Day 2 Wrap-Up from the IFA’s World Congress in Portugal (Ep. 532)

stuttering, StutterTalk
Lynn Shields, Tom Weidig, Per Alm and Chirs Constantino

Dr. Per Alm and Dr. Lynn Shields join Dr. Tom Weidig and Christopher Constantino for the Day 2 Wrap-Up from the International Fluency Association’s 2015 World Congress on cluttering, stuttering and other fluency disorders in Lisbon, Portugal.

Dr. Lynn Shields, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-F,  is a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Speech-Language Pathology at Fontbonne, University in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Shields is a Board-Certified Specialist in Fluency Disorders.

Dr. Per Alm is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Neuroscience, Speech-Language Pathology, Uppsala University, Sweden. The research focuses understanding of the mechanisms of stuttering and cluttering, with an integrative approach on brain functions and their relation to symptoms, speech motor control, psychological interactions, and background factors. The recent work involves analysis of stuttering repetitions at a “micro-level”: what is proximate cause of these disruptions of speech? This work has led to a proposal of an integrative model of stuttering, with clinical implications.

Dr. Tom Weidig is the brain behind the popular Stuttering Brain blog. Dr. Weidig’s blog contains more than 1000 posts and 5000 comments over a period of 10 years with 1000 weekly readers. Dr. Weidig has a PhD and has done postdoctoral research in theoretical physics and currently works in the financial industry specializing in private equity and venture capital.

Christopher Constantino is a person who stutters and a PhD student in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Memphis. Chris is doing his clinical fellowship in the Shelby County Schools in Memphis and is conducting a research study to understand and contextualize the experiences of passing as fluent for people who covertly stutter.