Evidence-based treatment of stuttering: I. Definition and application.
The philosophy guiding evidence-based treatment and its application to decision-making in stuttering treatment is described. Limitations to the use of evidence-based treatment principles to guide stuttering treatment, namely the lack of a substantial treatment research literature that can serve as the basis for meta-analyses and systematic reviews of effective treatment studies, are bemoaned. Guidelines are provided to aid clinicians in their own conduct of critical evaluations of treatment research.


OBJECTIVE
The reader will learn about and be able to (1) describe the four steps that characterize evidence-based practice, (2) evaluate previous efforts to develop practice guidelines for stuttering, (3) assess the importance of an evidence-based approach to stuttering treatment, and (4) discuss the need for more research that will contribute to the evidence base.
Ingham
Janis Costello
JC
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. jcingham@speech.ucsb.edu
D003657:Decision Making; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D013070:Speech Therapy; D013342:Stuttering / Q000628:therapy*