ACQ Vol 12 No 3 2010

Research update

Webcam Lidcombe Program treatment Kylie Farnsworth

Kylie Farnsworth

F or large, sparsely populated countries like Australia, providing speech pathology services to all who need them is a challenge. Researchers are currently striving to improve accessibility of such services using information and communication technologies. These technologies include the telephone, internet and desktop videoconferencing. This form of service delivery not only has the capacity to allow clients to be assessed and treated in their own homes or communities, it also has the potential to maximise functional outcomes by optimising the timing, intensity and sequencing of interventions, as well as facilitating generalisation of treatment effects within the client’s everyday environment (Theodoros, 2008).

This technology is now being used in a number of medical and allied health fields. There are various examples in the literature of speech pathology assessments and treatments being conducted via telehealth with positive outcomes. These include: the assessment of apraxia of speech in adults (Hill, Theodoros, Russell, & Ward, 2008), the treatment of hypokinetic dysarthria (Theodoros et al., 2006), and the treatment of adults and children who stutter (Carey, et al, 2010; Lewis, Packman, Onslow, Simpson, & Jones, 2008). In the current study, the Lidcombe Program of Early Stuttering Intervention is being trialled using videoconferencing. The Lidcombe Program is a behavioural

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ACQ Volume 12, Number 3 2010

www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au