For people who stutter (PWS), the following scenario — or some variation of it — is all too familiar. You are standing in line at Starbucks. You know exactly what you’re going to order: Pumpkin Spice Latte. Grande.
Mike Wilson has dealt with stuttering all his life, and is active at conferences and in the stuttering community, including interviewing people who stutter on his podcast, Stuttering with Confidence.
On November 2, I had the pleasure of attending the very first conference of the Newfoundland and Labrador Stuttering Association (NLSA), in Mount Pearl, near the city of St-John’s, Newfoundland. The NLSA is a new stuttering association, founded in 2018.
In 1936, a statuesque 20-year-old named Mary Dowell was hired as a dancing girl for an extravagant Texas Centennial celebration in her home town of Fort Worth. Until then she had been, in her own words, “looked upon as a sort of freak” due to her height and pronounced stutter. “When I walked down the street people would look at me and grin, like I was the town idiot. I was the unhappiest girl in Texas.”
Do you have an idea for a workshop? Our November conference will be a chance to meet and socialize and learn together once again. Due to the success of our one-day conferences that we have been holding for the past six years, 2020 will be a big year as we expand the event and move the conference venue to beautiful Niagara Falls!
Our annual CSA conference last month was a huge success! We had record-breaking attendance, including many families, speech-language pathologists and students, and of course - people who stutter of all ages.