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Condition

Stuttering is a speech disorder characterized by an inability to sustain fluency of speech. The disorder affects nearly 3 million Americans, or 1 percent of the population. It typically runs in families and affects more men than women. Signs of stuttering tend to emerge in early childhood when language first develops.

Stuttering Symptoms:
• Frequent pauses
• Repetitions of word or phrases
• Prolonged syllables
• Face or upper body twitches while struggling to pronounce words correctly

Services

Located on the third floor of the UC Irvine Neuropsychiatric Center, the Kirkup Center for the Medical Treatment of Stuttering at UC Irvine treats children, adolescents and adults who stutter. At the center, patients receive a unique combination of services grounded in the latest scientific research and medical advancements. There is no cure for stuttering, but medications can significantly reduce the symptoms of stuttering.

Staffed by world-class medical experts in stuttering, the center is first in the world dedicated to improving speech fluency primarily using pharmacologic methods. The center also works closely with speech language pathologists in providing speech therapy which can be effective for reducing stuttering severity.