There is also little consensus about what treatments to use for older children and adults who stutter. Most experts do agree, however, that once stuttering is chronic, one goal of treatment is to help people control their stuttering and so make it less handicapping. One approach is for the person to find ways of making their stuttering less severe and so more acceptable in communicative situations. Another approach involves the person adopting a way of speaking that stops stuttering altogether. Some treatments combine both approaches. Whatever approach is adopted for older children and adults, current treatments typically address the person's attitudes to speaking and confidence in communicative contexts, as well as helping them to speak without stuttering.

Staff at the Australian Stuttering Research Centre favour an evidence based approach to treatment for stuttering. This means that treatments are favoured if they are backed by scientific research to support their effectiveness. For that reason, we recommend the Lidcombe Program for children, and a procedure known as Prolonged-Speech for adults and adolescents. Our research at the Australian Stuttering Research Centre has included the Lidcombe Program, and also the development of a Prolonged-Speech treatment known as the Camperdown Program. You can read about the Lidcombe Program and the Camperdown Program at other places on this website, and you can also download treatment manuals and other clinical materials.

The range of available treatments may seem confusing to a parent whose child is stuttering, or to adolescents and adults who stutter and who are seeking help. Our position at the ASRC is that people seeking treatment need to be fully informed before making a decision. We suggest that it is sensible to ask a prospective therapist not only about the nature of the treatment he or she offers but also whether the treatment has an evidence base (see above). We suggest that published scientific evidence that supports a particular treatment is the most important factor to consider when deciding to participate in a treatment program.

Information for parents

If your preschooler is stuttering, we offer the following suggestions:

• Seek out a speech pathologist who has experience with early stuttering and who has been trained in the Lidcombe Program. High quality standardised training in the program has been available in many countries around the world since 2003. For further information click on the link to the Lidcombe Program Trainers Consortium (LPTC).



• 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. The Lidcombe Program brochure also provides an overview of the treatment. At the moment the research team at the ASRC is developing other ways of implementing the program (eg. via distance, in groups) and further results will be available in the future.



• Steady improvement in stuttering, evident at home as well as in the clinic, should be seen throughout Stage 1 of the program. Children vary enormously in the time taken to complete Stage 1 of the program; from a few weeks to around six months. If you have any questions or concerns about your child's progress through the program, you should raise them with your speech pathologist. Speech pathologists can contact Consortium members for advice about the Lidcombe Program.