One-Stop Shopping for Stuttering

For Immediate Release
Contact: Greg Wilson
greg@curleycompany.com
571-239-7474

Free Teacher & Parent Resources for Back-to-School Days

Memphis, TN (July 29, 2014) — As teachers, parents and students prepare for the start of the new academic year, the nonprofit Stuttering Foundation, the leading charitable organization dedicated to supporting the stuttering community, offers an array of free tools for teachers with students who stutter in their classroom.

“One in every one hundred people stutters,” said Jane Fraser, president of the Foundation. “But as many as two or three younger children in each classroom may struggle with this complex disorder.

"We know that teachers have a wonderfully positive influence on our children and their classmates, and we are thankful for the opportunity to provide the tools that prepare them with best practices and tips for working with and advocating for the child who stutters."

Tools for teachers available from the Stuttering Foundation include:

• 8 Tips for Teachers - answers to urgent questions teachers may have

• Famous People Who Stutter - mini-poster to print out

• Dear Teacher - a personal letter

All of these resources can be found at www.StutteringHelp.org/school.

The Stuttering Foundation — known internationally for the quality of its resource materials available to the public — offers DVDs, books, brochures, newsletters and referrals through its website www.StutteringHelp.org as well as its toll-free helpline: 800-992-9392.

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Foundation Spokesperson Jane Fraser
Jane Fraser is president of The Stuttering Foundation and co-author of If Your Child Stutters: A Guide for Parents, 8th edition. She is also vice president of the Action for Stammering Children, Michael Palin Centre in London.

About the Foundation
Malcolm Fraser, a successful businessman and stutterer, established and endowed the nonprofit Stuttering Foundation in 1947. The Stuttering Foundation provides a helpline, 800-992-9392, and free resources at www.StutteringHelp.org, including services, referrals and support to people who stutter and their families, as well as support for research into the causes of stuttering.

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CELEBRITY FOCUS

Bruce Willis

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Recent news reports that quote Dr. John Mather, a Washington physician, as saying that Churchill's stutter "is a lie" brought adamant critical response from specialists in the field of stuttering and fluency disorders.

John Stossel

John Stossel is one of the most recognized and articulate reporters today. However, he once considered giving up his broadcasting career because of his stuttering.

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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.