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Purpose: This Phase I trial investigated the viability of telehealth delivery of the Camperdown Program with adults who stutter. This program involves speech restructuring.
Method: All treatment was conducted remotely with participant-clinician contact occurring by telephone and e-mail.
Results: Ten adults completed the program. The group showed an 82% reduction in stuttering frequency immediately after treatment and a 74% reduction 6 months after treatment. However, there was significant individual variation in response to the program.
Conclusion: These preliminary data suggest that telehealth Camperdown has the potential to provide efficacious treatment for clients who do not have access to traditional face-to-face treatment.
KEY WORDS: stuttering, telehealth, adults
For the past 30 years, the best-researched behavioral treatments for stuttering in adults and older adolescents have been those that reduce stuttering with speech restructuring (Block, Onslow, Packman, Gray, & Dacakis, 2005; Boberg & Kully, 1985, 1994; Harrison, Onslow, Andrews, Packman, & Webber, 1998; Ingham et al., 2001; O'Brian, Onslow, Cream, & Packman, 2003; Onslow, Costa, Andrews, Harrison, & Packman, 1996). Speech restructuring involves changing speech production in ways that are known to suppress stuttering-for example, smooth speech, prolonged speech (PS), or modification of phonation intervals.
The present research group recently published the results of a clinical trial of the Camperdown Program (O'Brian et al., 2003). This behavioral treatment is based on control of stuttering using PS. The program consists of individual weekly sessions and 1 group practice day. It was reported that this PS program reduced treatment time to around one fifth of previous programs and simplified the treatment process. O'Brian et al. (2003) reported near zero stuttering frequency for many of the participants 12 months post-treatment, with essentially normal speech rates and reasonably natural-sounding speech. Participants varied around a mean of 20 hr for time taken to complete the program. The manual for the Camperdown Program is downloadable from the Web site of the Australian Stuttering Research Centre (www.fhs.usyd.edu.au/asrc). The Camperdown Program requires two or three clinicians for the intensive group day and considerable dedicated clinical infrastructure. It also requires clients to attend weekly, 1-hr clinic sessions after the intensive day for about 3-4 months, depending on progress.
However, many adults and adolescents are unable to attend a clinic on a regular basis, due to factors...