Support Group Activities

About the presenters: The presenters for this paper consist of the spring 2005 undergraduate class in fluency and fluency disorders at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Class members were: Jessica Beck, Caitlin Buchkoski, Jenifer Burman, Chad Clower, Crystal Donner, Becky Haas, Kate Hainrich, Kris Hoppe, Emily Kruse, Kirsten Markiewicz, Jana Miller, Kelly O'Malley, Beth Miller, Evan Panitzke, Deric Peterson, Laura Riehle, Megan Riesgaard, Kelly Ritter, Jackie Schueller, Kimberly Scranton, Cassie Tegmeier, Katie Trefethren, Amy Ulwelling, Jessica Zendner, and Elizabeth Zika.

Support Group Activities

collected by Judy Kuster's Undergraduate Class in Fluency Disorders
and submitted by many people from support groups

Coming up with good ideas for support group meetings can be a challenge. There are some good resources on the internet that provide ideas, including

Russ Hicks provided several meeting ideas in a former (2001) online conference paper, The Chicken and the Alligators - or - How to Facilitate a Support Group Meeting.
Gary Rentschler has a nice list of Group Activities
101 Things to do at an NSA chapter meeting

To add to the materials designed to help support groups around the world come up with good activities, students in the 2005 undergraduate class on fluency disorders, contacted chapter leaders from the National Stuttering Association in the United States as well as several support organizations in other countries, asking them to share ideas from some of their most interesting, successful meetings. They are shared below with gratitude to all who emailed activity ideas.

San Jose, CA chapter from Howard Delman (Jessica Beck)

All of the participants were seated in a circle. One person started, and made up a short sentence that included a word beginning with the letter A (e.g. - I saw an airplane.). The person to the right had to extend the sentence, using a word with the letter B (e.g. - I saw an airplane, flying past a bird.). The next person continued with the letter C (e.g. - I saw an airplane, flying past a bird, that was carrying a worm.) Laughter ensues as the sentence gets ridiculously long and convoluted. (e.g. - I saw an airplane, flying past a bird, that was carrying a worm, which was dropped in the water, and eaten by a duck, with flat feet, and a giant bill, which was hooked on a clothesline, including the clothes, joined to the house...) What makes this activity so great is that everyone gets to take part. As the sentence gets longer people have to talk more, and above all, it is fun.

South Central Minnesota from Preston Smith (Judy Kuster)

Our group did a drama activity which included choosing words from three categories (people or occupations and emotions words were brainstormed by the group, and the leader of the activity provided vocabulary words). The following words were listed on the blackboard: occupations: pizza shop owner, senator, plumber, florist, bank examiner, grand-daughter; emotions: happy, nervous, excited, angry, confused, tired, scared; vocabulary words: pervade, adroit, motley, slovenly, epitomized. The activity leader brought various hats and a telephone as props. Members chose 1 character, 2 emotions and 3 vocabulary words. The "actor" had to work the vocabulary words into a pretend telephone call to the character chosen. Then each person was to play two different characters and do the same thing.

Tallahassee, FL from Mike Jedlicka (Caitlin Buchkowski)

One activity our stuttering support group did was to list two of our hardest to say words, and some experiences we've had with them (i.e. I stuttered really hard on it in front of a date, etc.). We wrote them on the board, and spoke of the anxiety felt when we needed to say one of our hard words, and what we can do about it. Some of the most common trouble words were people's names, places of work, street names, and the word stutter.

San Francisco chapter from Angus Croll (submitted by Nora O'Connor)

This URL leads to several scenarios that can be used for a chapter meeting. Run off the suggestions and cut them into separate pieces for each role. Support group members draw scenarios and role play the situation. For example: in scenario number one, one person will act out the part of the customer and the other will act out the part of the clerk.

Arizona State University Fluency Group - Catherine Bacon (Evan Panitzke)

We are a relatively new stuttering support group. For one of our first meetings we met and discussed the following article from the ASHA Leader: Yairi, E., & Ambrose, N. (2004, Oct. 5). Stuttering: Recent developments and future directions. The ASHA Leader, pp. 4-5, 14-15.

As we discussed the article we asked our members that stutter

When they first started stuttering and how their stuttering began?
What type of intervention they have received?
If there were any other members in their family that stuttered?

We tried to integrate their responses into the following points made in the article:

Conceptions regarding etiology have shifted from learning perspectives to those of multiple etiologies grounded in genetics.
In epidemiology, the concept of uniformity in onset, development, and classification, has shifted to emphasize diversity.
Regarding the neurophysiology underlying stuttering, attention has shifted from peripheral neuromuscular characteristics of speech to central processes of language formulation and speech perception, planning, and execution (although not to the exclusion of the first).
In the clinical domain, treatment for adults has shifted from stuttering modification to fluency enhancement. For preschool age children, the dominant approach of indirect modes (e.g., modifying children's home environment) shifted to include direct speech modification.
In research, there has been a considerable shift from focus on adults to young children who stutter.

Plano/North Dallas Chapter - Chris Roach (originally posted to NSACHAP@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU 8/14/2003 and included below with permission of the author)

At one of our meetings, the nine in attendence incorporated the challenge of having to stand up and "give a presentation" or talk to a group. The subject was our individual stuttering journey. We utilized one flip chart, constructed a simple large grid of a timeline horizontally with "Birth" on the left, "Now" in the middle, and "Future" on the right. The vertical axis was labeled at the bottom as "Totally Bad", the upper end was labeled "Totally Good" and the middle was labeled "Neutral."

Then utilizing the same chart for all, each one stood up, took a marker and begin to tell their stuttering journey story by dotting to note critical events/points in their lives that caused their feelings of "good" or "bad" to move across the time line. Then after about a 10 minute discussion from each one, they drew a line to connect their dots.

