For most people, ordering a pizza is simple: You pick up the telephone and place the order.

For people who stutter, it is much more difficult. Afraid of stammering on the phone, they find it easier to drive to the restaurant and order in person.

Many people who stutter find they stutter more on the phone, said Bill Murphy, a clinical supervisor in speech language pathology at Purdue University.

He became interested in speech pathology and the treatment of stuttering "because I stutter, too. I used to be a very severe stutterer, and over the years have learned how to really smooth my speech out."

Murphy explained that speech hesitation is called disfluency.

"Everybody has disfluent speech, but stuttering is different. Stuttering is characterized by a speech breakdown that either has repetitions of sounds in it or it has a prolongation of a sound like repetition. Or it has what we call a stuttering block, where everything seems to shut down. So instead of repetition, he might say 'r-r' and no sound seems to come out," said Murphy.

What causes stuttering? There are no clear answers, but Murphy said researchers think stutterers' speech motor systems in the brain are not as coordinated.

"And so when you get under demands or pressures, you see a breakdown in speech," said Murphy. "We also know that stuttering runs in families."

About 1 percent of all Americans stutter -- that's about 3 million people, according to the Stuttering Foundation of America.

Almost 20 percent of children encounter disfluencies severe enough to concern their parents. Most stuttering begins in early childhood.

"And for reasons we're not entirely sure of yet, . . . they just have spontaneous recovery," said Murphy. "If that spontaneous recovery doesn't happen and they continue to stutter into first, second or third grade, then it starts to become a more permanent problem."

He said in later school years, three things usually worsen: the stuttering; negative feelings toward themselves; and strange movements tied to stuttering.

The stuttering can get worse with people tensing more and trying to push the words out. Sometimes, kids find that when they begin to stutter, nodding the head may temporarily stop it.

"And so nodding their head in stuttering becomes a habit. But pretty soon, it doesn't stop the stuttering, but it's still a habit.," Murphy said.

The result can be movements that worsen with time. This, in turn, can cause shame, embarrassment or nervousness and affect self-confidence.

"They start to develop some negative thoughts about themselves and stuttering, like, 'Oh, people will make fun of me,' " Murphy said.

While there is no overnight cure, therapy can help. A couple of speaking techniques can reduce the problem and "certainly make it smoother," he said.

The major technique used by therapists is asking clients not just to slow down their speech, but stretch out the sound they think they will stutter on. In effect, that breaks up the stuttering while not interfering too much with talking. A more difficult technique is to help the person work on their negative thoughts and feelings.

"What we do is we try to desensitize people to stuttering. By desensitizing, we help people lose their negative feelings and thoughts about stuttering. And we do it some surprising ways. You don't lose your fear of stuttering by trying to hide it and run away from it. You lose it by facing it."

Murphy and his colleagues also visit students' classrooms to talk about stuttering.

"If the kids are educated about stuttering, they're more likely not to tease you," said Murphy. "So by educating the class, we stop teasing, but we also help the person to quit. (We) help them to talk about their stuttering and quit running away from it."

Another technique therapists use is having groups of kids survey people on the street about stuttering, asking questions like, "I'm a person who stutters -- have you ever met anybody else who stutters? What do you think causes stuttering?"

Murphy said such surveys help kids to face the fact that they stutter and should not try to hide it.

Murphy and other therapists also help stutterers by letting them know they are not alone. Self-help groups such as Friends, the Association of Young People Who Stutter, and the National Stuttering Association offer forums for young stutterers to share their feelings and concerns.

"Most people who stutter think they're the only one who stutters. (We) let them know there are many other boys and girls and adults out there who stutter, and who are making good progress, and who have lots of friends.

"By doing this, we assure them that there is hope, that they can make changes, that they can end up doing whatever they want to do in their lives."

It is too early to say if there will ever be a cure for stuttering, but with new technology, researchers find out more every year. Researchers already know that parents do not cause stuttering in their children and nervousness does not provoke stuttering.

Some medications treat stuttering, but they do not help all people, Murphy said. They also can produce side effects that are worse than stuttering.

"What we first have to do is really try to figure out why people are stuttering. We see these brain differences, but why is that? What's causing that? If we eventually find that out, or we find it's a specific gene, then maybe at some point there may be something that can be done either medically or drugwise to prevent stuttering or make it a lot less severe," Murphy said.

"I think it's gonna be a long time yet before that happens because we just don't have the equipment yet to discover what we need to discover."

REPORTERS: Perri McKinley, 13, Sara Kritsch, 13, Abby Rivin, 13, Kaitlin Stallings, 13.

NEXT WEEK: Kids who stutter tell what it's like.

"We help people lose their negative feelings and thoughts about stuttering."

Bill Murphy, clinical supervisor at Purdue