About the presenter: Jane Fraser graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a BA in Russian studies. Graduate work at Universite de Strasbourg, France, in Russian and Linguistics. Has been president of the Stuttering Foundation since 1981. Was a member of the NIDCD Advisory Council of the NIH, 1996-2000. From 1978-1980, worked as editor in cancer research, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France. From 1975 to 1978 worked as interpreter and translator, Assemblee Nationale (Congress), Paris, France. She has been Trustee of Hamilton College, Co-chair, Parents Association, Pitzer College. Member of the Societe Francaise de Phoniatrie, and IALP.
About the presenter: Judy Kuster, M.S. in speech-language pathology and M.S. in counseling, is a professor of Communication Disorders at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She is well-published in Internet resources and has presented at state, national and international conferences. She is the webmaster for Net Connections for Communication Disorders and Sciences and the Stuttering Home Page as well as the coordinator of this online conference. She holds Specialty Recognition in Stuttering and is a member of the Division #4 Fluency and Fluency Disorders. She is a member of the National Stuttering Association, the International Fluency Association and the International Stuttering Association. .

You can post Questions/comments about the following paper to the author before October 22, 2006.

Stuttering: For Kids By Kids

Jane Fraser from Tennessee, USA
and Judy Kuster from Minnesota, USA and

The 2005 ISAD online conference previewed information about a new DVD, Stuttering: For Kids By Kids, produced by Lisa Scott and colleagues Kristin Chmela, Carroll Guitar, Jane Fraser, Bill Murphy, Joe Donaher and Lee Caggiano who thought that having footage of children talking to other children and answering questions about their own stuttering would be more acceptable and less intimidating to them than being "talked to" by adult SLPs. This year, the DVD is not only available for purchase ($10 from the Stuttering Foundation of America, a non-profit organization helping those who stutter), but is freely available online, and with the permission of Jane Fraser, has become a part of this conference. It is a video that will be especially interesting to any children for attend the online conference!

The DVD features "Swish" (an animated basketball) interviewing several children who stutter. The variety of the children who appear in the DVD -- in age, in interests, in stuttering severity, in experiences -- makes it appealing to children of all ages. Another unique feature of the DVD is that it includes an animated character who narrates, "Swish." This character is the creation of a team of Purdue University computer graphics students who donated their work for the DVD.

The film has many advantages besides those for children. It helps to bring stuttering out into the open for parents and teachers who, one hopes, will watch it alongside the kids at some point. It discusses doing a classroom presentation about stuttering, whether stuttering is a "big deal," how kids feel about being teased, etc. The children also offer advice about what has been helpful for them. Many different reactions are included in such a way as to make any child be able to identify with some of the children in the film.

A speech-language therapist, Sally Strudell posted on Stutt-L, 16 Mar 2006,

"We recently watched this video in my Fluency class and I love it. I have also showed parts of it to a school-age client who really enjoyed seeing kids her own age talk about stuttering and their feelings. I think this is one possible way to get kids to talk about their feelings without putting so much pressure on them to "say the right thing". It also lets them know that they're not alone. Even if they don't open up and want to talk about their own feelings it exposes them, in a hopefully safe way, to the fact that there *are* a lot of feelings about their speech that are OK to have and to talk about at some point with someone, even if it's not you (as the SLP)." VL, mother of a child who stutters posted on Parents-W, 13 March, 2006 I showed the video to B_ (age 7) and she was so happy to see other kids who stutter and hear them express some of the same feelings she has, she also thought Mathew in the video was cute!! It gave us another opportunity to talk about her stammer and to practice some of the speech techniques.

The entire video Stuttering: For Kids By Kids is freely available on this conference site in QuickTime format. To view the video in a variety of formats (both broadband and dial-up, in quicktime, realmedia, and windows media), follow this link.

You can post Questions/comments about the above paper to the author before October 22, 2006.

June 2006
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