A hunt's underway for 1000 New Zealanders with a very specific profile.
The University of Otago wants to recruit stutterers for a major international study.
Seven Sharp’s Carolyn Robinson met a Kiwi mum who's welcoming that news.
Laura Quin’s three children have end word disfluency.
"They cut off the ends of their words so they might say something like, ‘Can I bring-ing-ing something to school?'” Quin told Seven Sharp.
Just what causes that "bumpy talking" is at the heart of a significant international study that will hunt for the genes responsible for stuttering.
"My grandfather passed away before I was born, but he stuttered. And his son, my dad, stutters as well - he has quite a pronounced stammer.
"That doesn't just happen randomly. There must be a genetic link," Quin said.
Otago University's leading the New Zealand arm of the research and has found three candidates to study in the Quin children.
According to a speech therapist, 70 per cent of people who stutter will have a family member who stutters.
Well known stutterers include musician Ed Sheeran, actress Emily Blunt and US President-elect Joe Biden.
They're high-achievers who've shown the speech disorder is no barrier to success.
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