APA Dictionary of Psychology

deficits in the fluency and time patterning of speech for the individual's age and language skills, characterized by speech features including repetitions of sounds or syllables, broken words, filled or unfilled pauses, circumlocutions, and monosyllabic whole-word repetitions. Onset of symptoms is usually in the early developmental period, and the condition causes anxiety about speaking or limits effective communication. Childhood-onset fluency disorder is the diagnostic term for stuttering in DSM-5 and DSM-5-TR.