Investigating and Comparing the Effectiveness of Neurofeedback Training, the Lidcombe Program and the Combination of These Two Approaches on Preschool Stuttering Therapy: A Single-Case Study

Various therapeutic approaches to stuttering are involved in different causal factors. Most of existing therapies for stuttering are behavioral and concentrate on its apparent characteristics, while deficit in the underlying neural processing of speech is also one of the factors involved in stuttering. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate and compare the effectiveness of neurofeedback training, the Lidcombe Program, and the combination of these two approaches on preschool stuttering therapy.
The research used an ABAC/ACAB single-case experimental design. Subjects were four 5-6 years-old children with stuttering in Isfahan City. After the first baseline stage, subjects were randomly put in two situations. Two of subjects firstly received 15 sessions of neurofeedback training, followed by the second baseline stage and finally they underwent 15 weeks of Lidcombe Program. The other two subjects received the Lidcombe Program for 15 weeks at the beginning of the treatment stage, then the second baseline stage and finally 15 sessions neurofeedback training. One month after the end of the two interventions, all subjects received the follow-up stage. The research instrument was the calculation of the percentage of stuttered syllables in instances of conversational speeches of children. For data analysis, visual analysis of charts, descriptive statistics, and the effect size of the PND were used.
Data analysis indicated that neurofeedback training did not significantly affect the reduction of stuttered syllables percentage (PND=13-46%), but the Lidcombe Program caused its reduction (PND=40-86%). In addition, the sequence of presentation of neurofeedback training-Lidcombe Program resulted in more reduction in frequency of stuttering in the follow-up stage.
Results showed that neurofeedback training is not effective for the reduction of apparent symptoms of stuttering, while the Lidcombe Program was found to be effective on the reduction of stuttering. Additionally, the combination of neurofeedback training with the Lidcombe Program via the increase in attention and learning results in longer retention of fluency.