The Lidcombe Program is an evidence-based early intervention program for childhood stuttering in which parents are trained to deliver treatment to their preschool-aged child in the child’s natural environment. It is a behavioral therapy that uses operant conditioning principles: the parent explicitly praises fluent, stutter-free speech and occasionally provides gentle corrections or requests for repetition when the child stutters. The program is implemented through daily home practice sessions led by the parent, with regular weekly visits to the speech-language pathologist who coaches the parent and monitors progress. Clinical trials have shown the Lidcombe Program to significantly reduce stuttering and achieve near-normal fluency in many children.
Elaine Blumgart et al., “Investigating the involvement of partners in stuttering therapy,” Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing 6, no. 2 (2001).
Mark Onslow et al., “Randomised controlled trial of the Lidcombe programme of early stuttering intervention,” British Medical Journal 331, no. 7518 (2005).
