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

> **NIH NIH R21** · SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $150,000

## Abstract

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 N...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10356930
- **Project number:** 5R21DC018103-02
- **Recipient organization:** SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Victoria Tumanova
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $150,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-03-01 → 2024-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10356930

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10356930, The influence of contextual and constitutional emotional processes on speech motor control and speech motor learning in early childhood stuttering (5R21DC018103-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10356930. Licensed CC0.

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