Course on Stuttering

Lesson 1 • Neurological and Genetic Bases

Covers brain imaging findings, neural timing deficits, and hereditary factors underlying stammering. Links biological evidence to clinical decision-making.

Lesson 2 • Psychological and Social Dimensions

Addresses anxiety, shame, avoidance, and identity issues that co-occur with stammering. Establishes the rationale for holistic, person-centred intervention.

Lesson 3 • Prevalence and Demographic Patterns

Examines incidence, prevalence, and recovery rates across age groups and populations. Contextualises clinical caseload expectations and research priorities.

Lesson 4 • Defining Stammering and Fluency

Introduces core terminology and the spectrum of fluent versus dysfluent speech. Provides the conceptual baseline for all subsequent clinical and theoretical content.

Lesson 1 • Demands and Capacities Model

Explains stammering as an imbalance between environmental demands and the child's fluency capacities. Directly informs parent counselling and environmental modification strategies.

Lesson 2 • Cognitive and Emotional Models

Covers cognitive-behavioural and emotional regulation frameworks explaining stammering maintenance. Links cognitive distortions and emotional reactivity to intervention targets.

Lesson 3 • Neuromotor and Timing Models

Examines models attributing stammering to disrupted speech motor planning and execution timing. Grounds fluency-shaping techniques in neuromotor theory.

Lesson 4 • Operant and Learning Models

Reviews classical and operant conditioning accounts of stammering onset and maintenance. Provides the theoretical basis for contingency-based intervention programmes.

Lesson 1 • Assessment Principles and Planning

Outlines the goals, scope, and ethical considerations of a stammering evaluation. Frames assessment as hypothesis-driven and client-centred.

Lesson 2 • Standardised Assessment Instruments

Reviews validated tools for measuring stammering severity, attitudes, and impact. Clinicians learn to select instruments appropriate to age and clinical question.

Lesson 3 • Collecting and Analysing Speech Samples

Teaches procedures for eliciting, recording, and transcribing representative speech samples. Accurate sampling is the foundation of reliable frequency and severity measures.

Lesson 4 • Differential Diagnosis

Distinguishes developmental stammering from cluttering, neurogenic stammering, and psychogenic dysfluency. Accurate diagnosis directs appropriate treatment pathways.

Lesson 1 • Gentle Onset and Airflow Techniques

Covers soft vocal attack, continuous airflow, and light articulatory contact as fluency targets. These techniques directly reduce the tension underlying stammering blocks.

Lesson 2 • Intensive Fluency Shaping Programmes

Reviews structured intensive programmes that deliver fluency shaping in concentrated formats. Clinicians learn programme components, candidacy criteria, and outcome expectations.

Lesson 3 • Transfer and Maintenance of Fluency

Addresses the critical challenge of generalising clinic-learned fluency to real-world settings. Provides structured hierarchies and self-monitoring strategies for long-term maintenance.

Lesson 4 • Principles of Fluency Shaping

Introduces the behavioural rationale and target speech parameters of fluency shaping. Establishes the conceptual framework before introducing individual techniques.

Lesson 1 • Identification and Desensitisation

Teaches clients to observe and analyse their own stammering without shame or avoidance. Desensitisation reduces emotional reactivity, enabling voluntary control work.

Lesson 2 • Cancellation Technique

Introduces the post-moment cancellation as the first modification technique in Van Riper's sequence. Clients learn to pause after a stammer and reattempt with a modified pattern.

Lesson 3 • Pull-Out and Preparatory Set

Advances clients to in-moment and pre-moment modification techniques. These skills enable real-time control and proactive management of anticipated stammering.

Lesson 4 • Combining Modification and Acceptance

Integrates stammering modification with acceptance and commitment principles for comprehensive outcomes. Addresses residual avoidance and builds a positive stammering identity.

Lesson 1 • Family and School Collaboration

Trains clinicians to partner with parents, teachers, and school teams for generalised outcomes. Coordinated support across environments maximises treatment effectiveness.

Lesson 2 • Lidcombe Programme for Preschoolers

Provides step-by-step training in the Lidcombe Programme, the most researched early stammering treatment. Clinicians learn parent training, verbal contingencies, and stage progression.

Lesson 3 • Demands and Capacities Intervention

Translates the demands and capacities model into parent counselling and environmental modification strategies. Reduces communicative pressure without direct speech work.

Lesson 4 • Early Identification and Risk Factors

Covers risk factors predicting persistence and guides decisions about watchful waiting versus early intervention. Timely identification prevents chronic stammering development.

Lesson 1 • Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Stammering

Applies CBT principles to address negative thoughts, avoidance, and communication anxiety. Reduces the cognitive and emotional barriers that limit speech technique effectiveness.

Lesson 2 • Integrated Behavioural Treatment for Adults

Combines fluency shaping and stammering modification into a flexible, individualised adult programme. Clinicians learn to sequence and blend techniques based on client goals.

Lesson 3 • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Introduces ACT as a values-based approach to reducing stammering-related suffering and avoidance. Clinicians learn core ACT processes and their application to stammering treatment.

Lesson 4 • Adolescent-Specific Treatment Considerations

Addresses the social, identity, and motivational challenges unique to adolescents who stammer. Adapts adult techniques to developmental and peer-context demands.

Lesson 1 • Culturally Responsive Stammering Practice

Equips clinicians to adapt assessment and treatment for clients from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Cultural humility and bias awareness are framed as clinical competencies.

Lesson 2 • Evidence-Based Practice in Stammering

Integrates research evidence, clinical expertise, and client values into treatment decisions. Clinicians learn to critically appraise stammering research and apply findings.

Lesson 3 • Managing Complex and Comorbid Cases

Addresses treatment planning when stammering co-occurs with language disorders, autism, or acquired neurological conditions. Prioritisation and sequencing decisions are central skills.

Lesson 4 • Professional Development and Supervision

Addresses clinical supervision, reflective practice, and ongoing professional growth in stammering specialty. Prepares clinicians for mentorship roles and continuing education.