Research says onset during early childhood it is genetic and portions of your left side of the brain are used less when people who stutter speak...instead we use the right side of our brain. While that could be the case with me, I still wonder. I have a big family and lots of siblings....such as my dad was one of 13 children and each of those aunt and uncles had around 4 children. No one in my family on either side had a stutter or any speech impairment. My stutter began when I was young like most, but it was right around when my mom remarried and my step-father was an alcoholic and verbally abusive. While I have forgiven my step-father and no longer afraid of him, he did not change till after I left for college and i still stutter. So maybe mine is trauma based even though research is going away from that.