An operant intervention for early stuttering - The development of the Lidcombe program

Stuttering is a common speech disorder that causes significant distress and may cause social maladjustment and hinder occupational potential. Treatmen ts for chronic stuttering in adults can control stuttering by teaching the speaker to use a new speech pattern. However, these treatments are resource intensive and relapse prone, and they produce speech that sounds unnatural to the listener and feels unnatural to the speaker. This article describes the development and evaluation of an operant treatment for early stutterin g. Parents are trained to present verbal contingencies for stuttered and st utter-free speech during everyday speaking situations with their children. The authors overview outcome data from several studies that suggest that th is program produces relapse-free control of stuttered speech in preschool c hildren in the medium and long term in a cost-effective manner.