More News

News from Around the World
The Stuttering Foundation is a global resource distributing millions of publications annually to people in 136 countries around the world. Every year we train hundreds of professionals through conferences, workshops, webinars, and symposia.
Orlando Convention a Magical Time
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association held its November convention in Orlando, and the Stuttering Foundation was there to spread the word about stuttering to the nearly 14,000 attendees.
Foundation Vice President Honored
Lisa A. Scott, Ph.D., Vice President for Education for the Stuttering Foundation, was elected a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), which has 173,000 members. Fellowship is one of the highest forms of recognition given by ASHA of an individual’s accomplishments and is a public declaration of outstanding professional achievements.
All Hail the King's Speakers!
It’s undeniable that the movie The King’s Speech has had a profound impact on the stuttering community. For one group, however, it has been more than an inspiration – it’s a namesake.
Fraser Awarded Honorary Fellowship
Stuttering Foundation President Jane Fraser received an Honorary Fellowship in September from the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists, headquartered in the United Kingdom. Fraser was selected for her distinguished service in promoting the profession of speech and language therapy. The awards ceremony was held at Leeds Metropolitan University in England.
Shelby Railroad Raises Over $10K for Stuttering
Kirk and John Tarver and their Memphis-based Shelby Railroad Services Inc. raised more than $10,000 for the Stuttering Foundation. Shelby Railroad held their annual fund-raising golf outing and dinner on Sept. 18 at Wedgewood Golf Club, in Olive Branch, Miss.
They’re Back
It has been 11 years since the release of the popular video Stuttering: For Kids, By Kids. Our new video, For Kids, By Kids: All Grown Up, is an updated look at four of those featured in the original film.
No Pit Stop for this Race Car Driver Who Stutters
Kyle Heckman is a race car driver from Bakersfield, California. He’s had great success at all levels of amateur and professional racing. His dream is to be a fixture on the NASCAR circuit. To do so, he’s looking for a sponsor.
Do Pina Coladas Relate to Stuttering?
Eighty-four years ago, a young Malcolm Fraser thought he had the coconut syrup market cornered. If Malcolm had been a bit more successful in the syrup business, the Stuttering Foundation might have a different look today.
Noel Gallagher of Oasis Rocks On
During the glory days of the band Oasis, it was little-known that Noel Gallagher had overcome a stuttering problem through many years of speech therapy.

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CELEBRITY FOCUS

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.

James Earl Jones

Actor James Earl Jones, a Broadway, television and movie star, was well-known for his voice as Darth Vader in Star Wars and his book Voices and Silences. Jones spoke some of the most memorable lines in the history of American film, but the man known for his voice was once afflicted with a severe stutter.

Bob Love

Bob Love has dreamt about being a great public speaker since his early days in Bastrop Louisiana, even though, as a young man, he could barely put two words together, let alone speak a full sentence.

In spite of his severe stuttering disability, Bob Love, the son of a sharecropper, rose to become a Chicago Bulls NBA superstar, whose records were eventually surpassed by Michael Jordan. Throughout his entire athletic career, Bob Love kept his stuttering a secret from the fans who adored him, thinking he could do his “talking” on the basketball court.

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.

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.