Can Stuttering Be Treated Online?

Why does stuttering treatment suit video calls?

Stuttering treatment for preschool children suits video because the person being coached is the parent, and the parent is at home. In the Lidcombe Program, a treatment developed in Australia for children under six, a speech pathologist trains, guides and supervises a parent to give short, positive feedback on the child's talking during the day. The program's guide states that it is not designed for parents to use without a clinician.

That shapes how Dr Lauren uses the session. She watches parent and child talk together on camera, in their own lounge room, with their own toys and books. She can see how the feedback is going in the setting where it will be used all week, which a clinic room cannot show.

What does the research say about treating stuttering by video?

For preschool children, treating stuttering by video has been tested against clinic visits. A randomised trial with 49 children aged three to five found no evidence that webcam treatment did worse than clinic visits on stuttering nine months later (Bridgman and colleagues, 2016). Parents in both groups rated their relationship with the speech pathologist much the same.

For school-age children the evidence is thinner. A 2024 trial by video with 37 children aged 6 to 12 had no comparison group, and about a third of the children had very low stuttering within 12 months (Johnson and colleagues). For teenagers there is less again: one small 2012 Australian trial treated three teenagers entirely by webcam (Carey and colleagues). The rest of the evidence is set out on does online speech therapy work?

How is a session different for a preschooler and a teenager?

The age of the child changes who sits at the screen.

Age	Who is on the call	What Dr Lauren does
Preschool (under 6)	A parent and the child together, playing or reading	Coaches and supervises the parent, and checks progress through the daily ratings
School-age (6 to 12)	The child, with a parent nearby when needed	Works with the child directly and chooses the approach after the assessment
Teenagers	The teenager on their own	Works with the teenager directly; the approach is chosen after the assessment

Teenagers often find video easier than a clinic: no waiting room, and no time out of school to travel. The teenagers page covers how sessions run without a parent in the room. A toddler who is late to talk as well as stuttering may also need the toddlers and late talkers page.

What can we do while we wait to hear about a place?

While you wait, Australian public health guidance gives parents a few safe steps.

• Give your child time to finish words and sentences, and do not finish them for them.
• Do not comment on the stuttering in everyday talk; if your child raises it, acknowledge how they feel.
• Know that nothing you did caused it: stuttering is not caused by parenting, nerves or the way parents talk to children.
• Do not wait for your child to grow out of it. Not all children do, and no one can predict which will.
• Do not start the Lidcombe Program from a website or a book. It is meant to be run with a speech pathologist.

Some public services ask parents to keep a daily severity rating while they wait, once a speech pathologist has shown them how. These steps come from NSW Health's guide for parents and the Better Health Channel.

When is in-person help the better choice?

In-person help is the better start when a child cannot take part in a video call even with a parent beside them, or when another concern needs a hands-on check first. The full list is in the guide is online speech therapy right for my child? How a session runs from start to finish is on how online speech therapy works, and every family starts with an online speech and language assessment.