International Stuttering Awareness Day – October 22

October 22 is International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD), which was founded in 1998. This day is intended to raise public awareness of stuttering, which affects one percent of the world’s population. Stuttering, or stammering, is a communication disorder in which the flow of speech is broken by repetitions or abnormal stoppages of sounds and syllables.

At Grandview Kids, our team of speech-language pathologists work hard to give children and youth the skills they need to overcome their stuttering and equip them with the tools to communicate effectively. 

Client Story:

“Henry has always been a silly kid, one who will do anything to make us smile by singing songs, telling us silly stories and asking us questions. He was also always a perfectionist who, from an early age, would enjoy arranging his toy cars into neat lines. Currently, Henry loves numbers, Lego, and astronomy, which suit his personality well. 

We noticed as Henry’s language developed that, he would have periods of time where he had difficulty getting his words out. However, these periods would pass, and his speech would return to normal. Once Henry started Junior Kindergarten, we noticed his speech becoming strained and difficult for a prolonged period of time. Henry became more hesitant to speak.

When we would ask him about his day, he would just say he didn’t remember. He would avoid complex sentences and, at times, avoid speaking altogether. It was heartbreaking to us that our little silly boy was losing his will to speak. We sought help from his family doctor as well as his teachers. His teachers were able to refer us to a private speech pathologist, Stacey Carroll, at Connect 2 Communicate. Stacey was immediately so helpful, welcoming, and reassuring to us that we could help Henry. She assessed that Henry had a stutter and immediately helped connect us with Grandview Kids. 

The service we have received from Rikki, the speech-language pathologist at Grandview Kids, has been remarkable. We feel like she has returned our son to us. Rikki has been fantastic at explaining how stuttering happens and the steps to alleviate the stutter. The strategies we were taught by Rikki have been so effective at returning Henry’s speech to a more fluent form that his confidence has also returned. We cannot thank Rikki and Grandview Kids enough for what they have done for our family.”