speak about their experience, will be held on Friday, on the occasion of the International Stuttering Awareness Day.

This was announced by the Zagreb City Health Department, which recalls that despite decades of research, there is still no single answer as to the cause of stuttering.

However, a lot is known about factors in the field of genetics (60% of persons who stutter have another family member who stutters), neurophysiology (results of neurological research show that persons who stutter process speech and language slightly differently than persons who do not stutter), child development (children with other speech problems or speech development delays are at greater risk of stuttering), and family dynamics (high expectations and the fast pace of life) that contribute to the development of stuttering.

Stuttering most frequently begins at pre-school age, and five percent of all children go through a period of stuttering in the duration of at least six months.

Until late childhood three in four children stop stuttering, some children have spontaneous remission with timely counselling of parents and care takers (indirect speech therapy), and some children require direct speech therapy. In one percent of children stuttering remains a long-lasting problem, the City Health Department says.

Stuttering affects men three to four times more often than women, even though the ratio in children is 2:1.

Stuttering can result in emotional and social problems that extend throughout one's life.

The City Health Department therefore supports a number of activities that raise awareness, educate and inform citizens about stuttering in order to remove the stigma on that disorder and the frequent discrimination of persons who stutter.

One percent of adults, or 70 million people globally, stutter, the best prevention being early speech therapy.

This year's International Stuttering Awareness Day is marked under the slogan "Speak the change you wish to see" and in Croatia its observance is organised by the Zagreb Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, the Zagreb City Health Department and the Croatian Association of Speech Therapists.

The day has been observed worldwide since 1998 thanks to American Michael Sugerman, who wanted the lack of information about that communication disorder and the frequent discrimination of persons who stutter to be replaced with knowledge, acceptance and respect for human differences.

The Croatian parliament in 2009 named 22 October Stuttering Awareness Day at the proposal of the Hinko Freund association, which helps persons who stutter.

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