Treatment

There are two basic types of treatment for stuttering that have been shown in clinical trials to be effective. These are treatments to control stuttering itself, and treatments to control the social anxiety that is associated with it. A cognitive behaviour therapy package has been developed at the Australian Stuttering Research Centre and has been shown to be effective in removing the social anxiety problems of those who stutter.

Treatments to control stuttering itself are of two kinds. For the chronic stuttering of adulthood, treatment involves learning to speak with a slightly different speech pattern that controls stuttering but sounds quite natural. The version of this treatment researched at the Australian Stuttering Research Centre is known as the Camperdown Program, and is described elsewhere at on this website. This treatment can be done face to face with a speech pathologist, or in telehealth format either by telephone or Skype over the internet.

For treating children, particularly preschool children, the only treatment with independently replicated clinical trials evidence is the Lidcombe Program. This is a simple behavioural treatment described elsewhere on this site. This treatment also works in telehealth presentation. Because it is so important to have stuttering treated effectively during the preschool years, we suggest the following if your preschooler is stuttering.

Seek out a speech pathologist who has experience with early stuttering and who has been trained in the Lidcombe Program by the Lidcombe Program Trainers Consortium. This international network of trainers is described elsewhere on this site. If you wish, your local Consortium contact and can put you in touch with a speech pathologist near you who has been trained.

The Lidcombe Program should be done according to the manual. You can check this by downloading the Lidcombe Program Manual from this website. It is available in a variety of languages.