Abstract
Reactivity refers to arousal of emotions, motor activity, and attention, and self-regulation
refers to the ability to moderate those tendencies. 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 traitlike 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 statelike 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. 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.
Keywords
Stuttering - childhood - temperament - emotion - development - treatment
