About the Authors: Katarzyna Węsierska is an Assistant Professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland and an SLP at the Logopedic Centre in Katowice. She co-founded the Logopedic Centre Foundation. She is a European Fluency Specialist and a coach of the European Clinical Specialization in Fluency Disorders. In her research and clinical practice, she focuses mainly on stuttering and cluttering. She has been actively involved in many research projects in the framework of the International Project on Attitudes Toward Human Attributes – IPATHA. She is the main coordinator of LOGOLab workshops for school-age children who stutter and their parents, which have been organized at the University of Silesia since 2017. At these workshops, she works with the parent groups.  Monika Pakura, Ph.D., is a graduate in Polish Philology and Logopaedics with a doctorate in Humanities at the University of Silesia. She is a lecturer at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. She also works as an SLP at the kindergarten and primary school level. Her scientific and clinical interests include stuttering, bilingualism, speech and language development and communication skills. She is the author and co-author of numerous publications in the field of speech therapy. She is actively involved in the organization of various logopedic projects and has co-organized LOGOLab workshops for children who stutter. Izabela Michta is a sociologist, and a leader of the Polish self-help movement for people who stutter. She coordinates two self-help groups: People Talk Club and Virtual Club J. She also co-organizes annual events for the International Stuttering Awareness Day in Silesia, Poland. She regularly attends Polish National Conferences for people who stutter, where she conducts workshops. Izabela is a co-organizer of LOGOLab workshops for children who stutter and is a fellow in the Agere Aude Foundation of Knowledge and Social Dialogue.

About five years ago, the LOGOLab workshops for children who stutter and their parents were organized at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland for the first time. The program consists of a series of monthly meetings organized separately: the children’s group and the parents’ group. Experienced fluency specialists, SLT students, and members of Polish self-help groups volunteer in this program. They are involved in all program activities. Attending the program is free for all of the participants. Children who stutter are recruited to the program through local speech-language therapists. 

The main purpose of the meetings is to change attitudes towards stuttering in the children who stutter themselves and in their environment. During these meetings, conditions are created so that children can desensitize themselves to stuttering and become mentally resilient, fulfilled speakers who know their worth. The sessions provide a safe haven where children can experiment in a friendly atmosphere and confront various challenges while overcoming their fears and limitations. All this happens in a safe and accepting environment, which encourages children to act more in real world conditions. 

Parents, on the other hand, have the opportunity during these workshops to meet with various specialists –  speech-language therapists, psychologists – who are often people who stutter. 

The participants have discussions and exchange views. These activities not only allow parents to reevaluate their attitudes towards stuttering but also expand their abilities to effectively support their children. Workshops that focus on parents and caregivers are designed to strengthen their sense of empowerment and readiness to take on the role of advocates for their children. 

Successive editions of these workshops have so far resulted in several short movies (available at: www.logolab.edu.pl). This year, several videos were also made with the participation of SLT students, children and parents.  The parents’ movie deserves special attention. During one of the parent meetings, a brainstorming session took place. Parents together with their therapists discussed what they would like the world at large but also their children specifically to know about stuttering . The video below presents a summary of this discussion. 

In our opinion as therapists, what the parents said is priceless and worth disseminating! We love how they totally reversed from having a fix-my-child focus to a child’s well-being focus. What is extraordinary, is that this shift happened within a period of a few months. We believe this short documentary perfectly fits in with this year’s ISAD slogan ‘Being seen, being heard – Representation and normalization of stuttering in the mainstream!’. We are convinced that parents’ opinions, knowledge, and experiences should be disseminated that parents’ voices should be heard. Unfortunately, this is still not a common practice in our country. We hope that the activities we intend to organize in celebration of this year’s ISAD in Poland will enable us to spread this message. We firmly believe that materials such as this video can help us to ‘create a world that understands, accepts, and supports people who stutter.’   

We thank the parent group for their courage and determination to support their children and create a world that is friendly to children who stutter. We thank them for agreeing to make this movie public.

Here is the link to the movie on YouTube.