Articles

Photo: Jerry and Eli at Jerry's horse farm

My name is Irvin. I am a 79 year old farmer from Central Saskatchewan. I want to tell the story of my stuttering journey. I don't remember when it started but I remember stuttering since public school. I stuttered and had blocks, but I will mostly refer to them both only as stutters.

The 2025 CSA Conference in Kingston, Ontario was my second. This annual event is certainly a time for people who stutter, their families and friends to get together, reconnect and celebrate. It was also an opportunity to meet new people who attended the conference for the first time.

I have recently had the exceedingly good fortune to attend both (a) the ISA World Congress (International Stuttering Association) in far-northern Finland in August of 2025, and (b) the inaugural “STARS” Conference (Stuttering Treatment and Research Society) in Laguna Niguel in Southern California

My parents have told me that I didn’t say my first word until I was three years old. When I was a child, I knew I didn’t talk like other kids and I initially believed there was something wrong with my vocal cords.

My name is Samuel Sinanan, and I am a person who stutters. I have been a stutterer all my life. This year was the first time I attended a Canadian Stuttering Association (CSA) Conference.

I recently had the great pleasure of attending the CSA ( Canadian Stuttering Association) annual conference for the first time in early November. I had always wanted to attend an international conference, and this was held in Montréal, Québec.

As I was growing up, the word "stutter" was never spoken in my household, leading me to believe that it was this taboo concept that should not be discussed. I slipped through the cracks of the school system and was never identified for speech therapy.