Therapists from Around the World Attend Workshop on Stuttering

The following 23 speech therapists were chosen to attend an intensive workshop on stuttering therapy:

Hillary Baker, Collierville, TN; Kerri G. Berard, Fort Worth, TX; Armin Bings, Koln, Germany; Leetal Cuperman, Montreal, QC Canada; Ana Karina Espinoza Pena, Santiago, Chile; Shirley ZiJun Feng, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Rudine Fetahaj, Prishtine, Republic of Kosovo; Sandra Rosa Gimenez, Campinas Brazil; Ladan Khoshbin, Binghampton, NY; Michelle Kusturiss, Oreland, PA; Paige A. Lane, Bangor, ME; Faith Leung Hiu Lam, Kowloon, Hong Kong; Dimitra Makaroni, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Maria Silvia Mazzocchi, Parma, Italy; Rebekka Langmo Pavlak, Oslo, Norway; Kaisa Punkeri, Helsinki, Finland; Angelica Bernabe Roman, East Lansing, MI; Matteo Scalabrin, Sedriano, Milan, Italy; Avrohom Steinmetz, Brooklyn, NY; Liveem Mariam Tharakan, Stockton, CA; Amanda Wells, Moscow, ID; Katherine Winters, Cincinnati, OH; Claudia Maria Zapata, Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina.

These therapists participated in the workshop, Using Cognitive Approaches to Working with People Who Stutter, in Boston, Massachusetts, from June 3-7, 2024. It is cosponsored by the Stuttering Foundation and Boston University.

“Since 1985, we have conducted these intensive workshops in order to increase the pool of speech-language pathologists trained in the latest techniques for the treatment of stuttering,” said Jane Fraser, president of the Stuttering Foundation. “We are particularly excited to have Ali Berquez and Elaine Kelman from the Michael Palin Centre in London to lead this year’s training.”

“Those who are selected to participate already have professional experience and are highly motivated,” added Caroline Brinkert, M.S., of Boston University, and coordinator of the Workshop. “Although the Foundation provides full scholarships, many give up their vacations or part of their income to attend. Our task is to provide a forum where they can hone their skills.”

This year’s Workshop attendees are already providing stuttering therapy from California to Maine, from Brazil to Hong Kong to Malaysia.

The Stuttering Foundation estimates that more than 80 million people stutter worldwide. It notes that the more than 400 past graduates of the Boston Workshop program have created a “ripple effect” back in their home communities as they continue to share their knowledge.

The Stuttering Foundation is a nonprofit organization that has been helping those who stutter since 1947. For more information, visit our websites at www.StutteringHelp.org and www.tartamudez.org.

Back row: Ladan Koshbin, Matteo Scalabrin, Paige Lane, Maria Silvia Mazzochi, Armin Bings, Katie Winters, Kerri Berard, Kaisa Punkeri, Leetal Cuperman, Rebekka Pavlak

Center row: Sandra Gimenez, Claudia Zapata, Michelle Kusturiss, Avrohom Steinmetz, Angelica Bernabe Roman, Ana Karina Espinoza Pena, Amanda, Rudine Fetahaj, Faith Leung Hiu Lam, Dimitra Makaroni, Liveem Thakaram, Hillary Baker, Shirley Feng

Front row: Sarah Delpeche, Elaine Kelman, Caroline Brinkert, Ali Berquez

CELEBRITY FOCUS

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.