Reliability and Validity of the Turkish Version of the Short Behavioral Inhibition Scale.

<p>Purpose: Research has shown that children who stutter (CWS) demonstrate poor adaptive functioning, or poor functional, social, and psychological skills, when compared to children who do not stutter (CWNS). Previous work has also shown that preschool CWS demonstrate significantly lower effortful control than CWNS. High effortful control, or the ability to inhibit a dominant response, is predictive of high adaptive functioning in children who are exposed to a range of adversities. The purposes of this study were fourfold: (a) to investigate if the differences between preschool CWS and CWNS in effortful control extended to school-aged children; (b) to determine if effortful control could uniquely explain adaptive functioning after controlling for a diagnosis of stuttering; (c) to investigate whether effortful control was more influential to CWS than to CWNS; and (d) to investigate whether effortful control uniquely explained adaptive functioning in CWS after controlling for stuttering frequency.</p> <p>Methods: Effortful control and seven core areas of adaptive functioning were investigated in 46 school-age CWS and 46 CWNS. Eight independent two tailed t-tests were used to assess whether CWS demonstrated lower effortful control than CWNS and lower adaptive functioning than CWNS in seven adaptive functioning areas: communication competence, peer competence, internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, general anxiety, social anxiety, and depression. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine the extent to which each component of adaptive functioning was related to effortful control when controlling for age, intelligence, parent-child relationship, and stuttering group membership. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to assess the extent to which each separate component of adaptive functioning was related to effortful control in CWS only.</p> <p>Results: CWS demonstrated significantly lower effortful control when measured by the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (a parent report measure of hot effortful control) than CWNS. CWS also performed more poorly in all aspects of adaptive functioning; however statistical significance was only reached for internalizing behaviors and general anxiety. The hierarchical linear regressions indicated that effortful control predicted the majority of the variance in five areas of adaptive functioning: peer competence, externalizing behaviors, internalizing behaviors, general anxiety, and depression. In the group of CWS, stuttering frequency predicted internalizing behaviors, general anxiety, and social anxiety. However, stuttering was the most important contributor to only one of the seven components of adaptive functioning, social anxiety.</p> <p>Conclusions: This study with school-aged CWS extends previous work indicating that preschool CWS exhibit lower effortful control than their normally fluent peers. The fact that emotional aspects of effortful control were a stronger predictor of social functioning, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors than either a stuttering diagnosis or the quantity of stuttering, may explain the adaptive functioning deficits often observed in CWS. Because effortful control is both a powerful contributor to adaptive functioning, and is reduced in CWS, clinical therapy approaches, which boost effortful control skills, have the potential to greatly lessen the impact of stuttering for CWS.</p>

Prior studies have shown that bilingual children who do not stutter (CWNS) exhibit a high number of disfluencies in both languages, increasing the risk of misidentification by speech-language pathologists as children who stutter (CWS). Conversely, there is a risk of misidentifying CWS with a relatively low incidence of disfluencies as CWNS. This study aims to explore the qualitative and quantitative distinctions in speech disfluency profiles between CWNS and CWS. The assessment covers both the dominant and nondominant language to examine the impact of language dominance on disfluency patterns. A total of 92 Lebanese bilinguals (70 CWNS and 22 CWS) from 4;06 to 7;06 (years;months) were included. Language dominance was determined based on parental assessments. Spontaneous and narrative speech samples were collected for each child in both languages and all stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) and other disfluencies (OD) were coded. On average, CWNS showed a significantly lower percentage of total SLD, weighted SLD, SLD subtypes, and iterations compared to CWS. However, the number of disfluencies of CWNS exceeded monolingual clinical standards. Language dominance did not impact SLD and OD percentages, but some differences for SLD subtypes emerged. Binary logistic regression analyses showed that repetitions and dysrhythmic phonations are good predictors for correct CWS or CWNS classification, in contrast to OD. A combination of predictors from both languages led to better classification than using predictors from either language alone. The current study shows that speech disfluency percentages in bilingual CWNS typically surpass monolingual standards and can be at par with those of CWS. However, through careful consideration of disfluency characteristics, ideally in both languages, an accurate differential diagnosis of stuttering in bilingual children can be achieved.

Emotion-related regulation strategy use in preschool-age children who stutter

Relationships among linguistic processing speed, phonological working memory, and attention in children who stutter

Brain response to errors in children who stutter

Objective: The purpose of this study was to obtain preliminary normative data for children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) for the Turkish form of the KiddyCAT, and to determine whether differences in communication attitude exist among CWS and CWNS. Material and Methods: Following the translation process of the original English version into Turkish, the Communication Attitude Test for Preschool and Kindergarten Children Who Stutter (KiddyCAT-TR) was administered to 53 Turkish preschool CWNS and 55 who stutter CWS. The KiddyCAT-TR scores were evaluated to determine whether the CWS differ by chronological age, younger age versus older age groups and gender. Results: The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was obtained 0.72 for the CWS. The effect size found very high (d=1.14). The test-retest reliability coefficient was determined as 0.99. Group comparisons showed significantly higher mean scores for CWS compared to CWNS. Gender did not affect the test results. Conclusion: CWS develop a negative attitude towards their own communication from a very early age, which increases as they grow older. The results showed that the Turkish version of the KiddyCAT has high internal consistency and test-retest reliability and is a solid differential diagnostic tool to gauge the speech-related attitude among Turkishspeaking preschoolers.

