Behavioural, emotional and social development of children who stutter

Abstract

Purpose: Developmental stuttering may be associated with diminished psychological wellbeing which has been documented from late childhood onwards. It is important to establish the point at which behavioural, emotional and social problems emerge in children who stutter. Methods:The study used data from the Millennium Cohort Study, whose initial cohort comprised 18,818 children. Analysis involved data collected when the cohort members were 3, 5 and 11 years old. The association between parent-reported stuttering and performance on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was determined in regression analyses which controlled for cohort members' sex, verbal and non-verbal abilities, maternal education, and family economic status. Results:Compared with typically-developing children, those who stuttered had significantly higher Total Difficulties scores at all three ages; in addition, scores on all of the sub-scales for 5-year-olds who stuttered indicated poorer development than their peers, and 11-year-olds who stuttered had poorer development than peers in all areas except prosocial skills. At ages 5 and 11, those who stuttered were more likely than peers to have scores indicating cause for clinical concern in almost all areas. Conclusion:Children who stutter may begin to show impaired behavioural, emotional and social development as early as age 3, and these difficulties are well established in older children who stutter. Parents and practitioners need to be aware of the possibility of these difficulties and intervention needs to be provided in a timely fashion to such difficulties in childhood and to prevent the potential development of serious mental health difficulties later in life.

After the RESTART trial: six guidelines for clinical trials of early stuttering intervention

“…A report from the United States National Health Interview Survey (Briley et al . ) used a short version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (National Center for Health Statistics ) and provided results consistent with McAllister (), showing differences between the groups at 4–5 years old.…”

“…However, two cohort reports of children whose parents reported stuttering provided conflicting results. For the British Millennium Cohort (McAllister 2016) there were elevated psychological scores at 3 years of age for stuttering pre-schoolers compared with controls. A report from the United States National Health Interview Survey (Briley et al 2018) used a short version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (National Center for Health Statistics 2003) and provided results consistent with McAllister (2016), showing differences between the groups at 4-5 years old.…”

“…However, two cohort reports of children whose parents reported stuttering provided conflicting results. For the British Millennium Cohort (McAllister ) there were elevated psychological scores at 3 years of age for stuttering pre‐schoolers compared with controls. A report from the United States National Health Interview Survey (Briley et al .…”

Daily Emotions and Stuttering: What Is the Relation?

“…A number of studies have examined emotional factors in developmental stuttering [1][2][3]. Many developmental factors have been investigated with cross-sectional designs [e.g., 4,5], in which children who stutter (CWS) are compared to children who do not stutter (CWNS).…”

O efeito da emoção na taxa de articulação em crianças com gagueira persistente e recuperada

“…Tais achados corroboram o fato de que, diante de situações emocionais negativas há comumente piora na fluência, enquanto que em contextos emocionais positivos a fala tende a ser mais fluente, algo tipicamente observado em pessoas que gaguejam. Dessa forma, a fluência se mostra vulnerável aos influxos emocionais, aspecto que tem sido observado desde a infância, visto que crianças com gagueira podem começar a apresentar comprometimento do desenvolvimento comportamental, emocional e social desde os três anos de idade 6 . Como demonstrado em outro estudo 7 , em resposta a imagens desagradáveis, as CGP tendem a apresentar atividades cerebrais diferentes, quando comparadas aos seus pares, evidenciando amplitudes eletrofisiológicas significativamente maiores de potenciais positivos tardios.…”