Treatment approach

Did you know that stuttering treatment during the preschool years has a goal of no stuttering? The same treatment goal can be possible with school-age children, though it tends to be harder to achieve. By adolescence and adulthood stuttering can be managed only. The programs I offer are evidence based and were developed at the Australian Stuttering Research Centre: Lidcombe Program, Westmead Program, Oakville Program and Camperdown Program.

The Lidcombe Program was a combined effort of the Stuttering Unit and the Australian Stuttering Research Centre. I was fortunate to attend these organisations’ research meetings during my time at the Stuttering Unit. At that time, the first randomised controlled trial of the Lidcombe Program was underway and the Camperdown Program was in development. I’ve followed research developments with interest since. Currently eight randomised controlled trials support use of the Lidcombe Program with early stuttering.

As the COVID19 pandemic has highlighted, science changes continually. Researchers discover something, scientific thinking is ‘updated’, and clinicians need to adjust practice accordingly. I approach each client’s therapeutic process within a clinical - science framework. This is incredibly important when working with stuttering because it fluctuates cyclically and/or situationally. My honours project was in the area of stuttering measurement. I teach all of my clients to measure their stuttering; these measurements guide us through the treatment process.

Each of the programs listed above follow the same framework in that client speech measurements are central to treatment decisions. Sometimes I add various research-based speech, behavioural and psychological techniques to help clients achieve their goals. For example, the speech techniques of soft contacts and gentle onsets can give access to stutter-free speech. Individual treatment programs can be built from a speech resetting technique (known in the literature as ‘time out’) to both minimise and manage stutters. Video self modelling can be used to assist with relapse prevention.