Stuttering SIG

ISU’s National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) chapter has different special interest groups (SIGs) each year. This year one of the SIGs is the Stuttering SIG. This group became a registered student organization (RSO) as a local chapter of the National Stuttering Association (NSA) in the fall. The faculty advisor of this group is Jean Sawyer.

This group was formed to provide service to those who stutter. Each month there is a support group held for individuals who stutter. These support group meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month from 7-8:30 p.m. at Illinois State University in Fairchild Hall, room 309. “Holding support groups not only helps those who stutter, but is also a valuable experience for our future speech language-pathologists,” said Sawyer, who hopes that in the future, they will have more individuals from the Bloomington-Normal community who stutter attend the support groups. “I also hope that we will be able to extend membership in this RSO to students outside of the CSD department.”

This group has been reading the book Out With It by Katherine Preston. It is a personal memoir of her experiences with stuttering. The author is also a speaker and ISU’s NSA chapter hopes to have her come speak in the future. They have also been fundraising for the NSA. They have had one bake sale earlier this semester and hope to have another one soon.

There is a major event coming up for the ISU NSA chapter. On April 20, Kenneth Koroll, the chairman of the National Stuttering Association, is coming to ISU’s campus to speak about the importance of support groups for individuals who stutter and about what NSA does. This is a great opportunity both for those in in the CSD department and for those who are not.

If you have any further questions, you can contact Sawyer at jsawyer@ilstu.edu or Samantha Kane at sjkane@ilstu.edu.