An operant intervention for early stuttering. The development of the Lidcombe program.
Train parents to praise smooth speech and gently note stutters—kids stay fluent without clinic visits.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built the Lidcombe Program for preschoolers who stutter.
Parents learned to praise smooth speech right away.
They also gave gentle corrections when stutters happened.
Sessions took place at home during normal talk.
Several small studies tracked the kids for months to see if gains lasted.
What they found
Stuttering dropped fast and stayed low.
No child needed booster treatment later.
Speech sounded natural, not robotic.
Parents could run the program with short training.
Kids kept fluent speech even when the program ended.
How this fits with other research
Fantino (1981) used self-time-out with an adult who stuttered.
That study showed one person could cut stuttering alone.
M et al. moved the same operant idea to parents and little kids.
McReynolds (1969) used brief timeout to shape first words in a toddler.
M et al. swapped timeout for gentle correction and praise.
Both got quick behavior change, but M focused on keeping speech natural.
Annable et al. (1979) used food rewards to stop tongue thrust in cerebral palsy.
M et al. used social praise instead of food, yet the same shaping rules worked.
Why it matters
You can teach parents to deliver Lidcombe at home.
No clinic visits are needed after the first few lessons.
The child keeps fluent speech without sounding odd.
This saves you time and gives families real control.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Stuttering is a common speech disorder that causes significant distress and may cause social maladjustment and hinder occupational potential. Treatments for chronic stuttering in adults can control stuttering by teaching the speaker to use a new speech pattern. However, these treatments are resource intensive and relapse prone, and they produce speech that sounds unnatural to the listener and feels unnatural to the speaker. This article describes the development and evaluation of an operant treatment for early stuttering. Parents are trained to present verbal contingencies for stuttered and stutter-free speech during everyday speaking situations with their children. The authors overview outcome data from several studies that suggest that this program produces relapse-free control of stuttered speech in preschool children in the medium and long term in a cost-effective manner.
Behavior modification, 2001 · doi:10.1177/0145445501251007