Kurt Eggers

Purpose: Current article provides an overview of some our research findings on temperament and executive functioning in stuttering.

Method: Different methodologies were used, ranging from parent questionnaire, i.e. the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (Van den Bergh and Ackx, 2003), to subsequent neuropsychological computer paradigms such as the Attention Network Test (Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz, & Posner, 2002), the Go/NoGo task and the Auditory Set-shifting task of the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (De Sonneville, 2009). Participants were children who stutter (CWS), ranging between 3;04 and 10;00 and a gender- and age-matched control group of children who do not stutter (CWNS).

Results: CWS, as a group, scored higher on negative reactivity and lower on self-regulation. Questionnaire-based findings of lower self-regulation were corroborated by the findings on neurocognitive computer paradigms showing CWS to have a lower efficiency of inhibitory control, attentional orienting and attentional set-shifting.

Conclusions: These findings provide support for the hypothesis that CWS and CWNS differ on temperament and several self-regulatory processes. The findings were linked to previous related studies and to emerging theoretical frameworks of stuttering development.