The Lidcombe Programme 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 environments. The treatment was developed at the Suttering Unit, Bankstown Health Service, Sydney, and The University of Sydney. Recently, staff from the Australian Stuttering Research Centre. The University of Sydney, toured universities and clinics in the UK to present lectures about this treatment. We were encouraged to write this paper because an independent survey showed that most speech and language therapists who attended the presentations were open to this treatment. Prior to and following that lecture tour, publications in the press and professional journals in the UK alluded to many positive features of the Lidcombe Programme, 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: (1) Stuttering is complex but the Lidcombe Programme is simple; (2) the Lidcombe Programme is not an operant treatment, but invokes positive changes in children's environments; (3) the Lidcombe Programme is harmful to children; and (4) the scientific evidence in support of the Lidcombe Programme is flawed. Each of these issues is addressed from logical, theoretical and empirical viewpoints.