Challenge & Change

The 12th Annual Oxford Dysfluency Conference

The theme of this year’s 12th Oxford Dysfluency Conference was ‘Challenge and Change.’ None of us could possibly have known how prophetic this title was to be when we decided it over two years ago!

The conference, usually held in St Catherine’s College in Oxford, one of the colleges of Oxford University, England, took place on January 7 and 8, 2021. It is a tranquil setting amongst the old and beautiful buildings of historic Oxford.

However, the pandemic meant that we not only had to change the dates from September, 2020, to January, 2021, but also had to move the Conference to a virtual platform. This certainly felt like ‘Challenge and Change’ and was the first time that a scientific conference in our field has been held in this way.

The good news is that the Conference was a huge success in so many ways. The Keynote speakers agreed to give this a try and produced the most fabulous sessions. Kate Watkins talked about ‘Scanning and stimulating the brain in people who stutter.’ Vivian Sisskin spoke about the ‘Stuttering Treatment in a social model of disability,’ highlighting the double messages that we send in therapy. Ellen Kelly described the rationale and ways that therapy can help children who stutter develop resilience. The Stuttering Foundation sponsored two keynote presentations: Frank Guenther who detailed ‘Neural modeling and imaging’ in stuttering and Ali Berquez who presented the Inaugural Stuttering Foundation Workshop, focusing on the use of Solution Focused Brief Therapy with parents of children who stutter. Sara MacIntyre, Stuttering Foundation’s Director of Programs, had the honor of chairing Ali Berquez’s session on behalf of Stuttering Foundation.

In addition to these wonderful keynote presentations, the program contained 189 oral and poster presentations. It was surprising and exciting to see how much research is being conducted at a time when we face so many challenges.

The scientists considered how their research may translate into clinical practice and the clinicians presented their practices in the context of research evidence. There are so many people dedicated to improving our understanding of stuttering and how best to support those who stutter. The conference was attended by almost 400 delegates – a record for ODC! Evidence that making change in the face of what challenges us, can have positive benefits.

The presentations are available to registered delegates until the end of February, the Stuttering Foundation will be making the keynote presentations available later this year, and papers arising from the conference will be published in the Journal of Communication Disorders later this year, so the opportunities for learning from ODC 2021 will continue.

From the Winter 2021 Magazine

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Lewis Carroll

The recent Disney version of Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland, garnered a great deal of media hype. Even though the mainstream media has not made mention that Carroll was a person who stuttered, his family history gives credence to the discovery of the genetic link to stuttering. Carroll was born to parents who were first cousins; almost all of their eleven children, three girls and seven boys, struggled with stuttering past childhood.

Bruce Willis

While the world knows Bruce Willis as an A-list actor, few know that he struggled with stuttering throughout his first 20 years.

Walter Bruce Willis was born in 1955 in West Germany to his German mother, Marlene, and his American GI father, David Willis. The family settled in David’s hometown of Penns Grove, New Jersey in 1957, and the couple has three other children.

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.

Dave Taylor

Dave Taylor has been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter for many years, but probably few people know all of the unique accomplishments of this former hockey great who was born on December 4, 1955, in Levack, Ontario.

Mel Tillis

Mel Tillis, born Lonnie Melvin Tillis, was an influential figure in country music, both as a songwriter and a performer. His journey to fame was marked by overcoming personal challenges, including a stutter that he turned into a defining part of his public persona.