Author: Vikesh

Stuttering related organisations around the world have signed a letter of congratulations to President Biden as the first US President who has a stutter.

Stuttering doesn’t mean we are any less intelligent, nervous or anxious. It just means that our words may take a little longer to get out so please be patient when you meet someone who has a stutter and wait for us to finish our thoughts.

The full joint letter

Dear Mr President 

Warm congratulations on your inauguration today from the stuttering community from across the globe. 

As someone with a stutter, your achievement stands testament to the fact that having a stutter is no reflection upon brains or talent.  This is an empowering message for young people who stutter here, and in every continent around the world, and a powerful message to all those who don’t stutter. Stuttering should be no bar to success.     

You stutter. We stutter. It’s how we talk.

I’m excited to announce that the World Stuttering Network (WSN) has recently setup a Youth Committee led by Chairman Sam, who you see in this video. They are changing one of their two monthly meetings to support the Australian time zone (and all others between here and the UK) so please check out details below. 

Please email events@speakeasy.org.au for the Zoom link and indicate if you are a parent of a youth who has a stutter, speech pathologist or speech pathology student. 

Message from WSN:

Our WSN Youth Committee Chairman, Sam Wiggins, has initiated an earlier meeting on Saturday, Jan 30th to accommodate our friends we haven’t met yet in Australia and Southeast Asia!

Date:  Saturday, Jan 30th

Time:  

• 8pm ……………… Brisbane

• 7pm ………………. Tokyo

• 3:30pm …………. New Delhi

• 10am ……………… London 

What we do:

• World Friending Pair up for one-on-one conversations with kids who stutter (KWS) & parents from around the world!

• Panel discussion with a few adults who stutter.  Kids ask the questions!

• Games if time allows

What to expect:

• No one talks unless THEY want to. 

• Use of chat is totally cool.

How do we keep this safe for kids?

In addition to Zoom’s Waiting Room feature, the initial room is used to insure:

• All cameras are turned on

• A parent/guardian is on screen with the KWS.

(For our Zoom techies, the initial Zoom room co-host becomes the gatekeeper for the meeting.  This person insures the above conditions are met and then sends participants to Breakout Room #1, which is used as the main room.  ‘Participants choose their own Breakout Room’ is disabled; manual is turned on)

Make new friends & have fun with the WSN Youth Committee!

Thank you ABC Radio Central West NSW and Ewan Gilbert for the opportunity to talk about stuttering on Thursday 14 January 2021.

Thank you Cynthia Dacillo Senaga, Speech Patholigist in Peru, for the opportunity to talk about stuttering.  We covered some great topics such as solitude vs community, social stigma vs awareness and fluency vs communication. 

Cynthia also took the time to translate and subtitle our English conversation into Spanish!  

The ASEA Advisory Board has reviewed this study and verified current approval from the relevant ethics committee/s.

Recruitment for clinical trial of Lidcombe Program via webcam for school aged children

Dear ASEA Community,

I am supervising a PhD student from the University of Melbourne who is conducting a treatment trial of a webcam version of the Lidcombe Program for school-age children who stutter.

As you know, the paucity of stuttering treatments available for this age group compared to others is a significant issue for our field. In addition, these Covid times have reminded us of the need for research into telehealth practices for stuttering treatment to increase access to services. This project is therefore making an important contribution to the evidence base.

The primary aim of the study is to establish the short- and longer-term effect sizes, the rate of relapse, and whether these can be predicted clinically. As part of this project, we are looking to recruit participants who meet the following criteria:

• Children between 6–12 years of age.
• Children diagnosed as stuttering by a speech pathologist, or parents suspect that their child is stuttering.
• Parents and children who speak proficient English.
• Children who do not have a diagnosis of any severe language disorder or intellectual disability.
• Children who have not received stuttering treatment in the previous 6 months.

If you have families that would be eligible and interested to participate, please forward them the details of the student researcher.

Georgie Johnson

Email: gjjo@student.unimelb.edu.au

Phone: 0408 010 479

Your support for this project is very much appreciated.

Best wishes, Elaina

Elaina Kefalianos (PhD)

LeadTeaching Program & Senior Lecturer Speech Pathology

Vice-President, Stuttering Association for the Young: Australia

Honorary Fellow, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology | Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Level 1, 550 Swanston Street | Victoria 3052 Australia

T: 03 8344 4859 E: ekefalianos@unimelb.edu.au