ISAD 2022 – October 1 – 31

October 22nd is the annual International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD). To reflect on topics and issues related to stuttering, the International Stuttering Association holds an online conference through the entire month of October.

This year’s topic is ““Being Seen, Being Heard
– Representation and normalization of stuttering in the mainstream”. Access to the conference is free by going to https://isad.live. You don’t need to register to read the articles but you do if you would like to post a comment or interact with others.

Check out the articles and submissions, enter your comments and meet other people. Many articles have been submitted by fellow NSA members.

Feel free to share with this group any articles you find interesting.

NSA Picnic – September 10, 2022

The weather was perfect for this year’s Philadelphia NSA Picnic. Clark Park is a city park full of life and activities. There were many other groups and families having a picnic, grilling or just watching their kids play in the children’s area. We had wonderful background music, courtesy of a DJ for one of the parties close to us.

We had a very good location in the Bowl, a large open area, perfect for playing ball games, or throwing frisbees like we did.

We were six people in attendance, including a newcomer, Frantz, who moved recently to Philadelphia from New York. Some of us had never met in person and it was nice seeing each other face to face, no technology involved.

We shared good food, snacks, fruit and delicious desserts. We played with frisbees and a game of UNO!

Afterwards, we checked the Farmer’s Market at the other side of the park where artists, bakers, and crafts people sold their wares.

All and all, it was a great day shared with good friends!

I want to thank Kelly Garcia, a new chapter member that joined us just a few months ago and in a short time has already made a mark in our chapter. She picked Clark Park, scouted the area for a good spot, created the survey and collected input from our members. Thank you Kelly!

We would like to do in-person activities more often and we welcome your input and ideas of places to go, activities, etc. 

I hope to see you at our next event!

Carmen Shapiro

Chapter Meeting – Aug 6, 2020

Meetings online have become our normal way to meet now and this is showing on the attendees we have been having. On our last meeting we welcomed a new member. At this meeting we had 3 new members!

We spent time introducing ourselves and getting to know our new members. As always, new topics develop as we talk. This time we talked a lot about shame. We agreed that no matter how accepting we are of our stuttering, the feeling of shame never leaves us completely. Sometimes is worse with strangers because we feel pressure to make a good first impression. But other times is worse when we stutter in front of friends and family because we feel we are disappointing our loved ones.

We realized that we don’t have to prove anything to anyone except to ourselves. One person mentioned that he made a lot of progress on his fluency when he realized that he was his only audience. If the talked just focusing on himself as his audience, he could forget everybody else. We don’t usually stutter when we talked to ourselves. So he too pretended that he was talking to himself when talking to others.

We also talked about shaking things up and practicing being uncomfortable. You can create situations that are uncommon as a way to practice to deal with them. That way when something unexpected happens that is beyond your control, you can react to it better.

Lastly, we talked about interviewing for a job and difficult it is now that a lot of the conversations are over the phone or on a video call.

We finished with the closing words. It was great to meet our new members!

Chapter Meeting – July 2, 2020

After the Welcoming Words we introduced ourselves since we have a new member attend. A few of us shared that we have noticed an increase on our stutter recently. We wondered if the lack of socializing due to the coronavirus lock down restrictions has had an impact. Is it the lack of practice? is it that we are talking more on the phone and less person-to-person?

One of our members has graduated from college and is looking for a job. We talked about interviewing and whether he is planning to advertise his stutter to potential employers. He is very comfortable doing that and he does plan to let them know. We talked about how to advertise in other situations too.

One of our members was teaching a class about stuttering in the graduate program of Salus University. A few of us participated last month on one of his class projects in which his students interviewed us individually to learn more about stuttering. The sessions were short but we were able to provide a lot of information to the students.

A reminder to everyone about the upcoming NSA @Home Conference.

We wished everyone a happy 4th of July holiday!

Chapter Meeting – June 16, 2020

We continue with our virtual Zoom meetings and it is still not clear when we will be able to resume in person meetings. But everyone has been enjoying the virtual calls. We are seeing chapter members that have not been able to join us in a long time due to the distance or schedule conflicsts.

We took a poll on whether coffee affects our stuttering and the results were mixed. It does to some of us and it doesn’t to others.

We also talked about whether we introduce ourselves and say our name when we make a phone call. I always say it at the beginning but other don’t to say their name if they don’t have to.

We talked about the recent NSA Lounge meetings on Friday nights. They have been a lot of fun. We played online games, karaoke, or just chill in a chat room and make friends with other NSAers from around the country. Going forward, the NSA Lounge will be held the last Friday of the month. Stay tuned for the schedule and the link!