October 17, 2019

Post date: October 17, 2019

October 22nd is International Stuttering Awareness Day  (ISAD).  We received an email from the president of the University of Maine's NSSLHA group (National Student Speech Language Association), Abby Hartwell.  This is an active chapter comprised of undergrads and also grad student who are majors on campus and each year they have "projects" and fund raising to donate to all causes related to communication disorders and also programs to further their own education.   Here is the cut/paste of the president's email to us.

"My name is Abby Hartwell and I am president of the National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association at the University of Maine in Orono.  October 22nd is Stuttering Awareness day and we wanted to do something informative for our members as well as hold a fundraiser to donate to a stuttering association. We were wondering if we could set up a google hangout with you or with some of your group members to ask questions as well as to listen to your stories about what it is like to be someone who stutters and what your experiences were like getting serviced by an SLP if you did. We would like to set this meeting up... October 17th at 5 o’clock so that we can do it before Stuttering Awareness day. Let me know if this is something you would be interested in doing!"

So tonight, October 17th, Chris, Marybeth, and Natalie joined Abby Hartwell and several other members of the UMaine NSSLHA for their chapter meeting via Google Hangout.  We have a fantastic discussion with Chapter, they asked very insightful questions and it was a pleasure to spend time with them.  To be honest, we could have discussed topics for hours and well into the night... but as they say all good things must come to an end (until next time).

Follow-up excerpts from this meeting:

"I just wanted to say thank you so much for tonight’s call! It was so great speaking with all of you, it was so insightful and interesting! People said after that was the best NSSLHA meeting we’ve ever had, that this was a great idea, and that it’s making them more interested to focus on stuttering in grad school which is awesome. Thank you again."  -  Abby Hartwell

"Thank you! It very important for future SLPs to hear first hand from people who stutter and understand the emotional and cognitive components of the disorder.  It is useless to only help your clients with the surface speech behaviors without understanding and addressing their attitudes and fears concurrently."  - Marybeth Allen

"This was very enjoyable. I’m sure I speak for us all when I say, your questions were great and we thoroughly enjoyed answering them.  Please feel free to reach out anytime. We are always here for our fellow people who stutter and the fantastic SLPs that stand with us." - Natalie Bragan