Empowering Voices at Homestead
In honor of International Stuttering Awareness Day, two incredible students in Robin Thacker's class at Homestead Elementary took the initiative to present on the speech disorder that impacts 70 million people globally.
Andrew, who has been impacted by a stutter since the age of 3, decided to create a presentation to share his experience with his peers. After receiving approval, he reached out to his classmate Quinn, who is affected by stuttering, to be a part of the presentation.
“Since I stutter, I thought it would be a good idea for us to do this presentation,” said Andrew. “So after a basketball practice, I called [Quinn] to see if he wanted to help.”
Both boys have been in LISD’s speech therapy program, with both citing their time in the program as being beneficial.
“My family and my speech therapist have given me a lot of confidence because they tell me that it’s ok,” expressed Andrew.
As part of their presentation, Andrew and Quinn included resources from the Blank Institute for Stuttering Education and Research and explained the best ways for their classmates to approach conversation with them.
“Let them finish their sentences, and don’t interrupt to try to help,” explained Quinn. “They know that they can do it.”
Thacker was proud of the duo for stepping up to present something that they felt so passionately about.
“When I saw the presentation,” she said. “I thought ‘absolutely they need to do this.” I wanted to honor their bravery and their willingness to step up. It was really their bravery and their boldness that struck me.”
She hopes that her students will take the boys’ presentation to heart, taking the time to be mindful of how they converse with individuals impacted by speech impediments and disabilities. Beyond that, she hopes that fellow teachers can use this experience as an opportunity to provide students the chance to share their stories.
“We always need to give students a voice. Let them share. Create a classroom culture that says students should be comfortable asking for these opportunities. I think as teachers we need to say that we’re a classroom family, and sometimes that means giving up some instructional time to let the kids be themselves and advocate for themselves in unique and different ways, just like these boys did today.”