Differences in the relation between temperament and vocabulary based on children's stuttering trajectories.
Cara M Singer, Tedra A Walden, Robin M Jones
PMID 30771599WHAT IT FOUND
Children who stutter had lower word-understanding scores when parents rated them as more emotionally negative.
This link was not seen in children who did not stutter. It did not separate children who persisted from those who recovered.
Key findings
01For children who stutter, greater parent-reported negative emotionality was associated with lower receptive vocabulary scores, while no association was found for children who did not stutter.
02The association did not differ significantly between children who persisted and children who recovered.
03Neither emotional regulation nor negative emotionality was associated with expressive vocabulary.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 10 children were classified as persisting, so the study was underpowered, and the authors said the findings were preliminary and needed replication. The study measured temperament and vocabulary but did not show whether temperament influenced vocabulary or vocabulary influenced temperament. Some children received stuttering treatment during the study: 23% of the recovered group and 20% of the persisting group. Parents completed either a full 237-item or a short 70-item temperament questionnaire, and the positive emotionality scale was excluded because the two forms did not agree well. The non-stuttering group was selected by matching age and gender, and 32% of the larger cohort did not remain for at least 24 months. The research questions were developed after the data were collected.
Declared interests
The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural funds. The supplied text does not report a conflict-of-interest statement or commercial funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that measuring or changing a child's temperament will improve stuttering or vocabulary. This study only found an association between parent-rated negative emotionality and word-understanding scores, and it did not show which factor caused the other.