Hi u/nukefudge \- Thanks for your questions! \#1 is one of my favorite questions - and one that has the potential to really improve our understanding of stuttering. We know that stuttering varies - from time to time, day to day, situation to situation, listener to listener, etc. What we don't know is exactly why that is. We have some ideas about the factors that contribute to variability, but we can't fully predict when or why stuttering will happen in a particular situation or at a particular time. You asked if there is research going right now on it, and indeed there is! Here at Michigan State University, I have just started up a 5-year NIH-funded study specifically looking at the variability of stuttering. Our goal is not only to understand more about why stuttering varies but also to understand how we might better account for that variability in both assessment and treatment. The first paper from that research was actually just published last week! We found that the variability of stuttering is actually one of the most frustrating aspects of the condition for people who stutter. In fact, it was the SECOND most frustrating aspect of stuttering. (The first most frustrating aspect was the basic fact that the respondents in our study stuttered.) So, I agree with you that we need to know more about variability and what to do about it. For now, the best that we've got, I think, is to help people who stutter learn to ride those waves up and down, to be able to tolerate the fluctuations, and to take advantage of them if they (e.g., during a time of more stuttering, it's a great opportunity to practice mindfulness and acceptance; during a time of less stuttering, it's an opportunity to reaffirm desensitization or even to practice strategies if the person wants to use them). It's far from a perfect response, but it's what we've got for now. We'll be looking for better explanations, both for people who stutter and for speech-language pathologists, through this research. Thanks for the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite topics! More soon on the second question.