Abstract
Purpose We studied speech-related sympathetic nervous system arousal of preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) and its association with children's proclivity to experience negative emotions and children's self-reported attitudes toward speaking. Method Electrodermal activity measures were collected from 32 preschool-age children while they engaged in a picture description and a nonword repetition task. Children's proclivity to experience negative emotions was assessed with a parent report questionnaire. Children's communication attitude was assessed with a self-report questionnaire. Results CWS did not differ from CWNS in their sympathetic arousal during a picture description task. However, during a more challenging nonword repetition task, preschool-age CWS had a higher sympathetic arousal level than CWNS. Although CWS were rated by their caregivers as more fearful and prone to sadness, children's tendency to experience stronger and more frequent negative emotions was not associated with their sympathetic arousal during speaking. Lastly, although CWS had a more negative communication attitude than CWNS, it was not associated with their level of sympathetic arousal during speaking. Conclusions Our findings suggest that age-appropriate social communication tasks are not inherently more stressful for preschool-age CWS and are not associated with state-related stress or anxiety that is often reported for adults who stutter. However, speaking tasks that place a higher demand on children's cognitive-linguistic system may be more taxing and challenging to preschool CWS than CWNS, leading to a higher level of arousal.
Highlights
Speech production requires complex coordination of movements between respiratory, phonatory and articulatory structures and simultaneous processing of cognitive-linguistic information
Our findings suggest that age-appropriate social communication tasks are not inherently more stressful for preschool-age children who stutter (CWS) and are not associated with state-related stress or anxiety that is often reported for adults who stutter
Jones et al (2014) measured respiratory sinus arrhythmia and skin conductance level in preschool-age children while they watched positively- and negatively-valenced video clips and during picture description tasks immediately after video viewing. They reported that CWS, compared to children who do not stutter (CWNS), only demonstrated a higher SCL during picture description tasks subsequent to viewing of a positively-valenced video clip, but not subsequent to viewing of negative or neutral video clips
Summary
Speech production requires complex coordination of movements between respiratory, phonatory and articulatory structures and simultaneous processing of cognitive-linguistic information. There have only been a few published studies of autonomic arousal of preschool-age CWS and CWNS during speech production, all conducted by the same research lab (Choi et al, 2016; Jones et al 2014; Zengin-Bolatkale, Conture & Walden, 2015, 2018). Studying these temperamental qualities in very young children who stutter has the potential to elucidate the proposed association It remains unclear if preschool-age children’s proclivity for experiencing stronger and more frequent negative emotions is associated with higher sympathetic nervous system activity during novel, potentially stressful speaking situations
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