“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.”
- Vince Lombardi

Words will not express what an impact Dr. Howard Schwartz has had on so many people's lives throughout his career as a Speech Language Pathologist. His knowledge and expertise has grown over the years and the legacy of many great SLP’s live on due to his continued mentoring and teaching of others. Because of Dr. Schwartz, humility, generosity, dedication, and secure knowledge of our profession has been instilled in SLPs across the United States.

He was influenced by many great Stuttering Gurus before him. They include: Gene Brutten, Marty Adams, John Hutchinson, Wendell Johnson, Dean Williams, and Ed Conture. Ed Conture was his mentor at Syracuse University. From these experts Dr. Schwartz developed his own approach to stuttering therapy. He then took this knowledge and his experiences and has shared them with thousands of graduate students. We are so lucky to have been his students while he was a Professor at Northern Illinois University for 27 years. He retired in August of 2013, but continues to have a Speech and Language Private Practice (The Institute for Communicative Disorders) in Naperville, IL, that specializes in teaching his approach to stuttering therapy.

Over his career he has been a mentor to many graduate students with all areas of focus, but his pride and joy revolves around treating and supporting people who stutter. We are very fortunate to have been Howie’s chosen ones to learn his techniques and work at his private practice. Through our work with Dr. Schwartz, he has instilled in us to be true to ourselves and confident in our thoughts and beliefs. Dr. Schwartz is always continuously learning about what strategies and programs are available around the world. He enjoys sending us current research articles to keep us up to date on new stuttering research and developments. He even went to Australia to be trained in the Lidcombe Program so that he could bring back that knowledge and training to us at the clinic. He has run many intensive programs for adolescents and adults to get a jump start to their stuttering therapy. Howie has made an impact on so many students, therapists, clients and family members' lives. He refers to every past client of his as part of his clinical family. He loves being invited to their birthdays, graduations and weddings. Many clients still remain in contact with him years later. Being a speech-language pathologist is very rewarding and we are all so lucky to be able to make positive changes in someone’s life. Thank you, Howie, for teaching us to be secure in our skills as SLPs because you had great faith in us and our abilities.

Not only is Dr. Schwartz great in the clinic, but he also is an excellent teacher and writer. He taught the Introduction to Communicative Disorders class and many different stuttering courses. Howie has published two textbooks that go along with his intro classes. His stuttering book: A Primer for Stuttering Therapy was published in 1999 and comes with a video to show his therapy approach in action. His overview of communications disorders book: A Primer on Communication and Communicative Disorders was published in 2011. Another therapy tool he created is a computer program that helps therapists track a client’s speaking rate in order to monitor their best speaking rate range to maintain fluency. Howie’s accomplishments go on and on, and we could talk about how amazing he is for days.

We are forever grateful for all that we have learned from Howie over the past 20 years. We are privileged and honored to be continuing to share his knowledge and expertise with other therapists and clients at his private practice in Naperville.

With much love and thanks from your therapist children,
Theresa Lauten, M.S. Ed., M.A. CCC-SLP/L and Sarah Meyers, M.A. CCC-SLP/L

Published Aug. 18, 2017

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