7th World Congress

Aboriginal dancing at the World Congress opening ceremony. Photo: Allan Tyrer

Almost 300 people from 20 countries (10 from the UK) enjoyed a week of meeting other people who stammer and hearing about new therapies and research.

Professor Mark Onslow, the director of the Australian Stuttering Research Centre, gave a brief history of treatments for stuttering and acknowledged the frustration some people feel at the slowness of new developments. Two new areas he mentioned are brain imaging research and computer-driven therapy.

Professor David Shapiro, professor of communication disorders at Western Carolina University, North Carolina, said the challenges that people who stutter face can be described as journeys. Every journey must have a destination. He said we all have stories to tell, and to share our own stories with others is our destination.

"When so many people who stutter from different parts of the earth finally meet and sense a togetherness we realise we are close to achieving a quality that the wider world sorely needs, and is losing," said Morley Legg from Perth.

"You can walk into a room of 300 people feeling that you know every one of them," said John Steggles from Sydney.

The congress was very well organised and is a regular international event. The next world congress will be in Cavtat - Dubrovnik, Croatia in May 2007.

The venue: Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle, Perth.

New gene research project underway

"We want to look at the chromosomes of about 100 people who stutter to see if we can find a change in their chromosomes. If we could find a different or 'broken' chromosome in a person who stutters, this would help us to look for gene for stuttering," the researchers said.

The project is being conducted by a new group called the Stuttering Consortium, based in Melbourne.

Team effort: Matthew Martin with speech therapy students who helped organise the World Congress. Photo: Andre Krestan

Rethinking what it means to stammer

Neurosemantics is a tool for recognising what stammering means to us, and then learning to respond differently when we stammer. It starts by exploring why people who stammer can speak fluently in some contexts but not others. Whatever the primary cause for a stammer - genetic, neurological or other - the way we think and feel about it influences the effects stammering has on us. The meaning we give to an event determines our response.

Neurosemantics helps to identify how these meanings are created and sustained in the important areas of our lives, and how they can maintain our stammering. Often these meanings are very hidden, yet very real in their effect. They are analysed closely in six key areas: self-identity, personal power, sense of purpose, use of time, relationships with others, and living in the world.

Neurosemantics has been developed in the United States from neurolinguistic programming (NLP) and was presented at the congress by Bob Bodenhamer.

Further reading: our NLP page. Bob Bodenhamer's website is at www.stuttering.us.

Alan wins public speaking competition 'down under'

Alan Badmington, winner of the World Congress oratory competition. Photo: Howard Yaffe

BSA member Alan Badmington overcame a strong international challenge to win the oratory competition at this year's world congress.

The contest, which attracted entrants from all parts of the globe, was spread over several days, culminating in a final event with nine speakers.

Each contestant was required to give a four minutes speech, selected from six specified subjects. Alan's entry was entitled, "If I could change one thing".

In addition, Alan was the sole UK keynote speaker at the event, while he also presented a workshop. The theme of both was, 'STEP OUTSIDE: Why expanding comfort zones can improve our stuttering and lead to more fulfilling lives'.

Further reading: Alan's article on comfort zones in the ISAD 2003 Online Conference.

From the Spring 2004 edition of Speaking Out

See also
2001 World Congress, Ghent, Belgium