The influence of contextual and constitutional emotional processes on speech motor control and speech motor learning in early childhood stuttering

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Project Summary Stuttering is a common speech disorder that affects over 3 million people in the United States. It begins in the preschool years, during a time when speech, language and emotional regulation processes are rapidly developing. Approximately 5% of preschool-age children stutter, and for at least 20% of them, stuttering persists throughout their lifetime. Although the etiology of stuttering is not fully understood, the prevailing viewpoint is that the disorder results from a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive-linguistic, speech motor, and emotional variables. Importantly, despite the theoretical proposition that emotional processes (both contextual and constitutional) contribute to childhood stuttering, the specific mechanisms underlying these associations are unknown. To date, while both emotional reactivity and motor control differences have been found in children who stutter compared to typically developing children, little is known about how these processes interact. The major motivation for the proposed project is to address this critical knowledge gap by applying well-established methods of studying speech motor control, emotional processes and emotion-motor interactions in an investigation of preschool-age children who stutter and their fluent peers. The present application is designed to address two specific aims: (1) determine the influence of situational stress (contextual factor) on children’s speech motor control and speech motor learning; and (2) determine the influence of the temperamental trait of behavioral inhibition (constitutional factor) on children’s speech motor control and speech motor learning. The present proposal’s central hypothesis is that increases in emotional reactivity, driven by the situational context, the child’s inherent way of responding to their environment, or by their combined influence, interfere with speech motor control and speech motor learning processes necessary for the early development of fluent speech. The proposed study is innovative in that it represents the first project to examine the effects of contextual and constitutional emotional processes on speech motor control and speech motor learning in preschool-age children who do and do not stutter. The proposed study is theoretically significant because understanding how emotional processes contribute to speech motor control and speech motor learning in preschool-age children will lead to an improved understanding of stuttering onset and development. Further, the anticipated results will inform our understanding of a “real-time” influence of emotional processes on speech. This research is clinically significant in its potential to inform assessment and treatment of stuttering in children, as fluency intervention strategies involve learning novel speech movement patterns (such as prolonging speech) and executing them with a high degree of automaticity in and outside of clinic. The proposed research supports the mission of NIDCD by advancing our understanding of the role of emotional processes in stuttering development and thus informing our assessment and treatment for people who stutter.