Stammering: when your voice becomes a target – the challenge of ‘voice shaming’

World Stammering Awareness Day invites us to look beyond the stutters and hesitations in speech — the visible surface of a developmental disorder that affects up to 10 per cent of children. Stammering is not, in fact, merely a difficulty in articulating words fluently, but a complex condition whose greatest burden lies in the emotional, relational and social impact that accompanies it.

In a recent study published in Frontiers in Social Psychology, conducted on 110 children and adolescents aged between 7 and 16, we sought to define and measure a specific phenomenon for the first time: voice shaming. This is a distinct form of victimisation that specifically targets the voice and verbal fluency.

The findings paint a picture of great clinical and social significance. 70.9 per cent of children and young people reported having experienced at least one episode of voice shaming in their lives, a figure confirmed by 66.4 per cent of parents. The average age of onset is around 9 years. The most common form of bullying is mocking vocal mimicry, reported by 82.1 per cent of children, followed by derisive looks and laughter (46.2 per cent) and negative comments (34.6 per cent). School is the main setting for these incidents (80.8 per cent), and the perpetrators are almost exclusively classmates and peers known to the victim (92.3 per cent).

Unlike traditional bullying, which is defined in the literature by its repetitive and ongoing nature, ‘voice shaming’ reveals what we call a ‘threshold effect’. Although 71.8 per cent of young people describe such incidents as rare (having occurred once or twice in their lives), the psychological impact is immediate and profound. A single instance of ridicule is enough to prompt 39.7 per cent of young people to change the way they speak in order to avoid being mocked, and 29.5 per cent to stop taking part in games or group activities. Parents observe changes in mood in 69.9 per cent of cases (sadness 43.1 per cent, anxiety and irritability), noting a direct negative impact on their child’s self-esteem in 94.5 per cent of cases.

Whilst 97.3 per cent of parents take concrete action to offer support and emotional guidance, schools have only taken specific measures in 19.2 per cent of cases. This disparity shows that voice imitation is still far too often underestimated or dismissed as a mere ‘joke’. To safeguard the wellbeing and future relationships of our young people, it is urgent that the protection of communicative diversity be integrated into anti-bullying programmes and teacher training. The voice is the primary vehicle of identity: ensuring that every child has the right to express themselves without fear must become a priority for schools and for society as a whole.