The Lidcombe Program is a behavioural treatment for young children who stutter. It was developed by a research team led by Professor Mark Onslow, consisting of researchers at the Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, and clinicians at the Stuttering Unit, Bankstown Health Service . The program takes its name from the suburb of Sydney where the Faculty of Health Sciences is located.
Parents learn how to do the treatment during weekly visits to the speech pathologist.
This parent training is essential, because it is the speech pathologist's responsibility to ensure that the treatment is done appropriately and is a positive experience for the child and the family. The treatment is direct. This means that it involves the parent commenting directly about the child's speech. This parental feedback is overwhelmingly positive, because the parent comments primarily when the child speaks fluently and only occasionally when the child stutters. The parent does not comment on the child's speech all the time, but chooses specific times during the day in which to give the child feedback.