Evidence-Based Medicine and Stuttering: Speech and Language Therapy Best Practices in Literature and in the Italian Context
Anna Accornero, Dario Strangis, Francesca Del Gado, Donatella Tomaiuoli
Since the assessment and treatment of Fluency Disorders are responsibility of the speech therapist, it is essential that he/she acquires advanced skills that allow him/her to manage this disorder with clinical appropriateness and a multidisciplinary approach, respecting its multidimensionality. The Italian reality currently presents some inhomogeneities with respect to the references of Evidence-Based Medicine. Therefore, the results obtained from the Dutch Guidelines on Stuttering — the most recent evidence-based guidelines on the disorder at international level — are presented to update the current state of the art on stuttering management and to compare it with the Italian reality in relation to: organization of services in public health facilities, methodological approaches used by speech therapists and training of students of Degree Courses in Speech Therapy in Italy.
Keywords
Evidence-Based Practice, Speech therapy guidelines, Speech therapy, Disfluency, Fluency disorders, Stuttering, Cluttering.