Virtual Learning

Virtual Learning by The Stuttering Foundation is an online series of free, interactive workshops with a variety of offerings for speech-language pathologists, parents, and individuals who stutter.

The series includes monthly offerings ranging from clinical training opportunities, to parent education, to a platform for people who stutter of all ages to share their stories. Sessions are moderated by many of the world’s leading clinicians, researchers, and self-help advocates — bringing learning and collaboration to you.

Building Parents’ Confidence and Resilience in Stuttering Therapy

Speaker: Sarah Caughter, MSc, RegMRCSLT, RegHCPC, European Fluency Specialist, Michael Palin Centre

Date: Friday, November 22, 2024

Time: 11:00am-12:15pm ET (4pm-5:15pm GMT [UK time])

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Description: Sarah Caughter, Highly Specialist SLT from the Michael Palin Centre (MPC), will discuss working with parents of children who stutter, developing their understanding of stuttering and boosting their own confidence and resilience in supporting their child with stuttering. She will explore how this supports parents to nurture their child’s emotional wellbeing and coping skills. This workshop will outline working with parents in a group context, helping parents to feel more at ease with stuttering and empowering them to manage stuttering within the family context.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

Be introduced to the holistic and multidimensional approach to therapy delivered at the MPC, using the Palin model
Explore the meaning of resilience and the skills included under this umbrella term
Understand a range of activities used to support parents in building their knowledge and confidence about stuttering
Be introduced to outcome measures that can be used with parents to monitor progress in therapy from their own perspective

Details:

Target Audience: Speech-Language Pathologists, Graduate Students
There is no fee for this event.
*This course is not eligible for CEUs at this time
Please register if available for the live event only. A recording may be available at a later date on our streaming site for a small fee.

Bio
Sarah Caughter is a highly specialist SLT who has worked at the Michael Palin Centre (MPC) since 2009. She has a Masters in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with children and young people and is an accredited ‘Cool Kids’ therapist (an evidence-based anxiety program for children and their parents). Sarah completed an intensive ‘train the trainers’ course in building resilience in young children, in Canada, in 2016. She has published research on resilience and stuttering, a clinical focus paper on working holistically with school-aged children who stutter and has co-authored a book chapter on using cognitive approaches in stuttering therapy. She leads the Centre’s training program and is currently contributing to the development of the Centre’s cluttering therapy and research. She has a particular interest in supporting children and young people who stammer with their emotional wellbeing, and in developing their self-esteem and resilience.

Contemporary Stuttering Modification

Speaker: Christopher Constantino, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Date: Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Time: 12-1:30pm ET

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Description: Stuttering modification therapy has been part of speech-language pathology’s treatment approach to stuttering for the better part of a century. This workshop will give an overview of the traditional stuttering modification therapy within the context of the contemporary research literature. We will discuss the primary stages of therapy, including identification, desensitization, variation, modification, and stabilization. I will give practical examples of therapy activities for each stage. The focus of will be on helping clients reduce concealment of stuttering and increase spontaneity of speech.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

Describe the stages of stuttering modification treatment.
Explain the evidence that supports stuttering modification treatment.
Identify at least two activities to help clients stutter with less effort.

Details:

Target Audience: Speech-Language Pathologists, Graduate Students
There is no fee for this event.
*This course is not eligible for CEUs at this time
Please register if available for the live event only. A recording may be available at a later date on our streaming site for a small fee.

Biography: Christopher Constantino lives in Tallahassee with his wife, Megan, and sons, Augustine and Sebastian. He is a speech-language pathologist at Florida State University. He works clinically with, teaches classes on, and researches how to improve the experience of stuttering. He co-edited Stammering Pride & Prejudice. Chris enjoys riding his bicycle.

CELEBRITY FOCUS

King George

In November 2010, worldwide movie audiences were presented with a most interesting and unusual movie release with The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, history may have forgotten the courageous and inspiring story of Prince Albert who stuttered badly and never dreamed that he would ever be king when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abruptly abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.

John Stossel

John Stossel is one of the most recognized and articulate reporters today. However, he once considered giving up his broadcasting career because of his stuttering.

“Fear of stuttering can easily become worse than the stuttering itself,” observed Stossel. “The idea that I’m on television and making speeches is still a shock to me sometimes.”

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.

Darren Sproles

Darren Sproles, a former player for The Philadelphia Eagles, the New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers, made history in 2007 when he became the first player in NFL history to return a kickoff and a punt for his first two NFL touchdowns in the same game. In 2021, he was selected to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.