Summer Camp for Kids Who Stutter Ends With Ice-Cream Shop Flash Mob 

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Manning, who is also a stutterer, said that mentoring kids who stutter is a “huge part” of his own therapy. He’ll begin a Masters program in Communication Sciences and Disorders at UVM this fall. He kick-started the event by being first in line. He said the staff at Ben & Jerry’s were not given a heads-up about the group’s flash mob, which was also held there last year. The event lasted for just half an hour, but it provided participants with a supportive environment where they could stutter openly, take their time to finish sentences and enjoy ice cream.

“What they say matters more than how they say it,” said O’Neill, a rising second-year graduate student at UVM who, like Manning, hopes to become a speech language pathologist.

Throughout the six weeks, the campers also did other self-empowerment activities, including drawing pictures that represented their stutter and imagining characters that could defeat it.

“This process allowed the kids to externalize their stuttering and talk about it in a kid-friendly way,” said Danra Kazenski, a clinical assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders at UVM.

Along with Dr. Barry Guitar, Kazenski is the co-leader of the Burlington chapter of the National Stuttering Association, which organizes various support group meetings for school-age kids and their parents, teens and adults throughout the year. Though they use UVM space for the casual meetings, these are community groups that aren’t officially tied to the university, said Kazenski.

By attending the parent-focused gatherings, Denton said she’s learned that her daughter’s stutter is not her fault.

“It’s not something that we’ve done,” she said.

The gatherings focus on teaching parents how to help their child cope and not allow their stutter “to hold them back.” Her daughter’s stutter is “a small part of who she is,” Denton said.

These days, Madison is interested in finding out about celebrities — besides pop singer Ed Sheeran — who stutter. She’s also opening up about her stutter to close friends. But Denton said that Madison still has had to deal with peers who rush her, interrupt her mid-sentence or simply walk away.

“It breaks my heart,” Denton admitted.

But she reminds her daughter that “no one is perfect.”

“It’s their lack of knowledge and compassion that made them walk away. It’s not her. It’s about them,” Denton said.

For more information about the Burlington chapter of the National Stuttering Association, visit burlingtonstutters.org