I’m Michelle Weinshtein and I am a person who stutters. But I am also many other things — a 20-year-old young woman, a sister to 3 brothers, a daughter, friend, and student.
Our annual CSA conference last month was a huge success! We had record-breaking attendance, including many families, speech-language pathologists and students, and of course - people who stutter of all ages.
Many attempts have been made to change public attitudes about stuttering. Such attempts have included talks, media interviews, and videos which seek to inform the public about stuttering. With regard to all such information-sharing efforts, a question naturally comes to mind: how would we know whether a given attempt to change public attitudes about stuttering, or any other condition, actually works?
On November 2, I had the pleasure of attending the very first conference of the Newfoundland and Labrador Stuttering Association (NLSA), in Mount Pearl, near the city of St-John’s, Newfoundland. The NLSA is a new stuttering association, founded in 2018.
Ella and Wynn, who live in Vancouver, BC, celebrated International Stuttering Awareness Day on October 22nd. They watched a video and talked with their class about stuttering and how to be a good friend/ally to people who stutter. They also made morning announcements at school and ate special cookies shaped like the stuttering awareness ribbon. Ella and Wynn are already planning ways to celebrate and spread the word about stuttering for next year!
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Early in July, I attended the 4 day 36th annual National Stuttering Association (NSA) Conference which was held at the beautiful Marriott Harbor Beach Resort and Spa in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There were over 800 people there and about 100 newcomers. As announced at a general session, we were participating in the largest gathering of people who stutter (PWS) in the world and it was EXCITING and DYNAMIC and MOVING, to say the least!