Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The history of stuttering

Here are a few questions for you to think about:

1) Who was the first stutterer?

2) Who was the first fluent speaker?

3) Did the ratio of stuttering versus fluent people change over the course of history?

4) Does stuttering affect your probability of having off-spring?

5 comments:

Einar said...

1) Barney Rubble ;-)
2) Fred Flintstone...
3)Interesting question... Hmm, I´d say that the percentage of "official" stutterers has rather increases over time, as being eloquent and fluent was probably less of an issue in veryancient times... We´re living in the communication age afterall...
4)Hm... As stuttering still has a rather negative reputation generally, my guess is that yes it makes it less likely to create offspring...

Anonymous said...

On Point 3) There doesn't necessarily need to be any talking to get down to make babies!

Tom Weidig said...

I agree no talking DURING the babies are made, but UNFORTUNATELY a lot of talking needs to be done BEFORE the babies are made!

Rae Ann said...

1. the first baby? most babies seem to stutter when first learning to use their mouths to make sounds

2. no idea

3. probably hasn't changed over time

4. probably not. there are so many other factors involved.

Carl Herder said...

Greetings Tom from New York!

1) I agree, Barnie Rubble
2) Yoda
3) I would guess that the prevalence of stuttering has not decreased or increased over time, but rather fluctuated throughout time. I wouldn't think that its always been the same.
4) Last, I would guess that stuttering may affect one's ability to create offspring earlier in life more than later.