In this amusing article featured in the Australian newspaper the Age, noted author Kate Forsyth relates her battles with speech difficulties and memories of her childhood. Has anyone else ever heard of "spoonerisms"?
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Douglas Channel, BC
Murray Minchin is a postal worker from Kitimat, British Columbia, and a vocal advocate for protecting the Douglas Channel, part of the coastal region he calls home. When he heard about plans for a pipeline and marine terminal there three years ago, the potential damage to the environment worried him. Despite his stutter and chronic shyness that had affected him his whole life, he decided to become a spokesperson for the cause and stand up to the huge Alberta gas distribution company, Enbridge.
Dan Rossi and Sam Dunsiger
CSA members Daniele Rossi and Samuel Dunsiger share what they got out of attending the 2012 National Stuttering Association conference in St. Petersburg, Florida.
By Daniele Rossi
This year marked my third time attending the NSA conference. It was great to hang out with my friends again and have good times together.
But spending only four days with my friends just was not enough.
For people who stutter, picking up a telephone to make a call can be like picking up a live cobra – only the phone is worse. Stutterers often share the agony of having to speak on the phone.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about why this is so. And here’s what I’ve come up with. Someone once told me about that about 70 per cent of the meaning we get from dialogue comes from non-verbal communication. The rest comes from verbal communication.
Most people seemed to like Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention on September 4. But some pundits and commentators pointed out a habit she had of stuttering on certain phrases. While some people called her out for being "fake", others thought it enhanced her speech by making her seem humble and honest. It was a genuine "part of her rhetorical style", and had been "practiced" .
At the risk of sounding repetitive, it is time to restate our campaign against the "Kill Your Stutter" product that is currently being sold over the net through the on-line marketing company Clickbank. On the face of it, the whole thing seems frivolous and ridiculous, something nobody would fall for. Yet the price of the e-book that claims to be able to stop stuttering in 10 minutes has risen steadily since its introduction, from $37 to $97 – it would seem sales are going strong. The people who sell it have nothing but contempt for people who stutter, as illustrated by the communication on an on-line forum where they make fun of stuttering and comment that people who stutter "seem like a good desperate niche [market]".