Monitoring early stuttering onset before treatment is due: A cross-sectional study

Early intervention for stuttering is essential. When immediate treatment is not indicated, therapists often monitor stuttering over time. However, how such monitoring is implemented in daily practice has not been studied in-depth.

35 Belgian stuttering therapists completed a questionnaire addressing three questions: How do therapists monitor early stuttering? When do they end monitoring? When do they provide recommendations to parents, and which ones?

Monitoring early stuttering varies significantly. Monitoring can be proactive (therapist-led, scheduled sessions, perceptual scale, recordings, parent course) or watchful (parents initiate contact if severity increases or negative speech attitudes develop). Monitoring targets stuttering development, child's speech attitude, and parental concerns mainly through parent reports, supplemented by scales, observation, recordings, or additional assessment. Providing accurate information about stuttering is an integral component of monitoring. Parents are encouraged to listen attentively, observe, occasionally shadow speech, and make minor communication adjustments (recommendations that do not require supervision). Monitoring ends and treatment begins when secondary behaviors appear, child awareness increases, or parental concerns increase.

Despite the small sample size and the explorative nature of this study, this study demonstrated that a varied approach to monitoring early stuttering is taken in Belgium with clinical reasoning underpinning individual approaches, generally consistent with the limited existing guidance. These findings do not necessarily reflect best practice, but can be a starting point for more research in this area.