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Suitability of the Lidcombe Program for all Children

There has been no research that has explored this. Clinical trials have excluded children with comorbid conditions such as ADHD and intellectual impairment. 

Non-English Speaking Families

Yes it is possible to successfully treat a child with the Lidcombe Program when the parents and the speech-language pathologist do not speak the same language. Interpreters can be used effectively to help communicate with the family. However, this situation does present a clinical challenge for the speech-language pathologist.

Prompting & Praise

In the context of the Lidcombe Program, prompting means alerting a child to attempt to be stutter-free in a forthcoming speaking situation. For example, prior to a visit to a friend, the parent might remind the child where they are about to go, and prompt the child to use stutter-free speech. Normally the parent would be careful to follow this up with verbal contingencies. 

Severity Ratings

The only way to do this is to consult with colleagues, because the scale pertains to the clinical population of stuttering children. For example, if you think a child’s stuttering warrants a severity rating of 7, then you might check that colleagues agree with you.

Verbal Contingencies

Memory games, books, games, felt boards, puzzles, play dough, drawing and colouring, train sets, doll houses and magnetic boards are all useful. Books lend themselves to parent training and are often the most readily available resource in the child’s home.

Stage 2

During Stage 2, the parent and child return for clinic visits aiming to maintain treatment targets for increasingly longer intervals: two visits 2 weeks apart, then two visits 4 weeks apart, then two visits 8 weeks apart, and finally two visits 16 weeks apart. The schedule normally takes a year or more. The importance of this procedure is shown by a report that half of children during Stage 2 fail to meet treatment targets at least once during Stage 2.

Who Conducts the Treatment at Home

No, only parents who have attended some clinic visits should give the verbal contingencies. To ensure that the Lidcombe Program works properly, the speech-language pathologist needs to train every parent who will give verbal contingencies.

Stage 1

According to publications up until June 2015, a median of 16 visits is required for children to attain Stage 2 criteria and there is around one-third reduction of median parent severity rating scores after four weeks of treatment. Severity of stuttering is a predicting factor with, children who have more severe stuttering typically taking longer to reach Stage 2 than children with mild stuttering.

Treatment times for individual speech-language pathologists will vary; the range of medians in the publications above is 11–23. It is recommended that these figures be used as broad guidelines for number of Stage 1 visits rather than being used as professional benchmarks. They may be useful guidelines to alert speech-language pathologist when a child’s progress may not be typical of Lidcombe Program caseloads. Such situations commonly prompt speech-language pathologist to consult with colleagues.

Child’s Awareness of Stuttering

It is not a requirement of the Lidcombe Program that children are aware of their stuttering. However, as treatment progresses, they do become aware of if, particularly when parents begin to present verbal contingencies for unambiguous stuttering.

Attending a Lidcombe Program Workshop

The Consortium Lidcombe Program workshop has been developed for practising speech-language pathologists. However, speech-language pathology students in their final semester of a professional degree program can attend the workshop. For a list of forthcoming Lidcombe Program Workshop click here.

Hand-outs for Parents

Yes, a brochure is available here. It is a useful introduction to the treatment for parents. Another document that is widely available is the Lidcombe Program Treatment Guide. Some speech-language pathologists may find it helpful to direct parents to the Guide once they have commenced treatment.