Stuttering Foundation of America

Last updated
The Stuttering Foundation of America
Formation1947;77 years ago (1947)
Founder Malcolm Fraser
Type NGO
Legal status 501(c)(3) organization
Purpose Stuttering therapy
Headquarters Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Coordinates 35°04′56″N89°53′57″W / 35.082155°N 89.899131°W / 35.082155; -89.899131
Region served
United States
President
Jane Fraser
Website stutteringhelp.org

The Stuttering Foundation of America provides free online resources, services and support to those who stutter and their families, as well as support for research into the causes of stuttering. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Stuttering Foundation was established by Malcolm Fraser in 1947 in Memphis, Tennessee. [1] The Stuttering Foundation provides a toll-free helpline, free printed and online resources including books, pamphlets, videos, posters, referral services, support and information for people who stutter and their families, and research into the causes of stuttering. [2]

Contents

Malcolm Fraser's daughter, Jane Fraser, is president of the Foundation.

History

In 1947, Malcolm Fraser, a man from Memphis, Tennessee, knew about stuttering from personal, often painful experience. [3] He met with Dr. Charles Van Riper, a prominent stuttering speech therapist at the time, to discuss founding a nonprofit charitable organization. The organization Fraser founded became today's Stuttering Foundation of America. Its goal was to provide the best and most up-to-date information and help available for the prevention of stuttering in young children and the most effective treatment available for teenagers and adults.

Founder

Malcolm Fraser was a person who stuttered. His introduction to stuttering corrective procedures first came at the age of fifteen under the direction of Frederick Martin, M.D., who at that time was Superintendent of Speech Correction for the New York City schools. A few years later, he worked with J. Stanley Smith, L.L.D., a stutterer and philanthropist, who founded the Kingsley Clubs in Philadelphia and New York that were named after the English author Charles Kingsley, who also stuttered.

In 1928, Fraser joined his brother Carlyle, who founded the NAPA Genuine Parts Company that year in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1947, Fraser founded the Stuttering Foundation of America. In subsequent years, he added $20 million to the endowment. [4]

Mission

Research

Neuroimaging studies for the potential to understand brain-behavior relationships in complex behaviors such as speech and language. [5] The Foundation was involved in projects by Dr. Dennis Drayna [6] of the National Institute on Deafness and other Communicative Disorders searching for genetic markers. [7]

Education

The Foundation discusses questions and provides information surrounding stuttering. This includes:

Public awareness

Press releases have resulted in stories in print and segments on stuttering in the broadcast media, including CBS This Morning, The Today Show, CNN, [11] NPR, [12] and AP wire stories.[ citation needed ]

The Foundation's toll-free line is accessed by more than 20,000 callers each year.[ citation needed ]

Global outreach

In an alliance to help children who stutter through research, treatment and training programs, the Stuttering Foundation and the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children joined forces in 2006. [13] The Michael Palin Centre based in London. [14]

Honors and awards

In 1978, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association gave a Distinguished Service Award to the Foundation. [15] The NCCD, a council of 32 national organizations, recognized the Foundation's efforts in "adding to stutterers, parents, clinicians, and the public's awareness and ability to deal constructively with stuttering."[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder characterized externally by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses called blocks in which the person who stutters is unable to produce sounds.

A communication disorder is any disorder that affects an individual's ability to comprehend, detect, or apply language and speech to engage in dialogue effectively with others. This also encompasses deficiencies in verbal and non-verbal communication styles. The delays and disorders can range from simple sound substitution to the inability to understand or use one's native language. This article covers subjects such as diagnosis, the DSM-IV, the DSM-V, and examples like sensory impairments, aphasia, learning disabilities, and speech disorders.

Speech disorders, impairments, or impediments, are a type of communication disorder in which normal speech is disrupted. This can mean fluency disorders like stuttering, cluttering or lisps. Someone who is unable to speak due to a speech disorder is considered mute. Speech skills are vital to social relationships and learning, and delays or disorders that relate to developing these skills can impact individuals function. For many children and adolescents, this can present as issues with academics. Speech disorders affect roughly 11.5% of the US population, and 5% of the primary school population. Speech is a complex process that requires precise timing, nerve and muscle control, and as a result is susceptible to impairments. A person who has a stroke, an accident or birth defect may have speech and language problems.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speech–language pathology</span> Disability therapy profession

Speech–language pathology (a.k.a. speech and language pathology or logopedics) is a healthcare and academic discipline concerning the evaluation, treatment, and prevention of communication disorders, including expressive and mixed receptive-expressive language disorders, voice disorders, speech sound disorders, speech disfluency, pragmatic language impairments, and social communication difficulties, as well as swallowing disorders across the lifespan. It is an allied health profession regulated by professional bodies including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and Speech Pathology Australia. The field of speech-language pathology is practiced by a clinician known as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) or a speech and language therapist (SLT). SLPs also play an important role in the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), often in collaboration with pediatricians and psychologists.

