Hide | Stuttering Foundation: A Nonprofit Organization Helping Those Who Stutter

When you feel sad or angry about your stuttering

An excerpt from the book Sometimes I Just Stutter

Help is ‘Always Available’ for Global Stuttering Community

For Immediate Release
Contact: Greg Wilson
greg@curleycompany.com
571-239-7474

October 22 is International Stuttering Awareness Day

Some people just don't understand

An excerpt from the book Sometimes I Just Stutter

10th Oxford Dysfluency Conference

One hundred ninety-two delegates from 32 countries met in Oxford, UK, marking 30 years since the first Oxford Dysfluency Conference (ODC) in 1984. Several age-defying attendees of this year’s conference also were present at the inaugural conference.

MSHA Gift Shows It Cares

The Missouri Speech-Language-Hearing Association (MSHA) supported the Stuttering Foundation this year with their MSHA Cares campaign, which raised $864.88.

Stuttering is no joke...

An excerpt from Sometimes I Just Stutter

It is alright to stutter!

An excerpt from Sometimes I Just Stutter

Courageous, Inspirational Authors Honored

To celebrate National Stuttering Awareness Week, the Stuttering Foundation honored four authors whose recent books are widely acclaimed by both critics and readers alike.

Carol Remembered for Helping Those Who Stutter

Carol Ann Cervenka Ecke, 64, of Great Falls, MT, passed away in June from complications after undergoing what was planned to be a routine heart valve replacement in Mesa, Ariz.

Clinicians Travel from Around the Globe

The five-day Eastern Workshop, Using Cognitive Approaches with People Who Stutter, was held in Boston from June 16–20. Co-sponsored by the Stuttering Foundation and Boston University, this was the sixth year this course was offered, attracting clinicians worldwide to train with Elaine Kelman and Alison Nicholas of the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children.

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CELEBRITY FOCUS

Winston Churchill

Seeking to "remove Winston Churchill's stutter by second guessing the diagnosis" indicates neither a truthful retelling of history nor an informed opinion about a complex speech disorder, say experts in the field of speech-language pathology.

Recent news reports that quote Dr. John Mather, a Washington physician, as saying that Churchill's stutter "is a lie" brought adamant critical response from specialists in the field of stuttering and fluency disorders.

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.

Bob Love

The late Bob Love dreamt about being a great public speaker since his early days in Bastrop Louisiana, even though, as a young man, he could barely put two words together, let alone speak a full sentence.

In spite of his severe stuttering disability, Bob Love, the son of a sharecropper, rose to become a Chicago Bulls NBA superstar, whose records were eventually surpassed by Michael Jordan. Throughout his entire athletic career, Bob Love kept his stuttering a secret from the fans who adored him, thinking he could do his “talking” on the basketball court.

Bill Withers

While Bill Withers has long been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter, many people probably didn’t realize he stuttered. He passed away on March 30, 2020.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.

Carly Simon

Carly Simon began stuttering severely when she was eight years old.