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.
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!
Frantz and KellyKelly and VildropheKeesha, Mykia, Frantz and Kelly
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.
Last Tuesday, members from the Philadelphia, South Jersey and Atlantic chapters participated in the Panel of People Who Stutter at La Salle University. This panel is part of the curriculum for the Speech Language Pathologist Graduate Program. It is a great opportunity for us to educate future SLPs on what it means to be a person who stutters.
This year the panel took place online but it was as fun and engaging as it ever was in person. The students had a lot of questions and we ran out of time to answer more.
I received the following message from the professor, Dr James Mancinelli:
“The students are still raving about the panel experience. Their comments include praise for the panel members’ courage and growth that developed through self-help groups like yours. They now see how a self-help model like the NSA’s facilitates social involvement, communicative confidence, and authenticity among its members. One student commented, “The panel brought it all together for me. Now I get it.” They have been listening to me blab on since January but it wasn’t until the panel experience did they connect stuttering with real people living real lives.
On a personal note, I want to thank you for your flexibility and willingness to participate in the clinical education of our students. The benefits they reaped are immeasurable.”
Thank you very much to Katherine Filer, Maria Turner, Jim McFarlane, Mykia Daniels and Nick Bruno for sharing their experiences and feelings with the students. We hope that activities like this will help broaden their understanding about stuttering and make them better clinicians.
I am very pleased to announce that on Saturday November 7, the NSA and Temple University will host a One-Day NSA Conference in Philadelphia!
The event will take place at Temple University Main Campus in Center City Philadelphia. Now that the date and location are confirmed, we will start the process of defining the workshops and activities.
Nothing has been decided yet but I can tell you that the plan is to have simultaneous tracks, such as one for adults, one for children/tweens and possibly one for family/friends. In addition, there will be a few sessions that will provide CEU credits for speech language pathologist. We are also looking into screening the move “When I Stutter”.
Please hold the date and stay tuned for more updates! Carmen
We were invited to attend the Panel of People Who Stutter at La Salle University. This has become an annual event, as we attended a class of the Graduate program on Fluency Disorders and had an opportunity to talk to the students.
Seven members of our chapter attended. This time we sat in front of the class and answered students’ questions. It was nice to offer multiple views for every question and we show how individual our experiences are.
We felt very welcome and enjoyed the experience. This is a great opportunity to educate future therapists on the challenges of being people who stutter.
Come join us for Happy Hour next Wednesday, September 26 starting at 5:30 PM at Misconduct Tavern on 1511 Locust Street, Philadelphia. Come and relax after a long day’s work and have fun with your fellow NSA peers. Bring a friend!
They have drink and food specials until 7:00 PM every day, the ones for Wednesday are listed below. They also have discounted prices for drafts and other items.
Special thanks to Kevin Rafferty for doing the leg work and organizing this event.
For more details about the venue visit http://www.misconducttavern.com . Note that there are two locations. We are meeting at the 1511 Locust St location.