Previous studies suggest temperamental differences between young preschool-age children who stutter and those who do not. It is also known that parental socialization plays a major role in the temperamental development of children. However, to-date, whether temperamental differences exist between parents of children who stutter and parents of those who do not is unknown. The nature of relational differences between parent-child temperament across talker groups is also unclear. The present preliminary study examined the relationship between the temperament of parents and the temperament of children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS). It was hypothesized that the temperament of CWS would differ significantly from CWNS and that the temperament of parents of CWS would differ significantly from parents of CWNS. Participants included 16 CWS and 16 CWNS (ages of 36 to 64 months) matched for age and gender. The primary parent for each child completed the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) and the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ) that assessed factors of the temperament of the child and parent, respectively. Data was subjected to a series of t-tests and correlational analyses. Preliminary findings indicated no significant difference in the temperament of CWS and CWNS and no significant difference in the temperament of parents of CWS and parents of CWNS according to the ATQ. Relational differences were noted between some aspects of the CBQ and the ATQ scores for both talker groups. Preliminary findings suggest no temperamental differences between CWS and CWNS or their parents. However, findings do suggest relational differences in parental socialization of emotional development between CWS and CWNS. Results also suggest a need to make parents of children who stutter aware of the importance of modeling appropriate use of emotions in order to influence emotional development of their child.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the verbal short-term memory skills of children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) in 2 experiments, focusing on the influence of phonological and semantic similarity. Method Participants were 42 CWS and 42 CWNS between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 (years;months). In Experiment 1, children completed the phonological similarity task, in which they listened to lists of phonologically similar and dissimilar words and then repeated them when signaled to do so. In Experiment 2, children completed another forward span task, the semantic category task, which is similar to the phonological similarity task, except that it consisted of lists of semantically homogeneous and heterogeneous words. Main dependent variables were cumulative memory span, proportion of errors by type, and speech reaction time (SRT) for correct responses. Results The CWS exhibited significantly shorter memory spans for phonologically dissimilar words and were less affected by the phonological qualities of the words than the CWNS in Experiment 1, based on the findings of both between-groups and within-group analyses. In Experiment 2, although the groups did not differ in their performance in either condition, within-group analyses revealed that the CWNS benefitted from semantic similarity, whereas the CWS did not. The between-groups difference in absolute difference scores, however, did not reach significance. The CWS produced more omissions and false alarms than the CWNS in both experiments, but the 2 groups of children were otherwise comparable in SRT, although the CWS exhibited overall faster SRT than the CWNS in Experiment 2. Conclusions Verbal short-term memory is one domain-general cognitive process in which CWS display weakness relative to typically fluent peers. These weaknesses are likely due, in part, to differences in phonological and, perhaps, semantic processing of words to aid memory.

Purpose: Existing data stemming from investigations with the Speech Situation Checklist (SSC) have shown this standardised test to be a valid and reliable tool for assessing speech-related anxiety in children who stutter (CWS). The main purpose of this study was to compare Speech Situation Checklist-Emotional Reaction (SSC-ER) scores for Kannada-speaking children who do not stutter (CWNS) and CWS. In addition, the Speech Situation Checklist—Emotional Reaction in Kannada (SSC-ER-K) scores among different stuttering severity and age groups were compared in CWS. Method: The English version of the SSC-ER was forward-translated into Kannada and back-translated by the first author. SSC-ER-K was administered on 100 CWS and 275 CWNS aged between 7 and 14 years who were native speakers of the Kannada language. The severity of stuttering was estimated using the Stuttering Severity Instrument—fourth edition (SSI-4). Result: The results revealed that the SSC-ER-K scores of CWS were significantly higher in comparison with CWNS. CWS with moderate and severe degrees of stuttering had significantly higher scores when compared to those with a mild degree of stuttering. Furthermore, the older CWS (11–14 years) had significantly higher scores compared to the younger CWS (7–10 years). In addition, the SSC-ER-K appears to be a reliable self-report test. The above findings suggest the presence of significantly increased speech-related anxiety in CWS. Also, as age and severity of stuttering increased so did the level of their speech-related anxiety. Conclusion: The SSC-ER-K is a useful tool in the assessment of negative emotional reaction to specific speech situations in Kannada CWS and can assist speech-language pathologists in addressing speech-situation specific anxiety during treatment.

