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The weather is finally starting to behave truly like spring and, fittingly, we had a seasonally vibrant discussion on Monday night in Brooklyn.

What was particularly interesting about this meeting, which roughly 15 people attended, including a few newcomers and a couple SLPs, was that most of the discussion stemmed from one question asked at the beginning of the meeting. One of our regular members recently faced a challenging situation: a potential employer turned him down because the employer wanted a fluent person to interact with customers. Our brave member asked the room for our thoughts on how to handle this situation.

The room agreed that this situation has no simple answer or solution.  However, the discussion began to gain some momentum as various members shared their thoughts and techniques for handling such situations. One of the topics that resonated with the room was the value of strong eye contact and body language when stuttering, especially in job interview and other first-impression scenarios. The room eventually drew out the conclusion that whether you stutter or not is not perhaps as important as your body language when stuttering. If the stutterer is able to communicate – through strong eye contact and other positive body language – that he or she is not embarrassed or ashamed of their stutter, it can go a long way to putting the listener at ease. This, in effect, can improve overall communication and convey that stuttering itself is not an issue, but rather it is the discomfort felt by the stutterer – and the listener – that is the true problem. But we also agreed that whether or not we maintain perfect eye contact, we all deserve to be treated fairly and listened to with respect.

It’s incredible when the room is faced with a problem without a simple solution and, in response, pools together ideas and builds off each other’s strength and life experiences. The vitality of thought and shared positive energy was a wonderful way to welcome spring! We hope to see you next time!

Emma & Chris

Announcements

  • Chris Schuyler has stepped into the role of co-leader in Brooklyn! Chris first came to our Brooklyn group about a year ago, and hasn’t missed a meeting since. Our community will truly benefit from his thoughtfulness and compassion and we are excited to welcome him into a position of leadership!
  • Thank you to everyone who registered for our one day conference on May 15th! It has generated a lot of interest, and we must tell you that we have actually sold out tickets. If you would like to sign up for the waitlist, please click here.  There is no charge to be on the waitlist and we will be vigilant about checking in with registrants to be sure they are attending so we can allow people off the waitlist if possible. Demonstrating your interest in attending an event like this also give us valuable information about future conferences. Thank you!!
  • NSA Midtown meets tomorrow night from 7:30-9pm at Aspire on 248 West 35th St in Manhattan. Check out one of our largest chapters in the country! You will see come familiar faces

Until May!