Stuttering Foundation Celebrates Teacher Appreciation Week

Memphis, Tenn. (May 6, 2020) — For more than seven decades, the Stuttering Foundation has worked hand-in-hand with teachers to help them understand the needs of the child who stutters, both in the classroom and on the playground. By providing information, such as handbooks, FAQs, tips, videos and classroom presentations, the Foundation offers free, easy-to use resources for every teacher and school.

“Teachers are an important source of guidance and inspiration for children who stutter,” said Jane Fraser, president of the Stuttering Foundation. “To the child who stutters, an understanding teacher is a lifetime gift, and we make it our mission to help support them at every turn. On our website, there is an entire section with resources designed specifically for teachers. We appreciate what teachers do each day to help the stuttering community.”

The Foundation published an e-book, available for free download on its website entitled, “The Teacher Who Made a Difference.”

The Stuttering Foundation lists eight tips for teachers with students who stutters:

1. Don’t tell the student “slow down” or “just relax.”

2. Don’t complete words for the student or talk for him or her.

3. Help all members of the class learn to take turns talking and listening. All students — and especially those who stutter — find it much easier to talk when there are few interruptions and they have the listener’s attention.

4. Expect the same quality and quantity of work from the student who stutters as the one who doesn’t.

5. Speak with the student in an unhurried way, pausing frequently.

6. Convey that you are listening to the content of the message, not how it is said.

7. Have a one-on-one conversation with the student who stutters about needed accommodations in the classroom. Respect the student’s needs, but do not be enabling.

8. Don’t make stuttering something to be ashamed of. Talk about stuttering just like any other matter.

About the Stuttering Foundation

Malcolm Fraser, a successful businessman who struggled with stuttering, established and endowed the nonprofit Stuttering Foundation in 1947. The Foundation provides free online resources at StutteringHelp.org for people who stutter and their families as well as support for research into the causes of stuttering. For more information, visit StutteringHelp.org.

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CELEBRITY FOCUS

Carly Simon

Carly Simon began stuttering severely when she was eight years old.

King George

In November 2010, worldwide movie audiences were presented with a most interesting and unusual movie release with The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, history may have forgotten the courageous and inspiring story of Prince Albert who stuttered badly and never dreamed that he would ever be king when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abruptly abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.

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.

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.

Ken Venturi

As much of the nation watches the U.S. Open Golf Championship, it is impossible not to think about our late friend Ken Venturi. Ken overcame many challenges to win the Open at Congressional in 1964 and go on to become the voice of golf for more than three decades.

However, Ken faced no bigger obstacle than stuttering. Ken Venturi was a champion to those who stutter, going out of his way to share his personal experience when consulted by a colleague, friend, or child who stutters.