Emotional regulation of preschool children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) was assessed through use of a disappointing gift (DG) procedure (P. M. Cole, 1986; C. Saarni, 1984, 1992). Participants consisted of 16 CWS and CWNS (11 boys and 5 girls in each talker group) who were 3 to 5 years of age. After assessing each child's knowledge of display rules about socially appropriate expression of emotions, the authors asked the children to participate in a DG procedure. The children received a desirable gift preceding the first free-play task and a disappointing gift preceding a second free-play task. Dependent variables consisted of participants' positive and negative expressive nonverbal behaviors exhibited during receipt of a desirable gift and disappointing gift as well as conversational speech disfluencies exhibited following receipt of each gift. Findings indicated that CWS and CWNS exhibited no significant differences in amount of positive emotional expressions after receiving the desired gift; however, CWS--when compared with CWNS--exhibited more negative emotional expressions after receiving the undesirable gift. Furthermore, CWS were more disfluent after receiving the desired gift than after receiving the disappointing gift. Ancillary findings also indicated that CWS and CWNS had equivalent knowledge of display rules. Findings suggest that efforts to concurrently regulate emotional behaviors and that speech disfluencies may be problematic for preschool-age CWS.

Past tense marking in the spontaneous speech of preschool children who do and do not stutter

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children who stutter (CWS) and children who do not stutter (CWNS) differ in terms of attentional ability. Participants were 40 age- and gender-matched CWS and CWNS (aged between 72 and 120 months). Attentional ability was assessed using the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch), a clinical assessment battery comprising 13 attentional measures, assessing three areas of attention: selective attention, sustained attention, and attentional switching. A low score on the assessment indicates attentional difficulty. There was an overall tendency for CWS to score lower than CWNS on all 13 TEA-Ch measures and all three attentional abilities. This difference reached statistical significance for the sustained attentional component. The present study provides support for the hypothesis that there are some differences between CWS and CWNS in terms of attentional ability. The findings are interpreted within existing models of attention with regard to previous studies of attention in CWS.

Communication attitudes of Japanese school-age children who stutter

In our earlier study, we found that overall accuracy on nonword repetition (NWR) lacked the specificity to differentiate among groups of children who stutter (CWS) with and without concomitant speech sound and/or language disorders and children who do not stutter (CWNS). The aim of this study was to determine whether NWR error characteristics distinguish these groups of children with different speech sound production and language abilities yielding insight into the deficits underlying poorer performance. Participants were 141 children (88 CWS, 53 CWNS). CWS were divided into subgroups based on the presence or absence of concomitant speech sound and language disorders. Children completed an NWR task composed of one- to four-syllable nonwords. Error types included omissions, substitutions, and migrations. Error location was documented across the syllables of the longest, four-syllable nonwords and within each syllable (onset, nucleus, and coda) for all nonwords. We found that error patterns characterized groups' NWR performance. Specifically, CWS groups made more errors on syllable onsets, more errors on the first and fourth syllable of the four-syllable nonwords, and more substitution errors than CWNS. CWS with concomitant speech sound and/or language disorders made more omission errors than CWNS and CWS with typical speech sound and language abilities. CWS with both a speech sound and language disorder made more migration errors than all other groups. Using a data-driven framework derived from prior empirical investigations of NWR errors, this study demonstrated that error characteristics enhance the specificity of NWR by distinguishing groups of CWS with and without concomitant speech sound and language deficits. These error patterns also provide a window into the processes underlying NWR performance in CWS.

OBJETIVO: comparar a fluência da leitura e da fala espontânea entre escolares com e sem gagueira, quanto à frequência e tipologia das disfluências, e taxa de elocução. MÉTODOS: participaram 40 escolares, de ambos os gêneros (8-11anos), divididos em dois grupos: experimental (GE - 20 escolares com gagueira), e controle (GC - 20 escolares sem gagueira). A coleta de dados foi realizada por meio da avaliação da fluência da leitura e da fala espontânea, utilizando um Teste de Fluência. RESULTADOS: na leitura os grupos mostraram diferença estatisticamente significante para a frequência de disfluências gagas (p=0,038) e do total de disfluências (p=0,023), sendo que o GE apresentou maior frequência. Na fala ocorreu diferença estatisticamente significante para todas as variáveis analisadas. Em relação às disfluências da leitura e da fala, o GE mostrou maior frequência. O fluxo de sílabas e de palavras por minuto foi maior no GC na fala, e no GE durante a leitura. CONCLUSÃO: a leitura dos grupos foi semelhante quanto à porcentagem de disfluências comuns, ao fluxo de sílabas e de palavras por minuto e as tipologias comuns e gagas. Porém, o GE manifestou maior quantidade de disfluências gagas e do total das disfluências. Na fala espontânea os grupos se diferenciaram quanto ao total de disfluências, disfluências comuns e gagas, fluxos de sílabas e de palavras por minuto. Repetição de palavra, de parte da palavra e de som, prolongamento, bloqueio e intrusão foram mais frequentes no GE.