Identification of Efficacy of Direct, Indirect and Combined Methods on Severity of Stuttering in Preschool Children

Stuttering is a disorder that interrupted the fluency of speech with repetition, prolongation and block signs. The present study explored the effectiveness of the Lidcombe program compared with the other common methods in preschool children with stuttering (CWS).
Subjects and The present research was a single subject study with an Alternative Treatment Design (ATD). In this research, six preschool children who stutter were selected from the clients of speech therapy clinics in Isfahan and were randomly assigned to one of three groups: direct, indirect and combined treatment groups. The evaluations were based on severity rating (SR) and percent stuttered syllables (SS%) assessments and video analysis. The goal was to determine which of the programs reduced the severity of stuttering more effectively.
For children in all groups the ratings of the severity of stuttering (SR) and the percent stuttered syllables (SS%) were reduced but the percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) of the three interventions showed that it was reduced more in the Lidcombe and in the Lid-PCIT programs but the differences between these programs were not significant.
This study provided preliminary evidence that Lidcombe, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), and integrated programs were effective in reducing the severity of stuttering and the percentage of stuttered syllables in preschool children who stutter. These results are potentially important all these methods of interventions during the primary years can help preschool children who stutter to overcome their disorder.