Researchers at the Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research are the first in North America to study the use of video monitoring in stuttering rehabilitation. Video Self Modelling (VSM) is a common technique for athletes to monitor their own performances. Now, it has been introduced as a part of a treatment approach for adult stutterers.
Note: This article contains spoiler info for episode 7, “Tongue Tied”, but not for subsequent episodes.
The popular Netflix series Orange is the New Black, about an upper middle-class woman serving time in prison for drug smuggling, is now in its third year. This season the character of Norma, (played by Annie Golden) was introduced, an older woman who refuses to speak. The 7th episode, entitled “Tongue Tied”, reveals some of her past. Norma is in prison for murder and she does not speak because she is a person who stutters.
The German Stuttering Association has launched an ad campaign, #SaveYourPatience, to promote awareness for a specific need of people who stutter. It is a series of five very creative and amusing videos with the message of "saving your patience for people who stutter."
Branden "Skip" Brooks with
Beau Biden in 2008
Branden Brooks was a shy 8th grader with a stutter when his class visited the White House twenty years ago. He bravely put up his hand to ask Senator (before he was Vice-President) Joe Biden a question during a Q&A session. Biden stuttered in his youth, and approached Branden afterwards to give him some words of support, and later sent him a personal letter. Today Branden is a practicing lawyer, and in 2008 was sworn in by no other than Joe Biden's son Beau, who tragically died of brain cancer this year. Branden says that Joe Biden's words and letter always inspired him. Read more about this story here.
Norm McEwen (top) and team members at
the 2012 Ottawa Race Weekend.
Standing tall among others, Norm McEwen was a long time advocate for people who stutter in Ottawa and across Canada. For years he was a Board member of the Canadian Stuttering Association, and a founding member of the Ottawa Association of People Who Stutter (OAPWS). Also, for many years Norm, other OAPWS members and a team at the Rehab Clinic in Ottawa took part in the Ottawa Race Weekend under the banner of the Ottawa Hospital’s Run For A Reason campaign.
A decision made last year by the government of Australia with regard to funding speech therapy for pre-school children who stutter has created a controversy world-wide in the global speech pathology community.