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This report presents a Phase II clinical trial of a syllable-timed speech treatment for early stuttering known as The Westmead Program. Of 17 children recruited, eight children aged between 3-4.5 years (mean 3 years 8 months) completed the treatment. The primary outcome measure was percentage syllables stuttered (%SS) measured from independent, blinded speech assessments of beyond-clinic audio recordings. Secondary outcomes were measures of treatment time, speech quality, and parent severity ratings. Dropouts occurred, but at a similar rate to other clinical trials of this nature. For the eight children who completed the treatment, mean pre-treatment stuttering was 6.0%SS and at 12-months post-Stage 2 entry stuttering had decreased to 0.2%SS, representing a mean stuttering reduction of 96%. A large effect size was obtained with a mean of 8.0 clinical hours required for these children to reach Stage 2. Independent listeners judged the everyday speech of all children to be not unnatural in any way. Stuttering reductions were attained with clinical efficiency and simplicity compared to other early stuttering interventions. Further clinical trials development of the treatment is warranted.

In this article we report the use of a simple, nonprogrammed, syllable timed speech procedure to treat stuttering in a 3-year-old boy with a 2-year history of stuttering. The treatment involved the boy and his parents visiting the clinic 7 times, and the parents modelling syllable timed speech 2 to 6 times per day for 5- to 10-minute intervals in and around the home. After 7 weeks, clinic measures and objective, blinded measures of speech beyond the clinic showed stuttering frequency below 1.0% syllables stuttered. Along with low severity ratings made by the parent each day, this meets the stuttering criteria of another, proven treatment for early stuttering intervention. However, in this study reduction in stuttering was achieved with a simpler and more cost efficient procedure. With the caveat that this is a nonexperimental case report, we discuss its potential implications.

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