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

Helping Our Graduates Succeed

You’ve graduated from college! Woo hoo! Your friends and family are so excited! Everyone is telling you, “This is it!”, “Today begins the rest of your life!”, “You’re gonna miss homework once you get a taste of the real world!”, and “No more summer vacations for you!”

Ed Sheeran

Award-winning singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran shares about his stuttering during an AIS event June 8th in New York City.

While Sheeran may be famous now, he used to just be a bullied kid with a debilitating stutter, he shared. But one thing helped him overcome that stutter and a troubled childhood: Music.

Annie Glenn

When you hear about famous people who stutter, you often hear stories about the struggles they faced as a young child, before they outgrew or overcame their stuttering. Annie Glenn had a different story to tell. The wife of John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth, Annie Glenn lived a very public life with a severe stutter for more than 50 years. She passed away on May 19, 2020.

Summer Reading List

Here are a few suggestions for your child’s summer reading list…

Younger readers

Attacking the Iceberg of Stuttering: Icepicks, Axes, and Sunshine!

An excerpt of Chapter 21 from the book Advice to Those Who Stutter

By Larry Molt, Ph.D.

For Grandfathers and Grandmothers

An excerpt from the book Sometimes I Just Stutter

By Eelco de Geus

Dear Grandfather and Grandmother,

Bo Jackson

Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson is no ordinary athlete; a former professional baseball and football player, he is the only athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American sports.

Ed Sheeran

Now a seasoned singer/songwriter, Ed Sheeran first burst onto the music scene with his hit single, The A Team, in 2011. Sheeran hit No. 1 on the iTunes chart before even signing with a record label. Since then, songs like Give Me Love and Thinking Out Loud have kept Sheeran at the top of the charts. He is also widely recognized for collaborating with big artists such as One Direction and Taylor Swift.

John Updike

John Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art and literary critic best known for his series of “Rabbit” novels – Rabbit, Run; Rabbit: Redux; Rabbit is Rich; and Rabbit at Rest. On paper, Updike’s prose was always carefully crafted, each sentence saying exactly what Updike wanted it to.

John Lee Hooker

Read article in Rolling Stone

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CELEBRITY FOCUS

Carly Simon

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

Emily Blunt

Actress Emily Blunt struggled with stuttering early in her life. A teacher encouraged her to act in a school play at age 12 despite her stuttering.

Blunt’s name is prominently featured on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter.

Ken Venturi

As much of the nation watches the U.S. Open Golf Championship, it is impossible not to think about our late friend Ken Venturi. Ken overcame many challenges to win the Open at Congressional in 1964 and go on to become the voice of golf for more than three decades.

However, Ken faced no bigger obstacle than stuttering. Ken Venturi was a champion to those who stutter, going out of his way to share his personal experience when consulted by a colleague, friend, or child who stutters.

Bruce Willis

While the world knows Bruce Willis as an A-list actor, few know that he struggled with stuttering throughout his first 20 years.

Walter Bruce Willis was born in 1955 in West Germany to his German mother, Marlene, and his American GI father, David Willis. The family settled in David’s hometown of Penns Grove, New Jersey in 1957, and the couple has three other children.

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.