To SLPs and Graduate Students: A Quick Note!

Thanks for taking an interest in stuttering support groups. Groups play an important role in normalizing stuttering and fostering acceptance, growth, and resilience. We are grateful to so many therapists for spreading the word about our no-cost virtual groups.

If you are looking to attend a group, please note that we do not offer opportunities to observe or participate in these peer support groups.

For SLP educational and training opportunities, please see our one-day events and annual convention. We also recommend visiting our YouTube channel to watch panels of young people who stutter, parents, adults who stutter, and presentations by fellow SLPs.

Join our mailing list below to get the latest updates about upcoming CEU and training opportunities.

Here’s what the group talked about recently:

We started with optional intros, reducing threat by having names on our “boxes.” Friends could share where they are from and something cool they got during the recent holiday season, something they are having a hard time with about transitioning back to school after winter break, or something they like about being back in school. Some exciting geographic connections were made (two kids from Columbus, OH who didn’t know one another), and also shared hobbies were discovered.

Video games, legos, and Pokemon cards became big topics of shared interest. About 20 minutes in, I introduced the idea that I would step back from the role of “teacher,” since I had been calling on kids as they raised their hands and it felt (to me) very school-like and prohibited free flowing conversation. Since “jumping into” conversations is often a skill that many of us PWS don’t give ourselves a lot of practice doing, I thought this was a good chance to practice that skill. So I tossed it to the kids and said just try jumping in and sharing rather than waiting for me to call on you. A kid named Will piped in, very insightfully, “that’s like building with legos or in Minecraft, building conversation step by step, and like it builds on itself.” Ok king…

That mostly worked really well actually, and they continued to talk about shared interests, ie Roblox and Minecraft. I would pipe in occasionally to help clear the floor for quieter ones in the group, and gently cut off some of our more loquacious friends. A couple of friends shared successes in giving presentations about stuttering to their classmates. As the discussion continually reverted to gaming, I threw out an observation that going through life, especially with a stutter, can be like gaming. It’s challenging, and there can be real setbacks, but rewarding to grow in confidence and get to the next level. I think my king Will was the only one who vibed with my analogy :-))))

The chat was active too–although it never overshadowed actual talking, which was voluminous. In the chat at one point someone posed the question: “McDonalds or Del Taco?” This was toward the end, so I piped in and asked if any of them ever ordered for themselves at drive through windows or even at the counter at restaurants. One or two said yes sometimes. I shared that as an AWS, I have found that choosing to stutter can be really helpful, rather than the default way of going around the world where I used to brace myself and try to avoid. I tossed it out there that it could be a really useful experiment for anyone who wanted to actually volunteer to order for their family sometime. By choosing to talk and stutter it can feel really different than being forced into it.

— Jenny McGuire on facilitating the Friends Kids Group in January

Meet the facilitation team