Effects of Childhood Stuttering on Attention Regulation in Emotionally Arousing Situations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between children's attention regulation and stuttering in three different emotionally arousing situations. Participants were 15 monolingual, Standard American English speaking, preschool children who stutter (CWS) and 17 monolingual Standard American English speaking, preschool children who do not stutter (CWNS) between the ages of 3; 0 (years; months) and 5; 7. All participants had speech, language, and hearing development within normal limits, with the exception of stuttering for CWS. Measures included two indices of attention regulation (i.e., looks away from the computer monitor and off-topic statements), that were observed during the first three minutes of a "book reading" narrative production task. This task occurred immediately after listening to a pre-recorded emotionally arousing background conversation (negative, positive, and neutral). It was predicted that children who stutter would less efficiently regulate their attention in a negative emotionally arousing situation. Main findings indicated that CWS take fewer looks away from the computer monitor than CWNS during the narrative task and that it initially takes CWS longer to first look away from the computer monitor than CWNS.Findings were taken to suggest that CWS fixate their attention on a stimulus and are less able to disengage when required and/or appropriate while CWNS have the ability to flexibly shift their attention away from the same stimulus, especially in a negative arousing situation.Emotional reactivity and emotion regulation have recently been main topics of interest in developmental psychology, but not until recently have they been linked with stuttering in young children.Children who stutter (CWS) when compared to children who do not stutter (CWNS) have been shown to be significantly more reactive, significantly less able to regulate their emotions, and have significantly poorer attention regulation (Conture, Walden, Graham, Arnold, Hartfield, Karrass, and Schwenk in press; Karrass, Walden, Conture, Graham, Arnold, Hartfield, and Schwenk in press).These results suggest that when preschool children who stutter experience their daily situational requirements, they display greater emotional reactivity along with an inability to flexibly control their attention and regulate their emotions. These challenges to the maintenance and regulation of emotional reactivity may exacerbate difficulties CWS have in establishing fluent speech and language, especially when they experience mistakes, disruptions or hesitations during their conversational speech and language. Nearly 5 percent of adults report having stuttered at some point in their lives, although 70-80 percent of those affected discontinue without treatment. Only 1 percent of children continue to stutter after six years of age but the academic, emotional, social, and vocational consequences are often severe in the short-, medium-as well as long-term aspects of the child's life, which is why it is important to determine which variables...

Efficacy of attention regulation in preschool-age children who stutter: A preliminary investigation

“…However, findings based on parent-reports (Anderson et al, 2003; Craig et al, 2003; Eggers et al, 2010; Embrechts et al, 2000; Felsenfeld et al, 2010; Karrass et al, 2006; Vanryckeghem et al, 2001; Wakaba et al, 1998), behavioral observations of young (Bush, 2006; Johnson et al, 2010; Karrass et al, 2006; Schwenk et al, 2007) and older preschool-age children (Eggers et al, 2012) as well as attention regulatory abilities of adults (Bosshardt, 1999, 2006; Bosshardt et al, 2002; Heitmann et al, 2004; Smits Bandstra et al, 2006) contradict this conclusion. It is more than likely the case that the affect manipulation associated with the cueing task, as used in the present study, did not provide a substantial amount of arousal to influence affect-related reaction times.…”

“…Findings based on parent-report have suggested that CWS, when compared to CWNS, exhibit lower or maladaptive AR (Eggers et al, 2010; Felsenfeld, van Beijsterveldt, & Boomsma, 2010; Karrass et al, 2006) and specific difficulty with maintaining (Embrechts et al, 2000) and shifting attention from one task to another (Anderson et al, 2003). Bush (2006), employing direct observations of preschool-age CWS and CWNS attentional behavior, reported that CWS took significantly longer than CWNS to look away from a focal point (the computer monitor) to begin a narrative task after listening to an audio-taped emotionally arousing conversation. Her finding suggests that CWS are less distracted than CWNS, a finding consistent with Anderson et al (2003).…”

“…For example, questionnaire-based studies (Anderson et al, 2003; Craig, Hancock, Tran, & Craig, 2003; Eggers et al, 2010; Embrechts et al, 2000; Felsenfeld et al, 2010; Karrass et al, 2006; Vanryckeghem, Hylebos, Brutten, & Peleman, 2001; Wakaba, Iizawa, Gondo, Inoue, & Fujino, 1998) ask parents specific or limited scenario questions, whereas behavioral studies (e.g., Bush, 2006; Johnson et al, 2010; Karrass et al, 2006; Schwenk et al, 2007) compare CWS and CWNS during a specific experimental task.…”

Temperament, speech and language: An overview

“…When examined on a study-by-study basis, findings indicate that young CWS, when compared to young CWNS, are (a) more reactive to environmental stimuli (Wakaba, 1998), (b) more negative in their affect/emotions (Howell et al, 1987; Johnson, Walden, Conture, & Karrass, 2010; Ntourou, Conture, & Walden, 2011), (c) less able to maintain attention and less adaptive to their environment (Anderson, Pellowski, Conture, & Kelly, 2003; Embrechts, Ebben, Franke, & van de Poel, 2000), (d) less able to disengage their attention when required (Bush, 2006) or shift attention (Heitman, Asbjørnsen, & Helland, 2004; Eggers, De Nil, & Van den Bergh, 2010), (e) more likely to exhibit problematic scores on attention scales based on caregiver report (Felsenfeld, van Beijsterveldt, & Boomsma, 2010), (f) less able to ignore changes in irrelevant background stimuli (Schwenk et al, 2007), (g) significantly less efficienct in orienting of attention (Eggers, De Nil, & Van den Bergh, 2012; cf. Johnson, Conture, & Walden, 2012), and (h) lower in inhibitory control, as well as significantly higher in anger/frustration, approach and motor activation (Eggers, De Nil, & Van den Bergh, 2010).…”

Spontaneous Regulation of Emotions in Preschool Children Who Stutter: Preliminary Findings

“…Lewis & Goldberg, 1997; Williams, 2006). In contrast, there fewer findings have been based on behavioral observation (for exceptions, see Bush, 2006; Schwenk et al, 2006). Thus, there would appear to be some need for more direct behavioral observations of children’s emotional and related behaviors, particularly in reference to stuttering.…”