Equitable Access To Stuttering Treatments: Developing Distance And Self Managed Treatment Models
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$4,321,062.00
Summary
The development of normal verbal communication is of the utmost importance to human health. Stuttering is a prevalent disorder that severely interferes with communication. It can be disfiguring and typically causes speech related social anxiety. Social phobia is present in around half of adults affected. It prevents attainment of occupational potential and children who stutter are typically teased and bullied at school. For the past decade NHMRC Project funding has enabled the present team to co ....The development of normal verbal communication is of the utmost importance to human health. Stuttering is a prevalent disorder that severely interferes with communication. It can be disfiguring and typically causes speech related social anxiety. Social phobia is present in around half of adults affected. It prevents attainment of occupational potential and children who stutter are typically teased and bullied at school. For the past decade NHMRC Project funding has enabled the present team to conduct world class basic research and clinical trials in stuttering. Significant gains have resulted from that research, in particular the development of treatments across the age groups that have a significant evidence base. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that there are serious barriers to the implementation of these evidence based treatments, and innovative treatment developments are needed to address this. In particular, speech pathology services for rural and remotely located patients and their families are incompletely funded, and even in urban settings workplace restrictions have resulted in speech pathologists delivering incomplete and piecemeal treatments. The program of research will develop the following innovative treatment models to solve this problem: �Distance intervention models for the delivery of speech pathology services to rural patients and their families and others who are isolated from treatment services. �Self-managed treatment models for children and adults who stutter, including procedures to minimise the ubiquitous problem of relapse in adults. It is widely understood that social anxiety is a significant problem for many stutterers and research is urgently needed to establish the extent of social anxiety in stutterers across the age groups and its negative effects on treatment effectiveness. Thus, a further aim of this program of research is to: �Identify those patients for whom social anxiety is likely to constitute a barrier to successful treatment. �Develop supplementary interventions to meet the needs of those socially anxious patients. The cause of stuttering is unknown. Understanding the mechanisms underpinning effective behavioural treatments would contribute to understanding causal factors in stuttering. Thus, this program of research also aims to: �Establish why behavioural treatments work, thereby generating new knowledge about causal factors.Read moreRead less
Development And Evaluation Of An Internet-based Clinic For Stuttering.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$6,200,965.00
Summary
Stuttering is a prevalent disorder of speech production. The program of research will establish the world’s first Internet-based stuttering clinic to service all the clinical needs of child, adolescent and adult patients. The Internet-based clinic model will provide economical, scalable and translatable stuttering treatments that will, for the first time, provide a means to adequately manage the public health problem of stuttering.
A Telehealth Adaptation Of A Treatment For Chronic Stuttering
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$389,400.00
Summary
Stuttering can have devastating effects on psychological development, social adjustment, and the realisation of educational and vocational potential. Best practice treatments for chronic stuttering in adulthood and late adolescence stop or reduce stuttering with a systematic process of speech restructuring. However, speech restructuring treatment for chronic stuttering is specialised and resource intensive. Probably half of Australians with chronic stuttering cannot access such specialised treat ....Stuttering can have devastating effects on psychological development, social adjustment, and the realisation of educational and vocational potential. Best practice treatments for chronic stuttering in adulthood and late adolescence stop or reduce stuttering with a systematic process of speech restructuring. However, speech restructuring treatment for chronic stuttering is specialised and resource intensive. Probably half of Australians with chronic stuttering cannot access such specialised treatment services because of distance and lifestyle factors, and because clinicians do not have the resources to provide the treatment. These problems present a research challenge. The present project aims to meet this challenge by developing an innovative treatment model for adults who stutter based on telehealth. This treatment model will make the treatment accessible to all rural and urban dwelling patients with chronic stuttering, and will make the treatment deliverable by every clinician. The research will have significant impact for many end users.Read moreRead less
Cortical Networks That Integrate Auditory Input And Speech Motor Output In Human Stutterers
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$292,639.00
Summary
Stuttering is a chronic communication disorder that arises from problems in the brain processes that control speech. This research aims to use magnetoencephalography, a new and extremely fast method of brain imaging, to study the parts of the human brain that underlie speech production. By studying the brains of both child and adult stutterers the causes of stuttering will become more apparent. Ultimately, this research will lead to more effective treatments for stuttering.
From Discovery To Innovation In Stuttering Treatment
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$5,124,148.00
Summary
Stuttering starts in 2-3-year olds and if not controlled causes a lifetime of social anxiety, and hinders educational and vocational achievement. Recent discoveries by the current team and colleagues have shown the disorder to be far more prevalent, and more of a public health problem, than previously thought. The team has developed efficacious treatments for stuttering children and adults. However, no country can afford the health care needed for all who stutter. The present research is designe ....Stuttering starts in 2-3-year olds and if not controlled causes a lifetime of social anxiety, and hinders educational and vocational achievement. Recent discoveries by the current team and colleagues have shown the disorder to be far more prevalent, and more of a public health problem, than previously thought. The team has developed efficacious treatments for stuttering children and adults. However, no country can afford the health care needed for all who stutter. The present research is designed to solve this problem by developing standalone Internet based stuttering treatments. These will be evaluated in a stepped care treatment approach for people who stutter, in Australia and internationally.Read moreRead less
The Effects Of Treating Comorbid Social Phobia In Adults Who Stutter
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$196,245.00
Summary
Stuttering is a distressing and common speech disorder that prevents normal communication, hinders attainment of occupational potential, and can cause a lifetime of embarrassment and anxiety in everyday speaking situations. Around half of all adults who stutter have a condition called social phobia, which involves excessive anxiety in social situations. This is an important observation, because it is well known that treatments for adults who stutter are not particularly effective for some patien ....Stuttering is a distressing and common speech disorder that prevents normal communication, hinders attainment of occupational potential, and can cause a lifetime of embarrassment and anxiety in everyday speaking situations. Around half of all adults who stutter have a condition called social phobia, which involves excessive anxiety in social situations. This is an important observation, because it is well known that treatments for adults who stutter are not particularly effective for some patients. In this research project, we investigate the possibility that this is because existing treatments have not addressed the fact that many adults who stutter have levels of social anxiety in everyday speaking situations. In this experiment, half the subjects receive a standard treatment and the other half receive a standard treatment plus cognitive behaviour therapy designed to alleviate their social anxiety.Read moreRead less