A new treatment for children who stutter is being tested in Auckland.
The Lidcombe Programme has been developed by a speech language specialist and a team of researchers at Sydney University.
It is a behaviour modification treatment which involves parents praising their children for not stuttering during everydaylife and occasionally when they do stutter, asking them to correct it.
Mark Onslow, associate professor of speech language pathology at Sydney University, says that although the programme sounds amazingly simple, it can be difficult to make it work as the speech language therapist must teach parents how to do it.
Already, preliminary trial results have been positive, showing on average that after 11 visits to the speech therapist the stuttering is gone.
In New Zealand the trial will involve 108 children aged under 6. Half will receive the new, experimental treatment and the other half, the control group, will receive standard treatment practices or will simply be monitored.
Professor Onslow says it is easier to tackle the problem early when a child's neurological development is still flexible, known as neurological plasticity.
It becomes more difficult to treat as children reach 8 to 10. Adults must be taught to speak again, spending a lifetime using various speech patterns to control their stutter.
Auckland-based speech language therapist Shelley Williams has already started working with eight children and their families at the Stuttering Treatment and Research Trust in Parnell.
The treatment is free and plenty of places are available. Any child who is part of the control group can join the Lidcombe Programme at the end of the nine-month trial.
* Anyone interested in joining the Lidcombe Programme can ring the trust on (09) 379-6364 or e-mail support@stuttering.co.nz
