First Ever Stuttering and Attitudes Research Symposium

Ken St. Louis Ken St. Louis

West Virginia University Speech Language Pathology professors held the first ever research symposium devoted entirely to the topic of stuttering, September 4 to 7.

The Stuttering and Attitudes Research Symposium looked at different studies done on people who stutter, and the attitudes that people have about those who stutter.

The symposium is the culmination of research conducted by Ken St. Louis, of WVU Speech Language Pathology, who is a professor and director of post-professional graduate study in the West Virginia University College of Education and Human Services' Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

As of this year, St. Louis, a recovered stutterer himself, has analyzed 188 studies with colleagues from 29 countries.

The symposium was a great success and culminated with identification of a working group which will seek to identify areas for further research in the area of public attitudes toward stuttering. There were 5 featured presentations and 20 poster presentations.

The five feature presentations were International Epidemiology of Public Attitudes Toward Stuttering, by Ken St. Louis; Stigma Associated with Stuttering by Gordon Blood and Michael Boyle; Teasing and Bullying of Stuttering Children, by Marilyn Langevin; Job Discrimination Associated with Stuttering in Adults, Rod Gabel; and Changing and Fostering Long Term Change in Attitudes Toward Stuttering, Fauzia Abdalla.

The handouts of the presentations are on the IPATHA site: http://www.stutteringattitudes.com/. On the homepage, follow the link to the symposium under "New Developments." Handouts are hyperlinked to the corresponding presentation. There are also separate links for biosketches and the program.

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