WPLN is launching a new series: Postcards from Summer Camp. This summer, we’ll bring you sound-rich, youth-centered stories from some the unique programs in Nashville and Middle Tennessee. This story is the first, and we encourage you to experience it by pressing play above.
About 1% of the U.S. population stutters — typically more boys than girls — and can have a diverse range of presentations such as repetitions, pauses or stretched out sounds. A five-day camp at Vanderbilt University brings together kids who stutter from around the region.
But the goal is not fluency.
“Our goal is really just to make a safe space where they can be themselves and deal with the emotions and some of the complicated internal pieces of stuttering,” said speech therapist Ryan Millager, director of Camp TALKS. (Full disclosure: Millager is married to a WPLN staffer, but she did not work on this story.)
In day-to-day life, it’s common for people to interrupt each other or finish each other’s sentences. But Millager said that can be really hard for people who stutter.
“It may feel that in some places that you’re not able to contribute, that you’re being treated differently, that you can’t participate as much as someone else,” he said. “So it’s really important for us here at camp to create a place where that’s not true, where you know that you can be heard, where you can have as much time as you need and not feel that pressure to be someone you’re not.”
Former camp director and stuttering therapist Jack Henderson said kids who stutter may appear extremely reserved at school to avoid feeling embarrassed or ridiculed.
“Hopefully this is a place where they’re like, ‘Oh, now I can be myself. Because everyone else sounds like me. And also I don’t have to explain myself.’ ”
To hear how Camp TALKS impacted this year’s attendees, hear the students in their voices in the story above.
Alexis Marshall WPLN NewsA young camper reads aloud a letter he wrote to his stutter. “I feel like you’re a problem sometimes, and sometimes I don’t,” he wrote.
Alexis Marshall WPLN NewsCampers work in teams to devise a product that they’ll pitch to a Shark Tank-style panel of imaginary investors. They focus on not interrupting each other during the group discussions.
Alexis Marshall WPLN NewsCreative camp activities are punctuated with games of kickball and capture the flag.
Alexis Marshall WPLN NewsThe first rule of Camp TALKS is that everyone gets as much time as they need to speak.
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