Emotional Reactivity and Regulation in Young Children who Stutter: Preliminary Behavioral and Brain Activity Data

Hayley S. Arnold, Jan Karrass, Edward G. Conture, Tedra A. Walden, Susan M. Williams, and Alexandra F. Key

This study assessed relations between children’s emotional reactivity, emotion regulation and stuttering using psychophysiological (EEG) and behavioral measures. Participants were  preschool children who stutter (CWS) and who do not stutter (CWNS) who listened to three background conversations with happy, neutral, and angry emotional valence. Results indicated that regulatory behavior duration for CWS significantly increased during emotionally arousing conditions and that EEGs of CWS differed from CWNS in right hemisphere alpha activity during the happy condition and in left hemisphere temporal and parietal beta rhythm during the angry condition. Findings suggest greater reactivity and regulation in CWS during emotionally arousing situations.