Some Stutter, Luh!

Dr. Samantha Shune is an associate professor and the director of the Communication Disorders and Sciences Program at the University of Oregon. Prior to returning to school for her PhD and throughout her doctoral program, she worked as a speech-language pathologist across a number of healthcare settings. Her primary area of interest is dysphagia, particularly in terms of exploring the impact of disruptions to the eating and swallowing process on the individual and their family system.

Michele Vandehey, MS, CCC-SLP, is a clinical supervisor for graduate student clinicians at the University of Oregon in the Brain Injury and Concussion Clinic. Michele also continues to work in the medical setting, specifically acute care, and inpatient rehabilitation as a medical speech-language pathologist. She completed her coursework and thesis in dysphagia at Idaho State University. She is also the daughter of a stroke survivor who experienced severe dysphagia, and cognitive- communication deficits who she provided support to within the home and community for nearly 20 years. Her clinical and research interests primarily center on identifying dysphagia and its impact on individuals and their families, including how to foster improved functional outcomes. 

In this week's episode, Greg talks to Nathan Mallipeddi, Jenny McGuire, and Nikhil Bilkha from MySpeechApp.org (previously known as the Stuttering Scholarship Alliance)! They have built a digital resource platform enabling people who stutter to access affordable speech therapy and community support. Their work has been celebrated by US President Joe Biden.

In this episode Greg has an exciting and informative conversation with Dr. Janet Tilstra, PhD CCC-SLP. During their conversation, they discuss Dr. Tilstra's article,  From Speech Helper to Ally. This article recognizes the need for developing a greater understanding of the psychological effects and emotions associated with communication disorders in order to encourage professionals in the field to incorporate counselling strategies in their clinical interactions. This article identifies a stuttering paradigm shift from a clinical focus to ally: a clinician changes her own perceptions of speech fluency and encourages others to re-examine theirs.

Dr. Tilstra is a speech-language pathologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Disorders at St Cloud State University, St Cloud, Minnesota (USA). She completed her undergraduate and Master’s degree in speech-language pathology at the University of Iowa and PhD in educational psychology at the University of Minnesota.  Dr. Tilstra teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on stuttering, language development/disorders and research methods. She is an active clinical supervisor and passionate ally dedicated to amplifying the voices of people living with communication differences and disorders. She enjoys mentoring students, consulting with non-profit agencies, and designing innovative training models.

Enjoy their conversation.

In the first episode of season 3, Greg speaks to Casey Dumaresq about his most fluent and severe phases of stuttering, the exact moment when he felt that he had a speaking challenge for the first time, and why he was not diagnosed with a fluency disorder. He also discusses careers that a person who stutters might pursue. All this and much more! 

About Casey: Casey Dumaresq is a gay person who stutters and a Speech-Language Pathologist. Casey grew up in rural New Brunswick, and went to graduate school in Halifax. He now lives in Toronto with his husband. Casey leads a stuttering support group in downtown Toronto (currently on pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic), and previously served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Stuttering Association. These days, Casey finds himself in a mostly-fluent phase of life, and looks forward to discussing his current place in the stuttering community.

Hard to believe it but we've reached our final episode of Season 2! Join the production team as they discuss new the many new projects scheduled for The Communication Collaborative. We also celebrate the 1st Anniversary of SSL!

Today, Greg and Katelyn are chatting with Penny Welch-West! 

Penny Welch-West is a medical Speech-Language Pathologist working at Parkwood Institute, St. Joseph's Healthcare in London, Ontario. She holds a Lecturer position with the University of Western Ontario and an Adjunct Clinical Professor position with McMaster University. Penny practices as a medical SLP in a hospital setting working in Complex and Continuing Care as well as Acquired Brain Injury, working with an adult population including young adults.She has a special interest in concussion care and specifically return to learn in the secondary and post-secondary school populations.  Throughout her clinical practice, she can most often be found advocating for cognitive-communication services. As the first medical S-LP on the show, Greg and Katelyn ask Penny broad questions about what exactly her clinical work consists of and the types of people she sees on her caseload. Penny shares her experiences as an S-LP and talks about what drew her to the medical field. Penny also explains Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and it's place in her clinical practice. All three discuss the importance of advocacy and awareness for individuals with communication differences, whether that be a person who stutters, or an individual with an acquired language disorder or traumatic brain injury.

Music: Luca Dinu

Production Team: Katelyn Mayo, Greg O'Grady, Dr. Paul De Decker, Melanie Crane, Luca Dinu, Emily Murphy

On today's episode, Greg and Katelyn are speaking with Saran Croos! 

Saran is the Engineering and Computer Science Librarian at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), Fredericton. He holds an honours BA from the University of Windsor, an MPA from Queen’s University and an MLIS from Western University. Saran also has a Mechanical Engineering Technology diploma from Algonquin College and worked as a Computer Numerical Control Machinist before his career as a librarian. Saran was born in Sri Lanka, and his family immigrated to Canada in 1991. He grew up in Ottawa, Ontario and lived in many cities in Ontario before relocating to New Brunswick, where he resides currently. In addition to English, Saran also speaks Sinhalese and a bit of Tamil. Saran is a person who stutters, and he has been stuttering most of his life. Throughout the episode, Saran shares personal stories and experiences about growing up as a person who stutters. He talks about how his stuttering has changed over the years, and explains how he views stuttering in relation to his identity.

Music: Luca Dinu 

Production Team: Katelyn Mayo, Luca Dinu, Melanie Crane, Emily Murphy, Dr. Paul De Decker, Greg O'Grady