For over ten years, BSA has worked to encourage early intervention for pre-school children, to overcome the age-old paradigm of 'ignore it and it will go away'. Research shows that the best chance of addressing stammering, in terms of completely overcoming it, is as close to onset as possible.

Every Child's Chance of Fluency
(Project completed 2009)

BSA's latest pre-school project has demonstrated that providing an excellent service for pre-school children, a service that will offer them the best chance of complete recovery from stammering, does not have to be hugely expensive.

The final project report sets out the project's methods and positive outcomes, and recommends that all SLT departments implement the changes. The report will be distributed to all managers and commissioners of services in the NHS in the UK, and is available on our website.

Speaking Out article: Every Child's Chance of Fluency - this includes the twelve criteria to enable every SLT department to assess the quality of their service.

Pre-School Dysfluency Campaign
(2003-2006)

This project investigated and analysed the standard of services for preschool dysfluent children provided by Primary Care Trusts throughout England.

Pre-school dysfluency campaign report (pdf file, 4.66MB), 2006.

Parental Awareness Campaign
(1999-2002)

Based on recommendations in the PHWP (below), the Parental Awareness Campaign aimed to take the early referral message to a wider audience, including parents directly, and maintain its profile over time. The Campaign aimed to encourage parents, early years workers and health professionals to refer children under five, showing signs of stammering, to speech and language therapy.

Parental Awareness Campaign

Primary Healthcare Workers Project
(1995-1999)

The PHWP sought to challenge a widely prevailing misconception - that it is best to 'wait and see' whether a child will grow out of early stammering. It aimed to persuade GP's and health visitors throughout the UK to identify and refer pre-school children at risk of early stammering, and undertook important research into referral rates.

The results of the five year project showed a remarkable climb in referral rates since its start in 1995. The project reports made various recommendations, including the need for ongoing raising of awareness.

Primary Healthcare Workers Project