New Year, New Opportunities!

Good News for Employers: According to speech experts, people who stutter, tend to show significantly above average care and perseverance in completing their workplace responsibilities.

“People who stutter often have a temperament that’s perfectionist because many have to work tirelessly to gain fluency,” said Barry Guitar, Ph.D., Professor of Speech-language Pathology at the University of Vermont.

Surmounting the Interview Obstacle: People who stutter perform successfully in a range of jobs that require communication skills, from sales to medicine to public relations. This may not be evident during the initial interview, which is one of the most stressful speaking situations even for those who do not stutter. With a direct and honest approach, it’s possible to determine whether someone is fit for the job.

“Past research has shown that when you are open about stuttering to your employer, you are far more comfortable in the workplace,” emphasizes Jane Fraser, President of the Stuttering Foundation of America. “If you hide your stuttering, you not only put yourself under tremendous pressure but also limit your effectiveness on the job.”

Good News for Candidates: Initiative and technology to improve the hiring process are on the rise. For example, Jahanzaib Ansari, CEO of Knockri and a person who has personally battled the hardships that often accompany stuttering, uses an artificial intelligence program that conducts candidate evaluations and interviews to give employers unbiased scores for job fit potential (benefitnews.com).

Ansari stresses in the article: “We should be...talking about how we can accommodate this specifically in the candidate selection, where a lot of people feel that they get left out unfairly. The way that I speak has no correlation to how well I can perform at a particular job role.”

Being Prepared: Stuttering: Answers for Employers, a free brochure offered by the Stuttering Foundation, has reached millions of employers and people who stutter during the past two plus decades. It’s the perfect tool to take to a job interview: It dispels the many myths surrounding stuttering, gives concrete facts about the disorder, and contains tips on how to handle stuttering in the workplace.

You can download Stuttering: Answers for Employers at www.stutteringhelp.org. You can also call us toll-free at (800) 992-9392 or e-mail info@stutteringhelp.org for a copy.

Published Jan. 3, 2022

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Alan Rabinowitz

Alan Rabinowitz, Ph.D., who passed away in 2018, was an explorer, wildlife conservationist, and author. He established the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve in northern Myanmar, which is about the size of the state of Vermont.

His love for animals began when he was very young.

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.

Frank Wolf

This Virginian congressman has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1981. The longtime supporter of the Stuttering Foundation drew national attention to childhood stuttering in 2006 when he submitted an article about Tiger Woods from the SFA newsletter to the Congressional Record. The congressman is featured in the Stuttering Foundation's Famous People Who Stutter brochure.

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.

Darren Sproles

Darren Sproles, a former player for The Philadelphia Eagles, the New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers, made history in 2007 when he became the first player in NFL history to return a kickoff and a punt for his first two NFL touchdowns in the same game. In 2021, he was selected to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.