commentr/StutterFebruary 27, 2025

Content

This is a recommendation and some caveats about what worked for me and my son. First of all I would just reiterate that children under the age of 6 can be treated in a way in which older children and adults cannot. This has to do with neuroplasticity and brain development - so if your child is in this age group I'd strongly recommend acting with urgency. I'd highly recommend the Lidcombe program - My 4.5 year son stuttered badly and 4 months later he is almost completely stutter free. As a parent who went through it though I would say the main things were problems I had to solve as I went along: 1. Most speech therapists / pathologists are not experts in stuttering. Most will tell you they can help, most cannot actually help. 2. Preschool aged children are difficult to work with. Most speech therapists are bad at working with preschool aged children -> even if they have the correct knowledge, they are not able to have a positive impact if your child doesn't actually like them or like interacting with them. 3. The lidcombe program is poorly described online, and most therapists do not implement it correctly. 4. Because of the challenges of speech therapists not being experts in stuttering, and being bad at working with preschoolers, there is a culture of "accepting" stuttering that could and should be treated. Here is what I did: 1. I went through 4 different speech therapists. The first 2 were terrible. The 3rd was ok and got us fairly far along - she didn't know too much about stuttering (she said she did but as I learned more about it, I realized most parents don't truly try and own the outcome for their child and just believe whatever the therapist tells them), but she was good at interacting with my son who loved her. And with a lot of googling and AI help I created my own version of the lidcombe program and that got his stuttter down to SR 2-3. 2. I eventually got into the University program at UTS for stuttering research, where the team that created lidcombe actually work. That was transformational and took my sons stuttering down to SR 0-1. The main things I'd say are: lidcombe can and does work, but it's not well understood and largely implemented incorrectly. Own the outcome for your child - this is a lifelong challenge you are leaving for them if you do not help them now so act with urgency and take it seriously. Keep going even when the path is unclear. When my son was first assessed he was assessed at SR 3. However once we started ineffective therapy it shot up to SR 5. There were even SR9 spikes in which he couldn't speak at all. This was incredibly distressing. I kept at it though - trying different therapists, and doing the excercises (which kept changing) every day. But it was hard - emotionally and mentally. As I learned more about it and I got better advice and the therapy became more effective, he started to respond. And in fact, I would say that if the therapy is effective your child should respond very quickly: in less than 2-weeks you should see a very large difference. If that hasn't happened yet, and you've been trying for a while, then I'd suggest continuing to look for solutions. Lastly, UTS to my knowledge does do virtual consultations but the page to actually book one is almost impossible to find on their website but google it and click around and eventually you will figure out how to book a virtual appointment. Lastly, I know just how stressful this is - so I hope my story is helpful - good luck!

Themes

Parent & CaregiverTherapy & Professional

Subthemes

Treatment DecisionsSeeking TherapyTherapy ExperiencesPositive Therapy TechniquesPositive Therapy FitNegative Therapy / Harm