North-American Lidcombe Program file audit: replication and meta-analysis

Thousands of North American clinicians have trained for the Lidcombe Program of Early Stuttering Intervention, yet there are no benchmark data for that continent. This retrospective file audit includes logistical regression of variables from files of 134 children younger than 6 years who completed Stage 1 of the Lidcombe Program. Benchmarking data for clinic visits to Stage 2 is available for these files. Meta-analysis supplements worldwide Lidcombe Program benchmark data. The median number of clinic visits to Stage 2 was 11. High pre-treatment stuttering severity predicted more clinic visits than low severity. A trend toward statistical significance was found for the frequency of clinic visits. Frequent attendance of mean less than 11 days was associated with longer treatment times than infrequent attendance of mean 11 days or more. Results for North America were consistent with benchmark data from the UK and Australia. The mean attendance trend is clinically important and requires further investigation because of its potential clinical significance.