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There are many references to stuttering in popular culture. Because of the unusual-sounding speech that is produced, as well as the behaviors and attitudes that accompany a stutter, stuttering has been a subject of scientific interest, curiosity, discrimination, and ridicule.

Malcolm Hough Fraser (1903–1994) was an American businessman. He founded the Genuine Parts Company with his brother in 1928 and the Stuttering Foundation of America in 1947, giving the latter most of its $10 million endowment. He was the recipient of the fourth annual National Council on Communicative Disorders Distinguished Service Award in 1984.

Stuttering therapy is any of the various treatment methods that attempt to either reduce stuttering to some degree in an individual or cope with negative impacts of living with a stutter or social stigma. Stuttering can be seen as a challenge to treat because there is a lack of consensus about therapy, and there is no cure for stuttering.

A sighted child who is reading at a basic level should be able to understand common words and answer simple questions about the information presented. They should also have enough fluency to get through the material in a timely manner. Over the course of a child's education, these foundations are built on to teach higher levels of math, science, and comprehension skills. Children who are blind not only have the education disadvantage of not being able to see: they also miss out on the very fundamental parts of early and advanced education if not provided with the necessary tools.

The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering is a specialist centre for speech and language therapy for stammering in London, England. It officially opened in 1993 as a joint initiative between the charity Association for Research into Stammering in Childhood and the Camden & Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust. It is now run by the Whittington Health NHS Trust with support from Action for Stammering Children and the Stuttering Foundation of America. It is located in Pine Street, central London.

The American Institute for Stuttering is an American nonprofit organization that provides universally affordable speech therapy to people who stutter. The organization, legally known as The American Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Professional Training (AIS), was founded in 1998 by speech-language pathologist Catherine Otto Montgomery in New York, New York. The current clinical director is speech-language pathologist Heather Grossman, PhD. AIS currently has offices in New York City, Atlanta, GA, and Los Angeles, CA.

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The Indian Stammering Association (TISA) is a public charitable trust and self-help movement for people in India who stammer. In India a person who stammers (PWS) faces stigma at home and in public, as often parents chide their children publicly, and social acceptance is not high.

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James Hunt was an anthropologist and speech therapist in London, England, during the middle of the nineteenth century. His clients included Charles Kingsley, Leo Tennyson, and Lewis Carroll author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Dennis T. Drayna is an American human geneticist known for his contributions to stuttering, human haemochromatosis, pitch, and taste. He is currently the Section Chief of Genetics of Communication Disorders at the U.S. National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

References

  1. "Stuttering Foundation of America goes bilingual online". Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
  2. Foundation, Stuttering. "Shame On You, Mr. Trump! Stuttering Foundation Responds to Negative Comments" (Press release). Archived from the original on 2011-05-08. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
  3. "Stuttering Foundation of America -- Looking Back and Looking Forward". Mnsu.edu. 1998-08-23. Archived from the original on 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2022-02-19.
  4. "For Some, Acceptance or Support Is Answer". The New York Times. 12 September 2006. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  5. "Anne Leigh Foundas, MD - LSUHSC School of Medicine". Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  6. "Dennis Drayna, Ph.D. - NIDCD". Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  7. "Researchers Discover First Genes for Stuttering - NIDCD". Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  8. "Welcome to Stuttering Education". Archived from the original on 2013-11-05. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  9. "Workshops Help Therapists Improve Skills". 15 May 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  10. "Resources". Archived from the original on 2013-10-13. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  11. Carney, Kat (April 4, 2003). "Actor gets the word out on stuttering". CNN . Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  12. "Study: Stuttering Is (Often) In The Genes". NPR. Archived from the original on 2017-01-03. Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  13. "Michael Palin Centre Partnership". 6 May 2011. Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  14. "Archives - Philly.com". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
  15. "Distinguished Service Award". Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2013-11-01.