Young Children's Temperament and Their Emerging Prejudice Against Stuttering

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to determine whether typically developing children's temperament is associated with their awareness and emerging prejudice against stuttering. Method: The emotional reactivity and emotion regulation of 42 typically developing 3- to 7-year-old children were assessed using parent report of temperament (i.e., Children's Behavioral Questionnaire). Children viewed a video of two puppets, one with fluent speech and the other with nonfluent speech. Children were prompted to answer questions to assess their awareness of stuttering as well as their preference for fluent speech and negative evaluation of stuttering, with the latter two being combined to index children's emerging prejudice against stuttering. Results: Findings indicated that typically developing children's positive emotional reactivity was significantly associated with their verbally expressed awareness of stuttering. In addition, children's higher negative emotional reactivity was significantly associated with greater emerging prejudice against stuttering. Conclusion: Findings were taken to suggest that young typically developing children's emotional reactivity may play an important role in developing awareness of stuttering and prejudice against stuttering in their early years.