UTreceives $20Mfor stuttering research

Around a dozen people, from small children to older adults, stooduponeby one at theUniversity of Texas at Austin onMonday to share a message.

Some were relaxed and spoke confidently and fluidly. Others clutched the mic with both hands, mouths fluttering, faces tense with concentration, stuck on a syllable for many long seconds.

But their sentimentswere similar: They felt free to be themselves, that what they had to say was more important than how they said it, and that they knew that stuttering should never get in the way of their dreams.

NadiahWatson, 8, said stuttering is a unique thing that people do. “If someone thinks something is wrong with you, well, they’re thinking wrong!” Nadiah said.

Now, UT-Austin is launching a program to ensure others have the same opportunity to learn to view effective communication as something that they can achieve, and that stuttering is not cause for shame.

The UT flagship announced during a press conference Monday that it has received $20 million to form an education and research center that will study the nature of stuttering and create evidence-based programming to treat those who stutter.

The Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research aims to create a pipeline of experts and researchers who will make such treatments more accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds.

Housed in UT’s Moody College

of Communication, the center will build upon the work of its founder and executive director Dr. Courtney Byrd, who has helped establish several other stuttering research initiatives, including the Dealey Family Foundation Stuttering Clinic, which is also housed in Moody College.

The grant, distributed over the span of 10 years by the nonprofit Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, will allowthe Blank Center to increase the number of people it serves and the number of students and professionals it trains to help people who stutter. With this additional funding, the center will establish satellite locations around the country and launch “Camp Dream. Speak. Live” — Byrd’s signature intensive treatment program — in 10 new countries.

Arthur Blank, chairman of the Blank Foundation, co-founder of Home Depot and the owner of the Atlanta Falcons and United sports teams, said he was struck by Byrd’s dedication to the stuttering community.

“You’re really unleashing the power of each individual person, and in some ways, it’s a form of saving somebody’s life, making sure that their life has all the maximum potential to it that it possibly can. So being a part of a program like that and the opportunity to support a program like that is an honor for us,” Blank said during an interview with Moody College.

Traditionally, many experts have tried to help those who stutter by improving their fluency, or accuracy and flow of speaking — an approach Blank, coming from generations of family members who stutter, has tried. But “defining communication by how fluent you are doesn’t get at the freedom — the freeing of the inner person, the inner soul, the inner spirit, the inner mind, the intellect of what each person has to say and feel,” Blank said in a written statement.

Byrd, however, focuses on the person, not the stuttering, she said.

“Many people entirely give up their dreams they have … or decide not to take a career. They decide they’re not even going to say this sound or word because they might stutter on it,” said Byrd, adding that many believe that if they aren’t able to speak with fluency, they can’t achieve their goals. But Byrd strives to teach people as young as 3 and adults older than 90 that “you can communicate effectively, and you can do so even if you continue to stutter.”

Still, Byrd said, people ask her, “Why is it the people you work with are still stuttering?” She said that sentiment comes from a frustrating and limiting vision “that requires that every human being speaks in the same way.”

“I think now more than ever before, what if conformity is not the outcome of success?” Byrd said.

Byrd emphasized that rather than striving for fluency, she aims to help others communicate well and with authenticity through a variety of communication tactics that can help improve confidence.

These include maintaining eye contact, using voice and gestures to emphasize meaning, and engaging listeners with a positive attitude, according to a recent release. Byrd also emphasizes mindfulness, acceptance, self-compassion, and having thosewho stutter learn how to tell others that they stutter or to even stutter on purpose while speaking. Exposing people to stuttering can help people become more familiar with it and can reduce stereotypes or stigmas that often come along with stuttering, Byrd reasons.

“Stuttering does not define who you are. What you say, the quality of your thinking and the quality of the way you express yourself — there’s so many ways we can communicate — that’s what’s really important,” Blank said.

Students said the program had changed their lives.

“Before the institute, I was very unsure of myself. I actually avoided situations involving speaking. I regretted those moments because I always wanted to pursue those,” Christian Castillo said at the UT press conference, but after attending Moody College’s Michael and Tami Lang Stuttering Institute, Castillo said he felt the world was much more open to him and he was able to live a more fulfilling life.

“Hopefully with this grant, we can pursue that on a much more global level and share that with other people who stutter so that they feel like just because you speak differently doesn’t mean you should live a life of fear of being who you are,” Castillo said.

The Blank Center and Byrd’s efforts have already caught the attention of Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, who has spoken frequently about overcoming and controlling a severe childhood stutter. Blank said he’s spoken with Biden on several occasions, noting that the former VP has invited both him and Byrd to the White House to further discuss their platform should he be elected president.

Byrd’s team of student researchers has already served more than 1,500 people who stutter.

Moody College Dean Jay Bernhardt praised Byrd for her holistic approach, noting that the center is the only academic institution in the nation that has the infrastructure and support that it does for stuttering research and treatment.

“This legacy grant will further set Moody apart as a leader in this underserved, often misunderstood area,” Bernhardt said.