THE LIDCOMBE-PROGRAM OF EARLY STUTTERING INTERVENTION - METHODS AND ISSUES

The Lidcombe Programme is an operant intervention for early stuttering that parents administer to children in their everyday speaking enviro nments. The treatment was developed at the Suttering Unit, Bankstown H ealth Service, Sydney, and The University of Sydney. Recently, staff f rom the Australian Stuttering Research Centre, The University of Sydne y, toured universities and clinics in the UK to present lectures about this treatment. We were encouraged to write this paper because an ind ependent survey showed that most speech and language therapists who at tended the presentations were open to this treatment. Prior to and fol lowing that lecture tour, publications in the press and professional j ournals in the UK alluded to many positive features of the Lidcombe Pr ogramme, but also raised several issues about it. The purpose of this paper is to summarise the Lidcombe Programme and address the following criticisms of the treatment that were raised in the UK: (I) Stutterin g is complex but the Lidcombe Programme is simple; (2) the Lidcombe Pr ogramme is not an operant treatment, but invokes positive changes in c hildren's environments; (3) the Lidcombe Programme is harmful to child ren; and (4) the scientific evidence in support of the Lidcombe Progra mme is flawed Each of these issues is addressed from logical, theoreti cal and empirical viewpoints.