Treatment of School Age Children with the Lidcombe Program

[ Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ]


Does Lidcombe Work?

From: David Steiner
Date: 05 Oct 2010
Time: 13:58:53 -0500
Remote Name: 149.101.1.116

Comments

Stuttering runs in my father's mother's family, and I am the father of a three year old son. He has yet to manifest any stuttering and I certainly hope that he never does. I am told that I started stuttering at the age of three, although I did not become aware of my stutter until I was about eight. Had I been subjected to Lidcombe, I suppose that I would have become aware of my problem much earlier. I've never been quite sure what to make of Lidcombe. It claims a high success rate, but since 80% of children outgrow stuttering spontaneously, what does this prove? We all know of Fluency Shaping programs that claim 80% to 90% success rates, I have been in several of these programs myself and have only met a very few who received permanent benefit. Ergo, what can one make of a program designed to help those who in all likelihood will recover spontaneously? In other words, if adult programs with very low success rates, if indeed there are any successes at all, can claim 80% to 90% success, what comfort can one take from a program designed to help people who, if left alone, are in all likelihood going to outgrow the problem? If the child does outgrow the problem, Lidcombe will take the credit. If the child does not outgrow the problem, it will be easily swept under the rug. If adult fluency shaping programs can sweep their many failures under the rug, it will be all the easier to squelch that 20% who fail to outgrow the problem and take credit for the 80% who "succeed." All this, of course, is premised on the null hypothesis that Lidcombe does nothing. But suppose that's not true. Suppose that 80% of the control group grows out of stuttering, but only 60% of those treated with Lidcombe stop stuttering (i.e., Lidcombe is harmful). This would still be no problem for those selling the program since it seems to be so easy for those selling fluency shaping to ignore their many failures and claim astronomical success rates. There was a group of us who put these questions to the presenters at a Lidcombe seminar at the Annual ASHA Convention one year. I don't recall if it was at the ASHA Convention in D.C. or the one in New Orleans. Our questions angered the presenters, who were almost frighteningly evangelical about Lidcombe. I hope my son continues to be fluent so I will not have to make the decision as to whether Lidcombe would be a good idea.


Last changed: 10/23/10