When your child starts stuttering, it can be a very stressful and confusing time.

Seeking help and knowing when to get started with therapy is a crucial step in supporting your child to overcome this problem.

The next step is finding out the cost of private therapy and whether this is something that is achievable for your family. The consideration of cost effectiveness in speech pathology interventions has become increasingly important, given the very long waitlists and demands on health care resources.

This article will compare the cost and therapy time commitments of stuttering treatments available.

Cost benefit analysis

In my PhD research, a cost benefit analysis of childhood stuttering interventions was conducted and published in my final dissertation. This analysis compared the integrated stuttering treatment, implemented by Dr Kerianne Druker and colleagues, to several other published stuttering intervention programs. These are the preliminary key findings:

 Average number of stuttering treatment sessions:

• Integrated stuttering treatment implemented by Dr Kerianne Druker and colleagues: 12 sessions
• Other manualised direct treatment program available: 22 sessions 

Average “hours” spent in stuttering treatment:

• Integrated stuttering treatment implemented by Dr Kerianne Druker and colleagues: 7.3 hours
• Other manualised direct treatment program available: 19.6 hours

Cost of stuttering treatment:

 According to the NDIS, the hourly cost of speech pathology treatment is ~ $193.99. This  suggests the overall cost of stuttering treatment (excluding assessment) for the two stuttering treatment program options available is the following:

• Integrated stuttering treatment implemented by Dr Kerianne Druker: $1,416.12
• Other manualised direct treatment program currently available: $3,802.20

This suggests that the number of stuttering treatment sessions, session length, and subsequent treatment cost, is significantly less in the integrated stuttering treatment program compared to the other treatment program currently available. This is very exciting in light of the fact that this treatment has also been found to be more than 90% effective for treating children’s stuttering – compared to the 75% effective rate of the other treatment program.

When starting your child’s stuttering journey, it is important to be educated not only about the technical and emotional requirements of the therapy, but the time and cost predicted to be spent in therapy. This will give your family more confidence and surety about what to expect on all aspects this journey.