Emotional reactivity, regulation and childhood stuttering: A behavioral and electrophysiological study

Abstract

The purpose of this preliminary study was to assess whether behavioral and psychophysiological correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation are associated with developmental stuttering, as well as determine the feasibility of these methods in preschool-age children. Nine preschool-age children who stutter (CWS) and nine preschool-age children who do not stutter (CWNS) listened to brief background conversations conveying happy, neutral, and angry emotions (a resolution conversation followed the angry conversation), then produced narratives based on a text-free storybook. Electroencephalograms (EEG) recorded during listening examined cortical correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation. Speech disfluencies and observed emotion regulation were measured during a narrative immediately after each background conversation. Results indicated that decreased use of regulatory strategies is related to more stuttering in children who stutter. However, no significant differences were found in EEG measurements of emotional reactivity and regulation between CWS and CWNS or between emotion elicitation conditions. Findings were taken to suggest that use of regulatory strategies may relate to the fluency of preschool-age children’s speech-language output. Learner Outcomes: The reader will be able to (1) describe emotional reactivity and regulation processes, (2) discuss evidence for or against the relations of emotional reactivity, regulation and stuttering, (3) understand how multiple measures can be used to measure emotional reactivity and regulation.

Emotional Diathesis, Emotional Stress, and Childhood Stuttering

“…Kochanska, Aksan, Penney, & Doobay, 2007, who reported that low-arousal positive affect [e.g., agreeableness or affiliation] was associated with enhanced effortful control 6 ). It might be speculated that young CWS's relatively high Surgency with relatively low emotion regulation is related to disruptions in their speech fluency, the latter speculation consistent with the findings reported by Arnold et al (2011). It is of interest that Kagan (2012) suggested that children who are high positive (i.e., more surgent) as infants " retained their profile of high sociability and low timidity through school entrance because these child behaviors are not subject to disapproval by adults and peers" (p. 73).…”

“…Caregivers were informed of the study via (a) a free, widely read, regionally distributed parent-oriented magazine, (b) local health care provider, or (c) self-or professional referral to the Vanderbilt Developmental Stuttering Laboratory. Participants were part of an ongoing series of empirical investigations of linguistic and emotional contributors to developmental stuttering (e.g., Arnold et al, 2011;Clark, Conture, Frankel, & Walden, 2012;Clark, Conture, Walden, & Lambert, 2013K. Johnson et al, 2010;Jones, Buhr, et al, 2014;Ntourou et al, 2013;Tumanova, Conture, Lambert, & Walden, 2014;Zengin-Bolatkale, Conture, & Walden, 2015) conducted by the Vanderbilt University Developmental Stuttering Project.…”

“…were more associated with their stuttered than fluent utterances. Likewise, Arnold et al (2011) reported that decreased frequency and duration of regulatory strategies (i.e., distraction or selfstimulation, cognitive restructuring behaviors, and instrumental coping) were associated with more stuttering in CWS. Consistent with these findings, Ntourou et al (2013) reported that decreases in young CWS's distraction behaviors, an index of emotion regulation, during a frustrating task were associated with increases in the percentage of stuttered disfluencies.…”

“…This finding was taken to suggest that positive emotional stimuli may be associated with increases in children's speech disfluencies (cf. Arnold, Conture, Key, & Walden, 2011;Ntourou, Conture, & Walden, 2013;Walden et al, 2012).…”

Speech-Language Dissociations, Distractibility, and Childhood Stuttering

“…Data were previously collected as part of an ongoing series of empirical investigations of linguistic and emotional associates of childhood stuttering conducted by Vanderbilt University's Developmental Stuttering Project (e.g., Arnold, Conture, Key, & Walden, 2011;Choi, Conture, Walden, Lambert, & Tumanova, 2013;Clark, Conture, Frankel, & Walden, 2012;Johnson, Walden, Conture, & Karrass, 2010;Jones et al, 2014;Millager et al, 2014;Richels et al, 2010;Walden et al, 2012). Children were paid volunteers whose caregivers learned of the study from (a) a free monthly parent magazine circulated throughout middle Tennessee, (b) a local health care provider, or (c) self-or professional referral to the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Hearing and Speech Center for an evaluation.…”