Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are advised to consider the distress of preschoolers and parents along with the social consequences of the child's stuttering when deciding whether to begin or delay treatment. Seventy-seven parents completed a survey that yielded quantitative and qualitative data that reflected their perceptions of the impact…

Previous research has not explored the Five Factor Model of personality among adults who stutter. Therefore, the present study investigated the five personality domains of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, as measured by the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), in a sample of 93 adults seeking speech…

Knowledge of variables that predict treatment time is of benefit in deciding when to start treatment for early stuttering. To date, the only variable clearly related to treatment time with the Lidcombe Program is pre-treatment stuttering frequency. Previous studies have shown that children whose stuttering is more severe take longer to complete…

Background: At present, percent syllables stuttered (%SS) is the gold standard outcome measure for behavioural stuttering treatment research. However, ordinal severity rating (SR) procedures have some inherent advantages over that method. Aims: To establish the relationship between Clinician %SS, Clinician SR and self-reported Speaker SR. To…

Objectives: During speech pathology professional preparation there is a need for adequate student instruction with speech-restructuring treatments for adults. An important part of that clinical educational experience is to participate in a clinical setting that produces outcomes equivalent to those attained during clinical trials. A previous…

Background: Although there are treatments that can alleviate stuttering in adults for clinically significant periods, in Australia there are barriers to the accessibility and availability of best-practice treatment. Aims: This parallel group, non-inferiority randomized controlled trial with multiple blinded outcome assessments investigated whether…

Background: Speech restructuring is an efficacious method for the alleviation of stuttered speech. However, post-treatment relapse is common. Aims: To investigate whether the use of video self-modelling using restructured stutter-free speech reduces stuttering in adults who had learnt a speech-restructuring technique and subsequently relapsed.…

Background: Those who stutter have a proclivity to social anxiety. Yet, to date, there is no comprehensive measure of thoughts and beliefs about stuttering that represent the cognitions associated with that anxiety. Aims: The present paper describes the development of a measure to assess unhelpful thoughts and beliefs about stuttering. Methods &…

Background: Persistent calls for school-based education about stuttering necessitate a better understanding of peer attitudes toward children who stutter and a means to measure outcomes of such educational interventions. Langevin and Hagler in 2004 developed the Peer Attitudes Toward Children who Stutter scale (PATCS) to address these needs and…

Background: In the Lidcombe Program of Early Stuttering Intervention, parents present verbal contingencies for stutter-free and stuttered speech in everyday situations. A previous randomized controlled trial of the programme with preschool-age children from 2005, conducted in two public speech clinics in New Zealand, showed that the odds of…

"Background": Clinical trials have shown that behavioural treatments based on variants of prolonged-speech (PS) are best practice for reducing the stuttering rate in adults. However, while stuttering is significantly reduced or eliminated for most adults in the short-term with such treatment, relapse in the longer-term is common. Consequently,…

Background: The development of evidence-based practice, which is increasingly popular in stuttering treatment, is closely linked to the development of outcome measures. Aims: Two approaches to the development of stuttering treatment outcome measures are outlined. The first is the deductive, top-down approach, where the development of specific…

Background: It has been suggested that one way to increase speech pathologists' confidence in working with people who stutter is to provide them with relevant and stimulating clinical experiences during their professional preparation. This paper describes a treatment programme for adults who stutter that is conducted by speech pathology students,…

Background: The benefits of treating stuttering close to onset have become obvious in recent years, and the Lidcombe Program has emerged as an effective and safe treatment method for children in their preschool years. The benefits of implementing the programme with young children, however, need to be weighed against the knowledge that many…

Background: It is well documented that adults can control stuttering if they use certain novel speech patterns referred to generically as prolonged-speech (PS). These speech patterns were refined in the 1960s and developed into behavioural treatment programmes. The bulk of available PS treatment research has focused on speech parameters thought to…