Starting October 1, the International Stuttering Awareness Day Online Conference will be linked to the top of the Stuttering Home Page
Today, worldwide, there are approximately 30 million children, teenagers, and adults who stutter. Stuttering is a much misunderstood speech disorder. It is an important step for the stuttering community to recognize a day where consumers and professionals are working and learning from each other to share and give support to those affected by stuttering.
The date of October 22 (each year) has been selected by the International Fluency Association (IFA) and the International Stuttering Association (ISA) as the date for International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD). The date recognizes the growing alliance between speech-language professionals (SLPs) and consumers. SLPs and consumers are learning from each other and are working together to share, give support, and educate one another and the general public on the impact that stuttering has on individuals' lives.
A unique opportunity included in the first annual International Stuttering Awareness Day will be a free Internet conference (although it will also be available for 1.0 CEU for a fee, through Mankato State University for anyone interested). From October 1-22, there will be approximately 30 papers online, designed to appeal to a wide audience, including slp students, school slp's, private practitioners, university professors, and consumers from around the world. The papers will be on such diverse, cutting-edge fluency topics as summer programs for children who stutter, relapse, parenting a teen who stutters, what is successful stuttering therapy, stages of coping, cluttering, outcomes in stuttering therapy, PET-scan findings and their relation to stuttering, the role of self-help groups in stuttering therapy, implications of the internet in therapy with people who stutter, growing up with a stutter, being the spouse of a person who stutters, stuttering in various cultures, employment issues, etc.
The presenters will be from around the world, and representing both the professional community (many of them internationally respected leaders in the area of fluency) as well as many people who are touched by stuttering personally. Those who have agreed to present are:
The "papers" will be placed online October 1 and will be permanently archived on the Stuttering Home Page after the conference ends on October 22. Each paper will have an easy to access threaded discussion attached to the end (like a bulletin board where questions and comments can be accessed at any time from October 1-22). In this way, individuals from around the world will be able to ask questions and to make comments on any of the papers they wish. On or before October 22, the writer of each paper has agreed to respond to appropriate questions on the threaded discussions.
We look forward to your participation in the first online conference on stuttering!! Check in at the top of the Stuttering Home Page starting October 1.
For additional information about International Stuttering Awareness Day, please write to Michael Sugarman at 7626 Valentine St., Oakland, CA 94605 USA. Michael can also be reached by email. For additional information about the ISAD online conference, contact Judith Kuster