Lidcombe Program stuttering activities: Volume 2 printable activities for face-to-face and telehealth therapy now available

When we published The Lidcombe Program for stuttering: my 10 favourite therapy activities back in 2014, we had no idea how popular it would be. Thousands of people from more than 20 countries have downloaded our free resource. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with many parents and speech pathologists reaching out to thank us for sharing activity ideas.

More help needed

We’ve also had a lot of requests from time-poor parents and speech pathologists for specific materials/activities to help them do the treatment. Recently, we’ve had requests from speech pathologists and parents looking for materials to do the treatment by telehealth or webcam (e.g. by Zoom, Coviu or Skype).

We listened!

We’re now thrilled to announce the publication of Volume 2: Printable activities for face-to-face and Skype-based delivery of the Lidcombe Program

Why a pack of printable activities?

We wanted to publish this pack of printable activities for four reasons:

• “Telehealth” (e.g. Zoom, Coviu or Skype) delivery of the Lidcombe Program has become more popular as the evidence base has grown (e.g. Bridgman et al., 2014). Although some face-to-face resources (like books) can be adapted easily for telehealth delivery, others can’t. With these activities, both the speech pathologist and the family can access exactly the same resources.
• Some children (e.g. very talkative children and children with moderate or severe stuttering) may need more time in Stage 1 of the Lidcombe Program to get and stay fluent. Table-top activities like the ones in this pack can help maintain a child’s “buy in”, attention and interest to enable families to focus most on what matters: their child’s fluency.
• Some parents have told us that they have used up all the ideas in Volume 1 and want more activity ideas!
• For economic and/or cultural reasons, some children do not have access to toys and other resources at home for use in therapy. We want to make the therapy accessible to everyone. (That’s why speech pathologists who purchase this pack for use in their clinic are licensed to share this resource with an unlimited number of their clients without additional cost per client.)

Activities

This guide includes 10 low-preparation, printable activities for children who are being treated with the Lidcombe Program for stuttering. These activities are for children in the highly structured and semi-structured (“practice”) phases of Stage 1 of the treatment and are designed to be used in consultation/with the guidance of the child’s speech pathologist.

What you get

• 10 “print and play” fun activities with easy-to-follow directions specifically designed to help you administer 10-15 minutes of therapy per day painlessly;
• 148 pages of printable materials suitable for both face-to-face therapy and telehealth (e.g. Zoom, Skype) – even over Zoom, the speech pathologist and client can use the same materials;
• 552 high quality photographs depicting common objects (nouns), places, action words (verbs), and people;
• our 8 Speech Legends including Justice the Ninja, Viv the Pirate, Joss the Robot, and Arden the Warrior Princess;
• 6 attractive colour game boards, including our Smooth Stones Path, Pirate Hunt, Butterfly Chase, Keys to the Castle, Dinosaur Babies, and Freight Attack;
• lists of carrier phrases, description attributes, and conversation starters to help deliver the therapy at the level set by the speech pathologist;
• guidance on how to use and adapt the activities for different levels of fluency and language; and
• additional reinforcement of the main therapy goal – stutter-free speech – with regular reminders from game characters in many activities to focus on smooth speech.

A companion volume

We designed the pack to include lots of cross-over between this pack and Volume 1. For example, we’ve deliberately used the popular grid-format used in Volume 1 to help parents and speech pathologists adapt the games to help administer the therapy. We also encourage parents and speech pathologists to “mix and match” activities and materials from Volume 1 and 2 to maintain interest.

We hope you find the activities as useful in delivering the Lidcombe Program therapy to children who stutter as we do. You can find our Lidcombe Program Stuttering Activities Volume 2 here: