Friends Who Stutter CSD Students and Faculty Host One-Day Workshop

Every year Friends (The National Association of Young People Who Stutter), the Stuttering Foundation, and Chapman University’s Crean College Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) department hold a one-day family-oriented workshop that is designed to bring young children  and teenagers who stutter, their parents, members of stuttering self-help groups, and speech-language pathologists together. Dr. Loryn McGill, adjunct CSD professor at Chapman commented that this workshop “is a place for people who stutter to find support, for parents to realize they are not alone, and for speech-language pathologist to get the latest information on how to best treat stuttering.”

Dr. Judy Montgomery has attended “Friends” for the last 5 years and commented on the fact that she is “fascinated by the interaction among families, children, and professional- all of them knowledgeable about stuttering from their own vantage point.” Seeing professionals, families and Crean College’s CSD students is an amazing experience for all involved in the workshop. When CSD graduate study Mary Anderson (’18) was asked what her favorite part of attending this workshop was she said that “this workshop was a great learning experience for my professional career, both for learning how to plan and execute a conference and learn from other professionals and individuals who stutter. The conference allowed me to see challenges from another’s perspective and helped me learn beyond what is taught in the classroom.” Melissa Shepherd (’18) also commented on what a great experience this workshop was for the CSD students because “We get to meet people who we will help one day and further our understanding of these individual experiences. Events like this workshop remind us why we stay up all night studying and working through the weekends.”

Crean College CSD students and faculty are thrilled to have been a part of this workshop for so many years, and will continue to participate in this workshop helping one person at a time.