Referrals - Louisiana | Stuttering Foundation: A Nonprofit Organization Helping Those Who Stutter

Listed below are the names of speech pathologists in your state who might be able to help you in treating stuttering. The Stuttering Foundation of America provides these names only to help in locating a speech pathologist who might be able to assist you in treating stuttering. The Stuttering Foundation of America does not warrant the competency of these speech pathologists nor guarantee their treatment.

This list is likely to include only a small number of the speech pathologists in your area and therefore might not include the names of all speech pathologists who might be able to assist you. No negative implication should be drawn about a particular speech pathologist's qualifications or competency if he or she is not included on this list.

If the individuals located below cannot assist you or are not located near you, the Stuttering Foundation of America encourages you to request a referral from them.

Mrs. Joan K. Babin, M.Ed., SLP 258 W. Third Street Reserve, LA 70084 (985)536-2169 jbabin@rtconline.com	Ms. Patricia S. Gorman, M.A., CCC-SLP P. O. Box 750622 New Orleans, LA 70175-0622 (504)701-3257
Ms. Jennifer L. Ogden Holmes, M.C.D., CCC-SLP Children's Hospital Speech/Hrng 200 Henry Clay Ave New Orleans, LA 70118-5720 (504)896-9554 (504)894-5547	Ms. Sheran Samuel Benton, M.A., CCC-SLP Access to Better Communication 768 Chevelle Drive Baton Rouge, LA 70806-6503 (225)930-0208 (225)930-0221 sheran@abclouisiana.com www.abclouisiana.com

CELEBRITY FOCUS

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.

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.

Bill Withers

While Bill Withers has long been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter, many people probably didn’t realize he stuttered. He passed away on March 30, 2020.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.

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.

Winston Churchill

Seeking to "remove Winston Churchill's stutter by second guessing the diagnosis" indicates neither a truthful retelling of history nor an informed opinion about a complex speech disorder, say experts in the field of speech-language pathology.

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.