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Stuttering Didn't Silence the News
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 a national correspondent with CBS 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.
Famous Brothers Didn't Let Stuttering Stop Them
Brothers Dominick and John Gregory Dunne, who died in 2009 and 2004 respectively, are well known as having been famous writers and literary giants.

What the public at large does not realize is that both Dominick Dunne and his younger brother John Gregory not only struggled with stuttering but also were quite open about it.
Who Knew? Mr. Bean?
When moviegoers in the U.S. saw the television ads for the October 21, 2011, release of the new Rowan Atkinson movie Johnny English Reborn, few, if any, knew that Atkinson, most famous for his character Mr. Bean, is a person who stuttered. Unlike some other famous actors, Rowan Atkinson’s stutter is not widely known. However, stuttering still is a factor in his life.
What Are They Up to Now?
Shelby Railroad on Track for Stuttering
Kirk and John Tarver and their Memphis-based Shelby Railroad Services Inc. raised a record $7,000 to help those who stutter.

Jane Fraser and Susie Hall were in attendance to receive this outstanding gift.

The annual Tin-Cup Tournament took place on October 7 at Wedgewood Golf Club in Olive Branch, Miss.
Meaningful Bar Mitzvah Project Benefits All
Josh Cohen of Cherry Hill, N.J., wanted to do something special for his Bar Mitzvah last October. In fact, his plans had been in the works since the spring time.

It was the Bar Mitzvah requirement to complete a personally meaningful project of community benefit that inspired Jo
Dennis Drayna Answers Questions
Dennis Drayna, Ph.D., researcher for the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, answers questions from students at Glendale American Elementary School.

Dr. Drayna: Thank you for your interest in our research on stuttering. I’m happy to answer your questions as follows:
Thoughts on Successful Fluency
By Garrett

Hello, my name is Garrett and I have just celebrated my eighteenth birthday. I was born in Merced, California and now reside with my family in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Along with reading, I also enjoying running, being with my family, and I am a diehard NASCAR fan.

Because the help I sought in becoming fluent is proving successful, my therapist thought perhaps others could benefit from reading about my experience and encouraged me to answer the following questions for the reader of this article.

Teletherapy Opens New Options for Clients

By Kristin Chmela, M.A., CCC-SLP

For those working with individuals who stutter, telepractice services are becoming more popular as a way to help clients with limited or no access to speech therapy or with needs that require more specialized assistance.

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Carly Simon

Carly Simon began stuttering severely when she was eight years old.

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.

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.

Jack Paar

While Jack Paar is among the most prominent of the entertainers on the Stuttering Foundation’s list of Famous People Who Stutter, he deserves special recognition as he was among the first to openly address his stuttering in public. As host of The Tonight Show from 1957-1962, he spoke of his difficulties as a stuttering child and teenager, giving hope to young people.

Bob Love

The late Bob Love 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.