NSA Newport Beach – Day One

The National Stuttering Association conference of the USA is by some distance the largest such event worldwide. Its attendance of between 800 and 1000 people is several times greater than the largest international conferences. This is an annual event, touring major US cities and with distinct workshop streams for adults, teens/tweens, parents and children. This year it visited Newport Beach, California, for the first time.

The event opened with keynote speaker Mark Winski, who described how liberating it can be to free oneself from a target mode of speaking. Winski has a background in acting and musical theatre. He demonstrated many forms of stuttered and fluent speech. There were surreal elements to the presentation, such as a fake-out entrance in which Winski pretended to be unprepared and experience technical difficulty. This was the set up for a highlight showreel from his TikTok channel. The video segued unexpectedly into live performance when Winski burst through a back stage door singing his song, When the Words Won’t Come, which had suddenly been transformed into “When the Words Will Come”.

Winski then briefly emulated a corporate motivational speaker, before revealing he was “faking it”. However, the remainder of the keynote turned out to be motivational after all. It just wasn’t motivational in the frequently brash style typical of the corporate circuit. Winski described traumatic experiences related to his stuttering history, in which he would follow what was likely well-meaning advice, but which failed to achieve an outcome that either he or the person advising him wanted. He also described several times when he steadfastly refused to follow advice which could have helped him.

There was a lot to take away from this keynote. The overall message was that chasing fluency is unlikely to do you much good. This conclusion has long been inescapable in stuttering advocacy and therapy, but is rarely described with such style and verve. Winski’s TikTok channel is recommended.

Pamela Mertz and Charley Adams discussed covert stuttering. This is a strategy used by many who stutter, in which overt (i.e. visible) displays of stuttering are surreptitiously removed. For example, a word might be switched for a synonym, and the synonym is not stuttered. Or a sentence could be reformulated so that a feared word need not be spoken. These strategies are widespread, and will be familiar to many readers. In some instances, stutterers can be so successful with covert stuttering that people don’t realise they stutter at all. Mertz described how she got through an entire marriage that way. She also described a thrill in covert stuttering, that when you “get away with it” you are more likely to do it again.

Covert stuttering can fall apart. This eventually happened to Mertz, who described a “turning point” in which she lost her job. Her employer told her that she was not a good communicator, and presented a poor role model to people she should have been helping. Although her employer did not cite stuttering specifically as a reason for dismissal, Mertz was able to successfully sue her employer for discrimination. Adams asked audience members if they had experienced discrimination due to stuttering. Several described instances of discrimination, including a speech and language pathologist who was told her stuttering made her unsuitable for the role.

The transition from covert to overt was described as “dropping the ‘C’”. However, Mertz emphasised that covert stuttering can be OK. We should not be judging people for how they choose to handle their stuttering, or implying an obligation to “drop the C”. The message for those wishing to do so is to take baby steps, get bigger as you get braver, and celebrate when you have the confidence to stutter openly.

Lindsay Lowy and Karissa Colbrunn explored how alcohol can be used as a coping mechanism. The session started with anecdotes about “pre-gaming” in Miami. One of the hosts had a few drinks before going to a CVS pharmacy and doing more self-advertising than had previously been conceivable. Another recounted how experiences of the NSA conference had shifted relative whether to her drinking or not drinking alcohol. Much of the session involved audience contribution, with overall feelings towards alcohol being mixed.

Maya Chupkov recorded an episode of her Proud Stutter podcast live at the conference. In Chupkov’s description, the podcast aims to create a world where people who stutter feel that they can stutter freely. It has been running since October 2021, when Chupkov decided to embrace her own stuttering identity. This episode was about intersectionality, a terminology introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how multiple forms of inequality or oppression can compound and create different modes of discrimination or disadvantage. Chupkov’s guest was Christian Ting, a film and TV editor from Los Angeles. Ting described his intersectional experience as a Chinese American, second generation Chinese, and a person who stutters. One anecdote recollected Ting’s memory of the advent of stuttering 5 years old. He tried to speak to a friend in a playground, but was momentarily unable to do so. Another child in the class stuttered as well, but Ting’s stuttering would become stronger. Stuttering was a layered experience alongside an Asian identity in a conservative white town. For Ting, experiences of racism were more unpleasant than his experiences around stuttering.

The discussion moved on to representations of stuttering in TV and film, and how these have become so much better in recent years. Chupkov described an upcoming animation in which the main character will stutter, and will be based on the lead actress who also stutters. Ting described an interview with a voice actor for Porky Pig. Apparently the speaking style of the famous pig is based around a logical system of vowel repetitions featuring interleaved sentences … perhaps it is not so much like stuttering after all. Reality TV was also discussed. Ting had been approached about appearing, as a stutterer, on a dating show for men who were going through difficult life experiences. According to Ting, the tone of the producers set off very many red flags, leading him to pass up the opportunity. The show would later be cancelled.

Jon Gomez, the director of When I Stutter, filmed the session. He took to the microphone to describe his experience consulting for Netflix’s Maya and the Three. Gomez recounted his discussions with the producer of Maya and the Three, who had experience with autism. Desire to capture more fully the range of human experience had led to inclusion of stuttering in Maya and the Three.

Audience members were then interviewed for experiences of intersectionality. One particularly memorable contribution came from a highly qualified medical and mental health practitioner with impressive life experience. He now chooses to work as a taxi driver. The role is attractive because it affords him continued contact with the general public. This has included opportunities for life saving interventions. The combination of providence and experience was suggested as another example of intersectionality.