An observational study in Stuttering, Stuttering, Childhood and Stuttering, Developmental, sponsored by Michigan State University. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 3 Years to 6 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-10.
Sponsored by Michigan State University · Observational
The goal of this longitudinal research is to learn why some children "grow out" of stuttering, while others persist. Children who do and do not stutter aged 3-6 years are eligible to participate in our study. During the study, children's speech and language abilities will be assessed with standardized assessments, and they complete several child-friendly experiments. During these experiments, brain activity will be recorded using specialized caps while children describe pictures, children will speak in two virtual-reality scenarios, and produce speech while keeping to a beat.
The length of participation in our study depends on the subset of activities completed. Families in the longitudinal study will take part in three visits each lasting approximately 2 hrs for up to 5 years.
Parents and caregivers will complete parent questionnaires (1 x each year for up to 5 years) and a 5-minute, online survey in between visits to the lab (1x each year for up to 5 years). Children will take part in standardized and observational assessments (1x each year for up to 5 years). These may cover aspects of social/emotional development, cognition, and speech, language, and hearing abilities. These tests are used to assess whether a child falls within or outside of the normative range for his/her age.
Children will participate in one or more of the following tasks (1x each year for up to 5 years)
74 studies on the registry are indexed under Stuttering; 23 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 120 is above the median of 60 across 15 observational studies indexed under Stuttering.
Browse Stuttering studies →Michigan State University is the lead sponsor of 143 studies on the registry; 27 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Preschool children who do and do not stutter
Inclusion Criteria for controls:
Inclusion Criteria for children who stutter:
Preschool children who stutter aged 3 to 6-years
Diagnostic Test: Standardized assessments of speech and language abilities
Preschool children who do not stutter aged 4 to 6-years
Diagnostic Test: Standardized assessments of speech and language abilities
Standardized and observational assessment of speech and language abilities
Stuttering Severity
Assess speech for the presence of stuttering disfluencies and calculate the severity of stuttering based on parent ratings and calculated as the percentage of disfluent syllables out of the total syllables of speech produced.
Time frame: 1 x each year for up to 5 years
Virtual reality speaking scenarios
Record looking events in msec during virtual reality scenarios (classroom of children and kitten)
Time frame: 1 x each year for up to 5 years
Virtual reality speaking scenarios
Pulse oximetry measures will be taken with a photoplethysmograph transducer (Biopac TSD200) secured around the distal phalanx of the fourth finger of the child's non-dominant hand with a Velcro strap. Two measures will be analyzed. (1) Blood pulse volume (BPV) amplitude, the average trough-to-peak amplitude (in volts) of pulse cycles across segments where the child is producing speech and (2) Pulse rate (PR in pulses per minute ppm), will be recorded for each speech segment then averaged. These pulse oximetry measures will be taken during the viewing of virtual reality scenarios (classroom of children and kitten)
Time frame: 1 x each year for up to 5 years
Virtual reality speaking scenarios
Electrodermal (skin conductance) recordings will be collected from the hands while children are immersed in virtual reality speaking scenarios (classroom of children and kitten). We report skin conductance levels and skin conductance response frequency and amplitude in microSiemens (mS).
Time frame: 1 x each year for up to 5 years
EEG recording of event-related brain potentials
Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings of event-related brain potentials will be conducted during a picture identification task. ERPs will be averaged across conditions and reported in microvolts.
Time frame: 1 x each year for up to 5 years
Speech production synchronization
We record productions of a word spoken to the beat under different feedback conditions. We will assess timing measures reflecting the accuracy with which children synchronize their speech to the beat and retain the rhythm.
Time frame: 1 x each year for up to 5 years
fNIRS recording of cortical hemodynamic responses
Cerebral hemodynamic responses are recorded during the experiment with a continuous-wave fNIRS system (NIRx, Inc). The system uses LED light source optodes, and avalanche photodiode optode detectors for measuring intensity changes in the diffused light at a 10-Hz sampling rate. The optodes are embedded in a standard EEG cap. The concentrations of oxygenated hemoglobin and deoxygenated hemoglobin in micromols will be calculated across trial intervals as participants describe child-friendly picture scenes. These responses will then be averaged across trials for each child.
Time frame: 1 x each year for up to 5 years
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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