Temperament in school-age children who stutter

Although temperament is not the cause of stuttering, it is a factor that is thought to affect stuttering and increase the severity of stuttering. In school-age children, adolescents and adults who stutter, temperament studies are conducted less frequently than in the pre-school period, and the findings are inconsistent. More research on temperament in school-age children is needed in order to understand the changes that occur throughout the child's development. In this context, it is aimed to compare the temperament characteristics of school-age children who stutter with school-age children who did not stutter and to examine the relationship between temperament characteristics and stuttering severity. The study included 66 children who stutter with typical development aged between 8-11 years. Age and gender matched 66 children who did not stutter with typical development, also included in the study. School - Age Temperament Inventory (SATI), which is based on the parent report, was used to evaluate the temperament characteristics of the children. The stuttering severity of the stuttering group was calculated using the Stuttering Severity Instrument–4-Turkish Version (SSI-4-TR) by taking speech and reading recordings. According to the findings, no significant difference was found between the children who stutter and who did not stutter in any of the dimensions of SATI, such as negative reactivity, task persistence, approach/withdrawal, and activity. When the relationship between the temperament characteristics of children who stutter and the severity of stuttering was examined, a weak negative correlation was found between the activity and the total score, which is one of the subdimensions of SSI-4-TR. However, no significant relationship was found between negative reactivity, task persistence, approach/withdrawal, and SSI-4-TR dimensions. No significant relationship was found between the activity and the frequency score, duration score, secondary behavior, which are the dimensions of SSI-4-TR. Individual differences and needs should be taken into account when determining the intervention program for individuals who stutter.