The ASEA Advisory Board has reviewed this study and verified current approval from the relevant ethics committee/s.

Recruitment for clinical trial of Lidcombe Program via webcam for school aged children

Dear ASEA Community,

I am supervising a PhD student from the University of Melbourne who is conducting a treatment trial of a webcam version of the Lidcombe Program for school-age children who stutter.

As you know, the paucity of stuttering treatments available for this age group compared to others is a significant issue for our field. In addition, these Covid times have reminded us of the need for research into telehealth practices for stuttering treatment to increase access to services. This project is therefore making an important contribution to the evidence base.

The primary aim of the study is to establish the short- and longer-term effect sizes, the rate of relapse, and whether these can be predicted clinically. As part of this project, we are looking to recruit participants who meet the following criteria:

• Children between 6–12 years of age.
• Children diagnosed as stuttering by a speech pathologist, or parents suspect that their child is stuttering.
• Parents and children who speak proficient English.
• Children who do not have a diagnosis of any severe language disorder or intellectual disability.
• Children who have not received stuttering treatment in the previous 6 months.

If you have families that would be eligible and interested to participate, please forward them the details of the student researcher.

Georgie Johnson

Email: gjjo@student.unimelb.edu.au

Phone: 0408 010 479

Your support for this project is very much appreciated.

Best wishes, Elaina

Elaina Kefalianos (PhD)

LeadTeaching Program & Senior Lecturer Speech Pathology

Vice-President, Stuttering Association for the Young: Australia

Honorary Fellow, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology | Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Level 1, 550 Swanston Street | Victoria 3052 Australia

T: 03 8344 4859 E: ekefalianos@unimelb.edu.au