Temperament, Emotion, and Childhood Stuttering

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide a brief description of temperament and emotion, review empirical evidence pertaining to their possible association with childhood stuttering, and discuss possible clinical implications. In general, temperament is typically thought of as an individual's constitutionally (biologically) based behavioral proclivities. These proclivities often include emotional reactivity and self-regulation. Reactivity refers to arousal of emotions, motor activity, and attention, and self-regulation refers to the ability to moderate those tendencies. The trait-like nature of temperament makes it potentially salient to our understanding of the onset and development of stuttering because temperamental tendencies may result in greater reactivity or difficulty in coping. Emotions, which are more state-like and variable, may influence the variation of stuttering commonly observed both within and between speaking situations. Temperament and emotion may serve as a causal contributor to developmental stuttering, with empirical findings indicating that preschool-aged children who stutter (CWS) exhibit differences in temperament and emotion when compared with children who do not stutter (CWNS). Given that empirical study of temperament in preschool-aged CWS is nascent, extensive discussion of clinical implications is challenging. With that caution, we present some early possibilities, including matching treatment approaches with the child's temperamental profile and using temperament as a predictor of treatment outcome.

Executive Functions Impact the Relation Between Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Frequency of Stuttering in Young Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter

“…Recently, several empirical investigations have studied differences in temperament and emotions between children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS), as well as the impact of emotional processes on stuttering frequency (e.g., Eggers, De Nil, & Van den Bergh, 2010;Jones, Buhr, et al, 2014;Karrass et al, 2006;Walden et al, 2012). Reviews of these studies (Conture, Kelly, & Walden, 2013;Jones, Choi, Conture, & Walden, 2014;Kefalianos, Onslow, Block, Menzies, & Reilly, 2012) suggest that there is an association between aspects of emotion and childhood stuttering. For example, CWS, compared to CWNS, exhibit: (a) less adaptability (e.g., Anderson, Pellowski, Conture, & Kelly, 2003;Schwenk, Conture, & Walden, 2007) and (b) more negative affect/mood (e.g., Ntourou, Conture, & Walden, 2013).…”

“…Comparatively less decrease, maintenance, or increase of RSA during speaking tasks may index a greater degree of emotion regulation and hence facilitate an individual's ability to engage in social communication as well as increase and/or maintain speech fluency. Children who stutter, when compared to their CWNS peers, exhibit greater emotion reactivity and lower regulation as indexed by caregiver report and behavioral (for review, see Jones, Choi, et al, 2014) and physiological measures (e.g., lower baseline RSA; Jones, Buhr, et al, 2014). Thus, it is quite possible that CWS, relative to CWNS, are at higher risk of initiating and/or maintaining a physiological response that is less supportive of fluent speech-language and more supportive of an emotionally reactive, fight/flight response.…”

Self-perceived competence and social acceptance of young children who stutter: Initial findings

“…We are informed by the literature on young children's awareness of stuttering (Ambrose & Yairi, 1994; Boey, Van de Heyning, Wuyts, Heylen, Stoop, & Reinhard, 2009; Ezrati-Vinacour, Platzky, & Yairi, 2001), their development of negative communicative attitudes as a result of stuttering (Vanryckeghem, Brutten, & Hernandez, 2005), and their temperaments which account for individual differences in their reactivity and regulation (review in Jones, Choi, Conture, & Walden, 2014). Together, this empirical base illuminates potential connections between perceived competence, perceived social acceptance, and stuttering.…”

“…Children with high self-regulatory abilities tend to have high-quality social interactions, resilience when faced with adversity, and high academic achievement (Eisenberg, et al, 1997; Masten & Coatsworth, 1998; Rubin, Coplan, Fox, & Calkins, 1995). Importantly, extant research on the temperament characteristics of CWS have identified that CWS tend to have greater negative affect, differences in attentional processes, and lower adaptability than typically fluent peers (review in Jones, Choi, Conture, & Walden, 2014). Given that high self-regulatory abilities are associated with high achievement and competence, and that CWS, as a group, tend to demonstrate low self-regulatory abilities, it seems reasonable to speculate that CWS may be at risk for low perceived competence when compared to their typically fluent peers.…”

Developmental Stuttering in Children Who Are Hard of Hearing

“…However, no single variable provides predictive ability to differentiate at the individual level that children will or will not recover from stuttering. At present, the data suggest that these factors should be viewed as potential risk factors and should be weighed together with other potential factors like language dissociations (Anderson, Pellowski, & Conture, 2005;Clark, Conture, Walden, & Lambert, 2015;Coulter, Anderson, & Conture, 2009), family history of stuttering (Kraft & Yairi, 2012), and the goodness of fit between temperament and environmental contexts Jones, Choi, Conture, & Walden, 2014).…”