Lidcome and intractable stammering

[cherryagm]

Hi,

My son is 5 and has been stammering for about 2 years. He has been seeing a speech and language therapist for about 18 months (maybe more) and has been doing the "full-on" Lidcome therapy (ie with positive and negative feedback and asking him to "make it smooth") for about 5 months. (His therapist had hoped to avoid this initially.) It doesn't seem to be doing any good and I'm starting to feel very worried and down about it.
I wondered if anyone else out there had had experience of problematic, persistent stammering. Is anyone else in a similar position? It would be a real relief to be able to speak to someone else trying to deal with a persistent stammer - the only parents I know who have tried Lidcome have found it worked very quickly, which makes the position we find ourselves in even more depressing.
Thanks.
Cherry

My DS (5) has had intensive speech therapy since he was three. He has recently started stammering and his therapist has recomended the Lidcombe technique which he will hopefully be starting soon (damn authorities won't pay to support it, even though he has a SEN school statement) so I am having to fund it myself privately - hello credit card :)

Anyway, the reason I am replying to you is to say don't give up hope. My son had four speech therapists before he found one that he really connected with and, like in all walks of life, some people are better at doing their jobs than others. He only really started progressing when we found the right therapist for him. Have you thought about shopping around and finding another therapist that can provide the Lidcombe programme for your son? A simple change of teacher might do the trick for him. Worth a try. Good luck

Hi there

Sounds similar to the situation we are in. My son has been stammering since he was two and is nearly five now. He has been having Lidcombe therapy for over a year and his speech still goes through phases of fairly fluent to lots of stammering (mainly prolongation). Despite upping the feedback (praise and acknowledgement) over the last couple of weeks, he has actually got worse and is now having physical symptoms (facial contortions, hitting his head when he is stuck) and it's really quite distressing. I'm so worried about him but obviously trying not to show this to him. He doesn't seem too upset.

Cherryagm - have you had any progress? I'm hoping to get a referral to the Michael Palin centre to get a full assessment.