Evaluation of Telehealth Efficacy in Improving Maintenance Phase of Stuttering Children

Background: Stuttering as a communication disorder can lead to serious problems in interpersonal communication and affect the quality of life of the affected person. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of telehealth in improving its treatment and its effect on maintenance phase of stuttering children. Methods: In this study, all 6 - 12 year-old stuttering children referred to the Speech Therapy Center of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in 2018 were selected by purposeful sampling method and divided into two groups of experiment and control. Children were healthy and without any disorder. All 12 children received a three-month course of treatment with a speech and language pathologist (SLP) weekly one session. Maintenance phase included 8 sessions of 30 minutes over a period of six months. Results: Six children in the experimental group received maintenance phase training exercises by the SLP in the form of audio and video files through the WhatsApp software. Average total satisfaction rating (4.22) the lowest satisfaction score (3.16) highest score (5). According to the total score of the questionnaire,17% of the parents were satisfied at a low rate, 33% of parents were satisfied with the average and 50% of parents were very satisfied. Conclusions: In this study, the efficacy of telehealth on the maintenance phase of stuttering children has been evaluated. Results showed that telemedicine, with its ability to completely remove distance and travel as barriers for both patients and health care professionals is one option. Telemedicine can be a viable alternative to traditional in-person physician-based care for stuttering.