Articles

Doreen (Dori) Lenz Holte’s web site and  book Voice Unearthed have helped many parents find a new approach to dealing with their children’s stuttering.

On Sunday, March 27th, the CSA hosted a new Let's Talk instalment, focussed on dating with confidence. This event featured Jaleesa Bygrave and Devon Kirchner, women who stutter with diverse backgrounds.

Calling all youth of the Canadian Stuttering Association! In the coming months, the CSA will be working towards the preparation of a new stuttering support group for youth between the ages of 8 and 13. The group, dubbed the “CSA’s Support Group for Youth Who Stutter,” aims to provide kids and pre-teens with a safe, supportive environment to develop their unique voices around other youth their age who stutter.

CSA, in partnership with the network “SingWell” (singwell.ca), is organizing a unique virtual choir of people who stutter. Anyone who stutters across the globe can participate! No singing experience is required. Participation is entirely free! The aim of the project is to create a "virtual choir", a video composed of the voices of people who stutter. Individuals from all over the world will record the same song and all the performances will then be assembled together.

The Unblockables is an improv course for people who stutter. It is run by Tightrope Theatre and is in association with Columbia Speech and Language Services Inc. The three-week online course focuses on presence and saying yes, cultivating laughter and celebrating mistakes. It is taught through a series of games to support participants to speak with confidence and find their voice. The three weeks will culminate in a virtual performance for friends and family on the final night.

This is the third selected essay from the text, Stammering Pride and Prejudice. Like the author of the previous essay Scary Canary, writer Patrick Campbell had years of speech therapy, striving to be fluent for most of his life. As a student in medical school, he tried tricks to hide his stuttering whenever he spoke.

Mary Wood, a long-time and well-known CSA member, recently published a book based on her experience of stuttering. The book is titled “Beyond the Fear of Stuttering: My Journey to Self-Acceptance and Freedom”. We decided to congratulate Mary and to ask her a few questions about the book.

CSA: Hi, Mary. First, congratulations, and thank you for writing a book based on your experience as someone affected by stuttering. What was your purpose in writing the book?

SOME STUTTER LUH! (SSL!) will be hosting a special episode to support Jessica Deluce, a young entrepreneur and person who stutters, who seeks to establish a Not For Profit Foundation to help raise money for people who can't afford speech therapy. Also featured will be three established Associations and a community group of stakeholders coming together in solidarity and collaboration for Jessica to join her in the goal to give back and make her vision a reality.

On Sunday, March 27, the Canadian Stuttering Association hosted a new installment of its Let’s Talk series, focussed on dating with confidence. The interactive discussion featured Jaleesa Bygrave, a racialized woman and social worker who stutters, and Devon Kirchner, a queer woman who stutters. 

This is the continuation of a series of reviews of selected essays in the book, Stammering Pride and Prejudice: Difference not Defect.  See the first review here. The second piece entitled “Scary canary: Difference, vulnerability and letting go of struggle”, is a beautifully written essay by Katy Bailey,  a woman who takes a