Lasting Blissful Relief From Early Stuttering?

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Re: Persistent Preschool Stutterers

From: Mark Onslow
Date: 19 Oct 2007
Time: 00:02:48 -0500
Remote Name: 129.78.220.7

Comments

Hi Katie, In response to your first question, I don’t need a hypotheses about why some children don’t recover from the Lidcombe Program. The reason for this is that our research has found so few of them when it is done correctly by the parents. Second, if I may, could I venture that I feel you have made an error of logic with your statement that “this method of treatment implies that stuttering is behavioral in nature.” The nature of a treatment that works does not imply anything about the nature of the disorder for which it works. You are right; of course genetics is involved in its cause. You ask how could a behavioral treatment be beneficial if there is “some underlying factor.” Well there certainly is an underlying factor. My colleagues and I recently suggested that the treatment is efficacious because the verbal contingencies prompt children to compensate for a neural processing deficit, which is responsible for the disorder, before neural networks for speech become established (Packman, Code, & Onslow, 2007). Regarding your last point, it would be grossly incompetent if a clinician, treating a client of any age with any disorder, set the client up for failure and exacerbated any negative attitudes towards communication. No competent clinician would ever allow that to happen. Please continue our dialogue. Regards, Mark. Packman, A., Code, C., & Onslow, M. (2007). On the cause of stuttering: Integrating theory with brain and behavioral research. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 20, 253-362.


Last changed: 10/22/07