Child and parent speech and language following the Lidcombe Programme of early stuttering intervention

The Lidcombe Programme of early stuttering intervention incorporates operan t methods, and outcome data indicate that the procedure is an effective tre atment. However, the mechanism or mechanisms responsible for the effects of this treatment remain unknown. One possible mechanism could involve untarg eted change to parameters of parent and child speech during the interventio n. In this preliminary report, speech samples from nine children were studi ed before and after treatment. The purpose was to target independent variab les for future research. In spite of clear reductions in disfluency and stu ttering in the children, there were no corresponding changes in child or pa rent speech rate, interspeaker turn latencies, or pragmatic functioning, th at might account for such treatment effects. In fact, data suggested change s that would not be theoretically predicted to be associated with reduction s in disfluent and stuttered speech: Maternal speech rate increased in post -treatment speech samples and the mothers decreased the proportion of their utterances that contained a request for information. However, some childre n's language measures did not meet developmental expectations during the pe riod of study. Nonetheless. all children's language measures were within or above developmental expectancies during the period of study, which ruled o ut the possibility that this treatment induces extensive curtailment of lan guage functioning.