The impact of parent-led CBT on intervention for children who stammer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Impact of Parent-led Cognitive Behaviour Therapy on Intervention for Children Who Stammer
IRAS ID
236832
Contact name
Sandra Dunsmuir
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2017/11/71, UCL Data Protection Registration
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 9 days
Research summary
This study aims to explore if parent-led Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) impacts children who stammer and their parents. Outcomes will measure: a child’s overt stammering severity, the impact of the stammer, child anxiety, parent stress and parental responses. \n\nStammering is a neuro-developmental speech disorder, symptoms can be overt (audible disruptions to a speaker’s fluency) and covert (psychological). Children aged between 7-12 who stammer are six times more likely to develop social anxiety than non-stammering children. The CBT model proposes that there is an interplay between thoughts, feelings and behaviour, and specifically, how unhelpful thoughts can lead to, and maintain, unhelpful behaviours. \n\nStudies of parents of children who stammer have shown a significant number of parents experience feelings of frustration, anxiety and guilt at some point when their child is stammering. These feelings can lead to changes in how a parent responds to their child, sometimes protecting them from adversity or by taking control. Changes in how a parent responds can play a role in maintaining the stammer and in the development of anxiety. Parent-led CBT enables parental responses to be addressed early on alongside a child’s speech therapy. \n\nThe study will be conducted in an NHS community speech therapy clinic setting involving children who stammer, aged 7-12, and their parents. Participants will have been invited from the current waiting list to attend an 8 session intervention group. This pathway, session content & delivery does not deviate from that already offered within the service. Participants will be invited to opt in to the research. \n\nData collection will include: (quantitative) questionnaires & measures of stammering severity, and (qualitative) open-structured interviews with parents after intervention. It is anticipated that all data collecting combined will take no more than 105 minutes per participant.
REC name
South Central - Oxford A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SC/0029
Date of REC Opinion
6 Feb 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion