August 27th, 2018

Post date: September 26, 2018

At last night's NSA meeting we greeted two "old timers" that we haven't seen for a while....great to see Chris and Tom!  Natalie and I rounded out the great group of 4 PWS who took command at our table at Dysart's!  After checking in with each other and sharing our "busy lives",  I shared a "hot off the presses" draft of a chapter meeting resource that has been developed by all the NSA national regional chapter coordinators for use at any chapter meeting.  The resource is  topic/discussion guide on 6 different topics...well done by the RCC team!  We zeroed in on the topic of "Portrayals of Stuttering in the Media and Popular Culture".  Our discussion focused mostly on the writer's "intent" when writing in a stuttering character".  Although there are of course exceptions (Paulie, Rocket Science, King's Speech), we agreed that typically the writer wanted to highlight some type of "negative" personality trait in that character. A lot of public education on the "cause of stuttering" is certainly still needed!  We were excited to hear Tom's experience of Reiki sessions (a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing) to help get a sense of "being inside his body" and as a result helping to manage his stuttering to become more fluent.  So the time flew by at Dysart's!! We missed all who could not be with us!!