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.

How to talk about stuttering with children and parents; promoting open therapeutic conversations

Speaker: Daisy Hope, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, MSc, RegMRCSLT, RegHCPC, European Stammering Specialist, The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering

Date: Friday, October 24, 2025

Time: 10—11:15 am ET

Click to Register

Description: Daisy Hope, from the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering (UK), will explore some practical ways to talk with children and their families about stuttering. The session will consider the language we use to talk about stuttering, how to support children to talk about their experience of stuttering and how to promote openness around stuttering with children and their caregivers/ parents. The session will briefly outline some of the theory, with a focus on how to use this in practice using videos and case examples.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will learn:

The importance of open conversations about stuttering for children who stutter, their caregivers/parents and others.
How to talk about stuttering in a neutral way.
How to support children who stutter to talk about their experience of stuttering – both within initial assessment and in therapy.
Ways to promote openness about stuttering between parents and children who stutter.

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: Daisy Hope is a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist at the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering, where she has worked since 2016. She works with children individually, with their families and in groups and adults. She has an interest in taking a systemic approach to stammering; paying particular attention to the context in which clients are communicating. She has completed additional training in Systemic and Family Therapy, as well as other therapeutic approaches such as Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Acceptance Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Daisy is involved in the delivery of the Centre’s national and international training programme and offers clinical supervision. Daisy is a registered Certified European Stuttering Specialist.

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Emily Blunt

Actress Emily Blunt struggled with stuttering early in her life. A teacher encouraged her to act in a school play at age 12 despite her stuttering.

Blunt’s name is prominently featured on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter.

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.

Alan Rabinowitz

Alan Rabinowitz, Ph.D., who passed away in 2018, was an explorer, wildlife conservationist, and author. He established the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve in northern Myanmar, which is about the size of the state of Vermont.

His love for animals began when he was very young.

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.

Ken Venturi

As much of the nation watches the U.S. Open Golf Championship, it is impossible not to think about our late friend Ken Venturi. Ken overcame many challenges to win the Open at Congressional in 1964 and go on to become the voice of golf for more than three decades.

However, Ken faced no bigger obstacle than stuttering. Ken Venturi was a champion to those who stutter, going out of his way to share his personal experience when consulted by a colleague, friend, or child who stutters.