Stammering matters in Oxford
By Daniel Hunter
Chair, national special interest group (SIG)

One of the highlights for me of the Sixth Oxford Dysfluency Conference, was a story by Ehud Yairi, of a blind girl who also stammered. He asked her, if she had the choice, which would she rather get rid of; her stammer or her blindness?

She chose her stammer. Why? Because people didn't tell her to 'slow down and focus' or 'just take a deep breath and you will be able to see'. In short, she felt that stammering was still poorly understood and that people somehow felt that she was doing it on purpose. This story reminded me of how far we still have to go to help both people who stammer and the public to understand this confusing disorder we call stammering.

The conference took place at St Catherine's College Oxford between June 26 and 29 2002. This is an international conference dedicated to stammering. Many researchers and therapists from all over the world come to give presentations and workshops. Many more come to listen and to learn. As chair of the national special interest group (SIG) in the disorders of fluency I really wanted to be there. It seemed like an excellent opportunity to be kept up to date with the latest research and to swap ideas with other clinicians who share my interest in working with stammering. Also, this was an opportunity to tell people of the work that the SIG does and to hopefully attract a few new members!

Another highlight of the conference for me was Ehud Yairi saying that his team of researchers was 'at arms length' away from isolating a gene which contributes to stammering. This reminded me of how far we have come in our research into stammering.

It was possible for myself (and 14 other members of the SIG) to attend the Oxford Conference thanks to the British Stammering Association. The BSA kindly offered 15 bursaries of up to £250 to allow members of the SIG to attend the conference. Without this help I know it would have been very difficult for people to attend. We all had a great time and learned a lot.

The special interest group also held a 'soiree' to tell people about our work and to give people a chance to meet in a relaxed and fun environment. Therapists and researchers from many nations came, drank wine and took part in our quiz (ably hosted by the Ann Robinson of the speech and language therapy world - Monica Bray). Our thanks again to BSA.

The SIG website is at www.fluencysig.org.uk.

From the Autumn 2002 edition of Speaking Out