Enhanced focus on stuttering treatments

The school’s Speech Pathology team (from the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology) and Melbourne Teaching Health Clinic's (MTHC) Melbourne Speech Pathology Clinic joined to deliver their first intensive stuttering treatment program as a student clinical placement. Dr Elaina Kefalianos and soon to be Dr Georgie Johnson from Speech Pathology, and Emma White, with support from Clinic Director Dr Olga Birchall, from MTHC lead the successful initiative. The clinic ran an intensive format of stuttering therapy involving a week of daily stuttering treatment delivered by University of Melbourne students, equivalent to approximately four months of intervention.

Stuttering was also in the news with a radio interview by Elaina featuring on ABC radio with David Astle in January 2024. Elaina was joined by a fluency client, Michael, who first began stuttering as a preschooler and received treatment to resolve his stuttering at the time. He underwent brain surgery in 2023 and subsequently experienced a significant relapse leaving him with severe stuttering. The conversation is available here. Following participation in the intensive program run at MTHC, Michael’s stuttering is undetectable, with him describing the incredible life impact he has experienced as a result.

Lastly, Elaina and Georgie have been invited to present their work at an Effective Stuttering Treatment Project Seminar at Oslo University, Norway in April. This initiative is funded by a long standing $2.4 million grant awarded in 2017 by the Norwegian Research Council’s Better Health and Quality of Life program.