A is for “Awesome”
Say SFA Workshop Participants

A good teacher helps students grow in knowledge and gain confidence in applying new skills. Judging by their remarks, speech-language pathologists at the SFA’s conference had 14 superb teachers, and grew exponentially in their ability to help those who stutter.

Stuttering Therapy, Practical Ideas for the School Clinician brought together 100 SLPs from schools, private practice and university clinics to learn from 14 of the nation’s top professionals in the area of stuttering, June 11-12, 2004, in Cincinnati, Ohio. If comments such as “awesome” are any indication, it was a great experience.

“This is the best conference I have been to in my eight years of practice,” wrote one participant. “The speakers are knowledgeable and approachable. I learned more in these two days than I did in a nine-week course I took in grad school. Thank you for the opportunity.”

Presenters Barry Guitar, Charles Healey, Peter Ramig, Bill Murphy, Patricia Zebrowski and Kristin Chmela offered practical strategies for evaluating and treating children who stutter, counseling parents, working with teenagers, and devising strategies to handle such problems as teasing and peer pressure.

“How did you manage to get so many great speakers at one conference?” asked one participant. “I felt like I had located the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow--and I needed that! I was particularly impressed that each speaker listened to the other speakers.”

Small group leaders Susan Cochrane, Patrice Carothers, Susan Dietrich, Joseph Donaher, Sheryl Gottwald, Elise Kaufman, Ann McKeehan and Barbara Moore-Brown guided participants as they practiced fluency shaping and stuttering modification skills. Discussion groups also scored high for offering the chance for individualized learning.

Many SLPs at the conference noted that they had received little training in stuttering as part of their formal education—the primary reason The Stuttering Foundation underwrites such conferences each year.
“I have a particular client that I have been concerned about for a while and now I feel much more confident about therapy because I have more tools,” said one.

Time to network and share caseload problems is also built in to the two days.

Last year, SFA board member Alan Rabinowitz recounted his own struggle growing up with stuttering. Rabinowitz, the Director of the Science and Exploration Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, was in Costa Rica this year at the dedication of a wildlife sanctuary for jaguars he worked to help procure. A letter from him read by Barry Guitar still brought tears to the eyes of many who left the conference with greater understanding for those who stutter as well as better therapy skills.

“This conference has truly made me passionate for disfluent clients now. I am so impressed with this conference for its cost. I have been to so many expensive two-day conferences and come home so disappointed—not here. You all were awesome.”

The Stuttering Foundation’s two-day conference is typically held the second weekend in June. Watch the SFA's web site for a downloadable application form.