Chapter Meeting – October 20, 2015

We were eight people at our last meeting at La Salle University.  Once again, we had free pizza from Giovanni’s! A couple of attendees were students from La Salle’s graduate program on Speech Language Pathology.  We also had a new PWS attendee, Rohan, who has recently moved from Texas and was eager to get involved with the local NSA chapter.

We had a guest for the first part of our meeting.  James Mancinelly, (Director of Clinical Education at La Salle University) presented his research study to our group and is looking for volunteers to participate.  His study has been approved by the NSA Research Committee.  The purpose of the study is to investigate the conversational interactions of people who stutter (PWS), in particular, it focuses on the effects of self-disclosure on people who stutter.  It is clear from other studies that people that do not stutter prefer that PWS disclose as early on the conversation as possible.  For non-PWS, it helps them to focus on the content of the conversation rather than the format. However, although it would seem that the effects of self-disclosure on PWS should be similarly beneficial, there hasn’t a lot of measurable data.   This study is attempting to gain more insight and gather data on this topic.

The study involves engaging in a brief (2-5 minute) conversation, responding to two questionnaires, a hearing screening (10 minutes) and a debriefing with the investigator.  The total time commitment is about 60-75 minutes, one time only.  Participants will be enrolled in a raffle to win an iPad Mini.

To participate in the study please contact James Mancinelli, see his contact information below:

James M. Mancinelly, MS CCC-SLP
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Temple University
215-991-3597
mancinelly@lasalle.edu

We encourage everyone to participate.

Carmen Shapiro