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participating in the trial, living at various locations around Australia. To date, all three children have met Lidcombe Program treatment benchmark improvements since starting treatment over the web. It is anticipated that the results of this Phase I trial will justify a randomised controlled trial of the webcam and traditional Lidcombe Program methods. Plans are underway to conduct this trial at La Trobe University in Melbourne. We anticipate disseminating the results of the Phase I trial through conference presentations and publications in professional journals in the near future. References Carey, B., O’Brian, S., Onslow, M., Block, S., Jones, M., & Packman, A. (2010) Randomized controlled non-inferiority trial of a telehealth treatment for chronic stuttering: The Camperdown Program. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders , 45 , 108–120. Hill, A., Theodoros, D., Russell, T., & Ward, E. (2009). Using telerehabilitation to assess apraxia of speech in adults. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders , 44 (5), 731–747. Jones, M., Onslow, M., Packman, A., Williams, S., Ormond, T., Schwarz, T., & Gebski, V. (2005). Randomised controlled trial of the Lidcombe Program for early stuttering intervention. British Medical Journal , 331 , 659–661. Lewis, C., Packman, A., Onslow, M., Simpson, J. A., & Jones, M. (2008). A Phase II trial of telehealth delivery of the Lidcombe Program of Early Stuttering Intervention. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology , 17 , 139–149. Onslow, M., Jones, M., Menzies, R., O’Brian, S., & Packman, A. (in press). Stuttering. In P. Sturmey & M. Hersen (Eds.), Handbook of evidence-based practice in clinical psychology . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Theodoros, D. (2008) Telerehabilitation for service delivery in speech-language pathology. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare , 14 , 221–224. Theodoros, D., Constantinescu, G., Russell, T., Ward, E., Wilson, S., & Wootton, R. (2006). Treating the speech disorder in Parkinson’s disease online. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare , 12 (Suppl. 3) , 88–91. Correspondence to: Kylie Farnsworth Speech Pathologist / Research Assistant Language and Literacy Group, Healthy Development Theme Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, The Royal Children’s Hospital,

treatment for young children who stutter. Essential components of the treatment include parents or carers delivering verbal contingencies for stuttered and stutter-free speech in the child’s everyday environment. Measurement of stuttering is also a critical part of the program. Parents learn how to do the treatment during weekly consultations with a speech pathologist. The Lidcombe Program is conducted in two stages. During stage 1, stuttering is either eliminated or reduced to an extremely low level. The aim of stage 2 is to keep stuttering away while the child and parent attend the clinic less frequently and treatment is gradually withdrawn.

During the past 15 years, independently replicated clinical trials have established evidence for the efficacy of this treatment. The Lidcombe Program has emerged as the evidence based, best practice treatment for early stuttering (Onslow, Jones, Menzies, O’Brian, & Packman, in press; Jones, et al, 2005). In a recent clinical trial, researchers adapted the program for delivery over the telephone (Lewis et al, 2008). Although the results of this trial showed clinically significant reductions in stuttering, these gains required around three times more resources than the standard delivery. Researchers at the Australian Stuttering Research Centre (Sydney) and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (Melbourne) are conducting a Phase I trial of the Lidcombe Program using webcam as an alternative to standard face-to-face clinic visits for preschool children who stutter. Families receive the treatment at home and do not attend the clinic. They require access to a computer with suitable broadband internet connection, webcam and audio software. The software application utilised in this trial is Skype, as it allows the users to make voice calls and participate in videoconferencing over the internet for free. The main concepts of the Lidcombe Program are unchanged. As noted above, the families have weekly consultations with the speech pathologist, treatment is delivered by parents and the stage 1 and 2 criteria remain the same. The weekly sessions themselves are conducted in much the same way as they are in the traditional clinic setting, though the family’s toys and resources are employed rather than the clinician’s. Three families are currently

Flemington Road, Parkville Victoria 3052 Australia phone: +613 9345 47520; fax: +613 9345 7041 email: kylie.farnsworth@mcri.edu.au URL: www.mcri.edu.au

Electronic copies of ACQ Speech Pathology Australia members are able to access past and present issues of ACQ via the Speech Pathology Australia website. www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au Hard copies are available to everyone (members and non members) at a cost by emailing pubs@speechpathologyaustralia.org.au.

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ACQ uiring knowledge in speech, language and hearing