Join our FREE monthly parents’ and caregivers’ group and find a community of loved ones who are asking tough questions, sharing their highs and lows, and building their confidence in becoming their child’s best advocate and ally! September’s co-host is Dr. Eric S. Jackson.
About this Session: Many parents understandably assume that the goal of stuttering therapy should be fluency, but this rests on a fundamental misconception about what therapy can directly target and control. Drawing on his recent publication, Dr. Jackson will explain why speech modification and other strategies are best used as flexible tools for reducing struggle, supporting easier communication, and increasing engagement — not as direct routes to fluency — and why treatment should be organized around real-world freedom to communicate, with increased fluency understood as a possible downstream byproduct rather than the goal itself.
Dr. Eric S. Jackson is an associate professor at New York University, where he studies variability in stuttering — why people stutter sometimes and in some situations but not others — as well as novel approaches to treatment. His lab is currently conducting clinical trials of psilocybin-assisted therapy and neuromodulation for stuttering. A speech-language pathologist with nearly 20 years of clinical experience and expertise in stuttering, Dr. Jackson is also a person who stutters. Across his work, he seeks to integrate rigorous scientific inquiry, clinical practice, and a deep understanding of the lived experience of stuttering to develop supports and interventions that improve the lives of people who stutter across the lifespan.
Each month, our very own Director of SAY: Speech, Brooke Leiman Edwards, MA, CCC-SLP, BCS-SCF, will host with special guest co-hosts, including our founder, Taro Alexander, our artistic director, Travis Robertson, our Development Manager, Kate Detrick, and many more! There is no commitment- just register for the months you want to attend to receive your Zoom link.
2026 Dates: *September 14th (2nd Monday), October 5th, November 2nd, and December 7th.
*Bolded dates occur on the 2nd Monday of the month.
To learn more about the SAY: Parents program, please contact Brooke Leiman Edwards at 646.403.3519 or Brooke@SAY.org.