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?
Dr. Dennis Drayna is a human geneticist well known to the stuttering community for his renowned work researching the genetic basis of speech disorders. His team has made groundbreaking discoveries in the field and he has frequently appeared at conferences to share his findings. In April he was interviewed by Ben Chambers on the podcast Speaking of Science. Here is a summary of the interview.
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!
This is the continuation of an analysis of Marc Shell’s 2005 book, Stutter. (See part 1 here.) As described in the previous installment of this three-part review, Shell examines the phenomenon of stuttering as it pertains to four figures from popular culture: Moses, Hamlet, Marilyn Monroe, and Porky Pig.