Integrating functional measures with treatment: a tactic for enhancing personally significant change in the treatment of adults and adolescents who stutter

Abstract

Purpose: It is proposed that stuttering treatment, particularly for adults and adolescents who stutter, may benefit from more inventive and extensive use of functional measurement-measures that are also treatment agents. Such measures can be tailored to produce more personally significant and evidence-based treatment benefits. They may be especially useful when employed in conjunction with partial self-management and performance-contingent procedures.

Method: Previous approaches to the definition of stuttering treatment goals and the measurement of stuttering treatment outcomes are critically reviewed. Suggestions for improvements are presented within the framework of an evidence-based and relatively standardized stuttering treatment.

Results and conclusion: Results from a review of existing literature and from 2 case studies show that 2 specific personally significant problems, saying one's name and addressing large audiences, were improved by implementing these strategies in treatment. Functional measures directly connected to treatment, and partially self-managed performance-contingent schedules, merit further research as methodologies that are suitable for conducting personally significant and evidence-based treatments with adults and adolescents who stutter.