Jan Karrass

Dual Diathesis-Stressor Model of Emotional and Linguistic Contributions to Developmental Stuttering

This study assessed emotional and speech-language contributions to childhood stuttering. A dual diathesis-stressor framework guided this study, in which both linguistic requirements and skills, and emotion and its regulation, are hypothesized to contribute to stuttering. The language diathesis consists of expressive and receptive language skills. The emotion diathesis consists of proclivities to emotional reactivity and regulation of emotion, and the emotion stressor consists of experimentally manipulated emotional inductions prior to narrative speaking tasks. Preschool-age children who do and do not stutter were exposed to three emotion-producing overheard conversations—neutral, positive, and angry. Emotion and emotion-regulatory behaviors were coded while participants listened to each conversation and while telling a story after each overheard conversation. Instances of stuttering during each story were counted. Although there was no main effect of conversation type, results indicated that stuttering in preschool-age children is influenced by emotion and language diatheses, as well as coping strategies and situational emotional stressors. Findings support the dual diathesis-stressor model of stuttering.

Infant negative emotionality and attachment: Implications for preschool intelligence

This longitudinal study examined the extent to which dimensions of infant negative temperament in the first year predicted IQ at age 3, and whether these associations depended on the quality of the infant–mother attachment relationship. In a sample of 63 infant–mother dyads, mothers completed Rothbart’s (1981) IBQ when infants were 4 and 12 months, mothers and infants participated in Ainsworth and Wittig’s (1969) Strange Situation at 12 months, and children completed the Stanford-Binet (Thorndike, Hagen, & Sattler, 1986) when they were 36 months of age. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that 4- or 12-month distress to limitations was not predictive of later IQ, but infants with greater distress to novelty at 4 months had higher IQs at 36 months. Furthermore, greater distress to novelty at 12 months predicted higher IQs but only for infants whose attachment was insecure. Differential implications of temperamental fear versus anger for social influences on cognitive development are discussed.

Influence of Stuttering Variation on Talker Group Classification in Preschool Children: Preliminary Findings.

UNLABELLED The purpose of this study was to investigate whether variations in disfluencies of young children who do (CWS) and do not stutter (CWNS) significantly change their talker group classification or diagnosis from stutterer to nonstutterer, and vice versa. Participants consisted of seventeen 3- to 5-year-old CWS and nine 3- to 5-year-old CWNS, with no statistically significant between-group difference in chronological age (CWS: M=45.53 months, S.D.=8.32; CWNS: M=47.67 months, S.D.=6.69). All participants had speech, language, and hearing development within normal limits, with the exception of stuttering for CWS. Both talker groups participated in a series of speaking samples that varied by: (a) conversational partner [parent and clinician], (b) location [home and clinic], and (c) context [conversation and narrative]. The primary dependent measures for this study were the number of stuttering-like disfluencies (SLD) per total number of spoken words [%SLD] and the ratio of SLD to total disfluencies (TD) [SLD/TD]. The results indicated that significant variability of stuttering did not exist as a result of conversational partner or location. Changes in context, however, did impact the CWS, who demonstrated higher SLD/TD in the conversation sample versus a narrative sample. Consistent with hypotheses, CWS and CWNS were accurately identified as stutterers and nonstutterers, respectively, regardless of changes to conversational partner, location or context for the overall participant sample. Present findings were taken to suggest that during assessment, variations in stuttering frequency resulting from changes in conversational partner, location or context do not significantly influence the diagnosis of stuttering, especially for children not on the talker group classification borderline between CWS and CWNS. LEARNING OUTCOMES Readers will be able to: (1) Describe the role of variability in stuttering frequency for young children who stutter; (2) Identify three fundamental measurements of the frequency of stuttering-like and nonstuttering-like disfluencies; (3) Describe the effects of stuttering variation on talker group classification of stuttering or nonstuttering.

Preliminary Investigation of the Relationship between the Temperament of Young Children Who Stutter and the Temperament of Their Parents

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 Childrens 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.