As primary caregivers, parents are often the most significant environmental influence in their child’s life, shaping development across a wide range of domains (e.g., self-regulation, socioemotional functioning) and supporting intervention outcomes. Parental temperament, in particular, has been shown to play an important role in various child-focused interventions (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy), with traits such as emotional warmth, negative affect, and stress regulation influencing both treatment adherence and child outcomes. Although research on parental temperament in the context of stuttering is limited, it is important to explore how it may shape children’s socioemotional development, their reactions to stuttering, and potentially, their response to intervention.

This presentation will focus on the role of parental temperament in stuttering clinical practice. 

Learning Objectives
Participants will: 
1. Describe the different dimensions of temperament. 
2. Provide examples of methods for assessing temperament in adults. 
3. Summarize ways stuttering therapy can be tailored to the parents’ needs by taking their temperament into account. 
4. Explain how parents’ temperament could influence children’s socioemotional development. 
5. Explain how parents’ temperament could influence stuttering intervention.

Target Audience: Speech-Language Pathologists, Graduate Students, Parents of children who stutter

Bio: Katerina Ntourou, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Her research interests include the role of temperament in stuttering and the protective and risk factors underlying the development of anxiety in stuttering.