Journal of Fluency Disorders 48 (2016) 44–55 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Fluency Disorders Phase II trial of a syllable-timed speech treatment for school-age children who stutter Cheryl Andrews, Sue O’Brian, Mark Onslow ∗ , Ann Packman, Ross Menzies, Robyn Lowe Australian Stuttering Research Centre, The University of Sydney, Australia a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 8 February 2016 Received in revised form 1 June 2016 Accepted 16 June 2016 Available online 21 June 2016 Keywords: Stuttering Children Fluency disorders Response to intervention Speech-language-pathology a b s t r a c t Purpose: A recent clinical trial (Andrews et al., 2012) showed Syllable Timed Speech (STS) to be a potentially useful treatment agent for the reduction of stuttering for school-age children. The present trial investigated a modified version of this program that incorporated parent verbal contingencies. Methods: Participants were 22 stuttering children aged 6–11 years. Treatment involved training the children and their parents to use STS in conversation. Parents were also taught to use verbal contingencies in response to their child’s stuttered and stutter-free speech and to praise their child’s use of STS. Outcome assessments were conducted pre-treatment, at the completion of Stage 1 of the program and 6 months and 12 months after Stage 1 completion. Results: Outcomes are reported for the 19 children who completed Stage 1 of the pro- gram. The group mean percent stuttering reduction was 77% from pre-treatment to 12 months post-treatment, and 82% with the two least responsive participants removed. There was considerable variation in response to the treatment. Eleven of the children showed reduced avoidance of speaking situations and 18 were more satisfied with their fluency post-treatment. However, there was some suggestion that stuttering control was not suf- ficient to fully eliminate situation avoidance for the children. Conclusions: The results of this trial are sufficiently encouraging to warrant further clinical trials of the method. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction There is a pressing need to develop better treatments for school age children who stutter (Nippold, 2011; Nippold & Packman, 2012). Stuttering is most tractable during the preschool years with outcomes becoming less positive with increasing age (Bothe, 2004; Bothe, Davidow, Bramlett, Franic, & Ingham, 2006; Ingham, 1984; Ingham & Cordes, 1999; Onslow & Packman, 1997, 1999; Prins & Ingham, 1983). As well as becoming increasingly difficult to treat, stuttering can lead to social and emotional problems as children enter formal school years (Conture & Guitar, 1993). School children who ∗ Corresponding author at: Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, P.O. Box 170, Lidcombe, NSW 1825, Australia. E-mail addresses: cheryl.andrews@sydney.edu.au (C. Andrews), susan.obrian@sydney.edu.au (S. O’Brian), mark.onslow@sydney.edu.au (M. Onslow), ann.packman@sydney.edu.au (A. Packman), ross.menzies@sydney.edu.au (R. Menzies), robyn.lowe@sydney.edu.au (R. Lowe). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfludis.2016.06.001 0094-730X/© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.