Stuttering Awareness Day in Abu Dhabi

On Saturday 19^th October, Stutter UAE organized its annual gathering at Anantara Eastern Mangroves, Abu Dhabi. Under the group’s motto “celebrating our accent”, dozens of people from different nationalities got together.

On stage, compelling testimonials were shared. Although each story was deeply personal, they all had at least two things in common: growing with stuttering entailed enormous challenges and finding out that other people stuttered was a turning point.

Since 2013, Stutter UAE facilitates such discoveries. The advocacy work led by Farah Al Qaissieh, which granted her a prestigious Abu Dhabi Award, brings people who stutter together, and channels them to quality information and research. This event was another important mark in the support group’s awareness-raising efforts.

Gonçalo Leal, stuttering expert and iStutter’s clinical director, and Aisha Al Naqbi, speech and language pathologist from UAE’s Ministry of Education, were invited to answer questions from the audience. The debate was dynamic and wide-ranging.

In the end, both professionals agreed that there is a long way to go to “combat wrongful stereotypes”, to “promote early intervention” and to “empower people who stutter with specialized services” that help them to better handle daily obstacles.

On stage, compelling testimonials were shared. Although each story was deeply personal, they all had at least two things in common: growing with stuttering was an enormous challenge, and finding out that other people stuttered too was an amazing revelation.

Since 2013, Stutter UAE facilitates such discoveries. The advocacy work led by Farah Al Qaissieh, which granted her the Abu Dhabi Award, brings people who stutter together, and channels them to quality information and research. This event was another important mark in the support group’s awareness-raising efforts.

Gonçalo Leal, stuttering therapist and clinical director of iStutter, and Aisha Al Naqbi, speech and language therapist from UAE’s Ministry of Education, were invited to stir the discussion and to answer questions from the audience. The debate was dynamic and wide-ranging.

In the end, both professionals agreed that there is a long way to go to “combat wrongful stereotypes”, to “promote early intervention” and to “empower schools and families” to handle the specific experiences of people who stutter.

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by iStutter, 20/10/2019