Michael Palin Centre Partnership

Transatlantic alliance will help
researchers, clinicians and children

The Stuttering Foundation and the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children have joined forces in a groundbreaking alliance to help children who stutter through research, treatment and training programs.

The Michael Palin Centre, based in London, England, is widely considered one of the premier treatment centers in the world for childhood stuttering; and it is active in research and the training of speech-language therapists. While the Centre is based in London, it provides treatment for children as well as training for therapists from all over the United Kingdom.

The Memphis-based Stuttering Foundation is one of the leading U.S.-based nonprofit organizations dedicated to the prevention and treatment of stuttering. Its publications reach people in more than 100 countries each year, and it is also active in training speech language pathologists by sponsoring training courses for those who specialize in stuttering.

More than 800 therapists have participated in SFA workshops during the past 20 years, including 145 from 32 countries around the world. However, this will be the first direct involvement of the Stuttering Foundation in a treatment program.

"We are very excited at the prospect of working together with SFA to promote and provide first class service for children and young adults who stammer," said Frances Cook, M.Sc., manager of the Michael Palin Centre. "This partnership between our two organizations will combine our strengths and serve to benefit our clients and therapists on both sides of the Atlantic."

"The alliance of the two organizations makes perfect sense," said Jane Fraser, president of the Stuttering Foundation. "The Palin Centre's top-notch treatment facility means hope for thousands of children who stutter and for some time now has provided an essential training ground for researchers and clinicians."

The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children was officially opened in 1993. British comedian Michael Palin agreed to the center being named after him following his role in A Fish Called Wanda, in which he portrayed a character called Ken who stuttered. He based the role on his own father who suffered from stuttering all his life. Palin is best known for his comic roles as part of the Monty Python comedy group.

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Lewis Carroll

The recent Disney version of Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland, garnered a great deal of media hype. Even though the mainstream media has not made mention that Carroll was a person who stuttered, his family history gives credence to the discovery of the genetic link to stuttering. Carroll was born to parents who were first cousins; almost all of their eleven children, three girls and seven boys, struggled with stuttering past childhood.

Byron Pitts

Byron Pitts has brought much attention to stuttering with his memoir, Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges, released in September, 2009. The book not only details his speech difficulties, but also his illiteracy until age 12 and his unstable family life. Pitts overcame the odds to become the chief national correspondent with ABC News.

Kenyon Martin

Kenyon Martin, the basketball sensation who was named to the NBA’s All Star Team in 2004, joins other famous people who stutter in a new brochure. The brochure - which unfolds into a small poster - is available free of charge from The Stuttering Foundation.

The poster is intended to give children and adults who stutter inspiration as they grapple with their speech disorder.

Dave Taylor

Dave Taylor has been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter for many years, but probably few people know all of the unique accomplishments of this former hockey great who was born on December 4, 1955, in Levack, Ontario.

Bruce Willis

While the world knows Bruce Willis as an A-list actor, few know that he struggled with stuttering throughout his first 20 years.

Walter Bruce Willis was born in 1955 in West Germany to his German mother, Marlene, and his American GI father, David Willis. The family settled in David’s hometown of Penns Grove, New Jersey in 1957, and the couple has three other children.