Sunday, September 19, 2010

Stop saying you cure 75% of kids!

Peter sent me this wonderfully misleading text:

"The University of Georgia, Speech and Hearing Clinic is an example of success in helping children overcome their stuttering, some starting therapy as early as two years of age. The treatment is based on the Lidcombe Program, which was developed in Australia in the 1980s and operates on the theory that stuttering is a neurological problem. It works by giving positive feedback for desired behaviour and corrective feedback for undesirable behaviour. It teaches the parents the importance of maintaining a healthy balance between praise and correction, making the process a positive experience for the child. The clinic claims to have a 75% success rate in eliminating stuttering, with the remaining 25% continuing to have a mild stutter. The treatment is more effective the earlier it is started and parents are encouraged to seek help as soon as they notice a speech problem."

75% sucess rate?? Excue me: 75% of the kids recover anyway naturally. On the other hand, the statement that "the remaining 25% continuing to have a mild stutter." is indeed possible after a good treatment with a good therapist, good parental support, and a receptive child. However, I would speculate that even though many leave with a milder stuttering, there is absolutely no guarantee that they will relapse over the next years. On the other hand, this relapse rate might be lower than with adults. Also the psychosocial adaptation could be much better than if the child had no intervention.

13 comments:

Terry said...

From which article do you get a 75% natural recovery rate? Last I looked, recovery rates were estimated between approximately 40% to 80%, depending on the article.

It also changes depending on if you look at clinical or non-clinical populations of children who stutter.

Anonymous said...

I found a hypnotist in my hometown who claims 100% recovery...I asked him if I get a refund if he doesn't cure me and he said yes. How do people get away with this?

ari said...

This is easy : in any treatment you will see great improve in the short term,
and when your therapist will ask you to do another session you will agree in order to keep your progress,
When the stuttering will come back you will blame yourself and not the therapist.

Ora said...

Tom -

I've been reading your blog for quite awhile, and you're raising valid issues about the difficulty in separating the effect of therapy for kids from the high natural recovery rate.

But there's one thing that has never been clear to me, and I hope you'll clarify it sometime: what's you opinion of the efficacy of speech therapy in general? Do you believe it works? Maybe you've written about this and I've just overlooked it. It would be interesting to have you explain your views on this fundamental issue.

Ora

Anonymous said...

Hollins and AIS (American Institute for Stuttering) both imply their programs will cure stuttering in adults.

Have you ever considered using these programs for your own stuttering?

Carl Herder said...

I'm one of the speech-language pathologists at AIS (American Institute for Stuttering). I feel inclined to reply to the last Anonymous statement.

I'm sorry if we have implied in some way that we "cure" stuttering in adults. Our goal is to guide various people along a process of change, to provide various physical and mental strategies that may be helpful in managing stuttering. None of the strategies we teach are intended to cure stuttering, and it is not our intent to make false claims of a cure.

Tom Weidig said...

@Terry: yes it depends which group you are looking at.

@Anonyn: Does the hypnotist have a website where he claims the cure? I could write a post about him.

@Ari: I TOTALLY agree with you.

Ora said...

The first Anonymous wrote: "I found a hypnotist in my hometown who claims 100% recovery...How do people get away with this?"

Does anyone know of any legitimate studies on the use of hypnosis as a technique in therapy for stuttering? There have apparently been legitimate uses of hypnosis for other medical conditions (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnosis#Medical_applications). Why not stuttering?

Anonymous said...

Ruthie Foster, Howard Flaum, Famous Attorney's, Actresses, Actors...etc...

Tiger Woods, Bill Walton, Bruce Willis, Marilyn Monroe, Julia Roberts, etc...

Programs and Therapies don't have to directly say "CURE" --- Those chosen by the respective organizations to represent the programs explicitly imply and often say ""CURE". Just look at the example set and message delivered by the Keynote Address guy at the NSA.

Anonymous said...

How's Tiger Woods working out as a spokesperson for the Stuttering Foundation of America as a role model for young boys who stutter?

Anonymous said...

"How's Tiger Woods working out ..."

Oh, come on! Do you really intend that as a legitimate criticism of SFA? Comments like that give "Anonymous" a bad name.

(If you meant it as a joke, then ha ha.)

Anne Bothe said...

Hi, Tom -- I'm at the University of Georgia Speech and Hearing Clinic, and I don't think we ever said any of this. The best I could find when I searched this text is this post by someone I've never heard of from 2003: http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewArticle.asp?id=11517 -- If you or whoever sent the excerpt to you has a more up to date link to something that is actually related to the University of Georgia Speech and Hearing Clinic, I will happily do what I can to make sure all of the information we provide to the public is accurate.

Tom Weidig said...

Hi Anne,

Yes, it's the 2003 link. I will make this clear.