IT WAS AMAZING!! We ended up with an explosion of 9 different colors and lines splattered on the same chart BUT we ended up with so many commonalities of our stories of how we journeyed through our stuttering. Everyone really got into it and became animated or captured by standing and telling their story. It wasn't a forced experience for anyone. We reached some fascinating conclusions:

When everyone's stuttering was first recalled in their youth, everyone had a non-negative reaction to it. It was either a neutral or slightly okay. Only when external experiences began to drive it to the negative did it became bad.
Everyone had pendulums of highs and lows, going back and forth, in which a negative event caused them to go downward while a positive event or success turned them around, only to be reversed by an eventual negative event.
Everyone hit bottom at some point of the worst time of their live relative to their stuttering.
Everyone reacted to their bottom periods by recognizing they "needed to do something about it" and everyone pursued either therapy or found a support movement (NSA) and found their attitudes all began to move in a positive direction eventually.
Everyone's "Now" assessment was positive or on the uptick AND nobody predicted anything in the future other than a positive up trend movement toward the Good range. It was one of our better meetings in which we each were stimulated to think hard and reflect about our overall journey AND communicate that to a group of friends who cared to hear about it.

Dallas Chapter (http://www.geocities.com/dallasnsa/) - Dale Sander (Jennifer Burman)

Charles Van Riper once said, "Stuttering is everything you do trying not to stutter." I learned about the following voluntary stuttering exercise from Marty Jezer's workshop at a past NSA Conference. Standing, we introduced ourselves to each other. The goal was to stutter while we shook hands saying our name. After we had introduced ourselves to the first person, we moved down the line until we had introduced ourselves to everyone at the meeting, using voluntary stuttering in each introduction. After a second round of these introductions we had so much fun that most everyone started laughing. We then had a good discussion about the many uses of voluntary stuttering.

The meetings I find most fulfilling are when someone leads the group for their very first time. They choose their own topic. Several months ago we had a first timer lead us in a discussion about the many positive aspects of stuttering. We shared some of the many ways had we benefited from our stuttering, like becoming more caring and thoughtful individuals.

Chicagoland Northwest Support Group - Wood Dale, Il. - Larry Stack (Jana Miller)

One thing we like to do at our Suttering Support Group espescially when we havea bunch of new people or a group of studentswho frequent us occasionally is to break off in togroups of two, find out as much as you canabout that person in a short time (5-10 min)and then introduce him or her to the group. It sets the mood of the meeting, usually very friendly, and gets everyone talking

Madison, Wisconsin Chapter - Jason Pearson (Katie Trefethren)

Our chapter really enjoys speaking with the University of Wisconsin Speech and Language Pathology Students. It has been a tradition for some years now. Whenever it is mentioned we have people coming out of the woodwork to volunteer to talk to the students. It is our opportunity to let them see into the world of a person who stutters. We tell the students about what tricks we might use to sound fluent, past experiences, and what we felt was helpful or not about speech therapy, to name a few topics. Afterwards, we go out to eat and discuss how great it felt to educate others about stuttering. Other great things ! we have enjoyed is hosting informative workshops for people who stutter, playing theatre games (taught to us by Pat G. of Milwaukee) and speaking to students in high school. (note Pat presented a paper about "Theater Games" in the online conference last year. It is online at http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad7/papers/gangnon7.html

Dallas, Texas Chapter (www.geocities.com/dallasnsa) - Russ Hicks (Kelly Ritter)

Last month at our Dallas chapter of the National Stuttering Association, I facilitated a meeting centering around "The Story of the Golden Key" - attached. It centers around a prisoner and how he copes with a possible release from prison. On the surface it has nothing whatsoever to do with stuttering, but an analysis of several possible endings of the story and the characters involved eventually leads to the realization that it has EVERYTHING to do with stuttering.

THE STORY OF THE GOLDEN KEY

Story summary: A man was in a town jail for a very long time. He had long since forgotten why, but he knew he was in jail for a reason. He could look outside, but he could never participate in life on the outside. He was fed on a regular basis and had a warm place to sleep. He was completely safe.

One day a man visited him in jail and gave him a very plain golden key which he said could open the back door of the jail so that he could go free anytime he wanted. The prisoner sat down to think...

Possible endings to the story

The prisoner rushed to the back door, unlocked it, ran outside and immediately began living life as a free man.
The prisoner decided not to even go the back door but chose instead to remain a prisoner for the rest of his life, safe from the perils of the outside world.
The Lone Ranger came to town and demolished the jail, leaving the prisoner to fend for himself in the outside world.
The prisoner went to the back door, carefully unlocked it and ventured out by himself, slowly becoming accustomed to life on the outside with the help of some new friends.

Discussion points

How does the prisoner FEEL in each of the story endings?
What part does each person play in the story? What part do you see yourself playing? Why?
1. the prisoner himself
2. the jailer
3. the visitor
4. the Lone Ranger
5. the friends on the outside
What was the golden key?
What on earth does this have to with stuttering?

Sweden Chapter (website: www.ssf.st (all in Swedish) National website: www.stamning.se Private website about stuttering: www.anita.se orwww.stamning.info) - Anita Blom (Cassie Tegmeier)

I stuttered since I was nine and it turned my life into a living hell. It was not discussable, my fault and my problem both and home and in school and I thought I was the only person in this universe talking like a jerk and I had absolutely no clue how to deal with it, or even to get rid of is, so I winded up in a social isolation with mortal thoughts, no self esteem and no future plans what so ever. At the age of 27 someone gave me a brochure about a self-help group for people who stutter. A what??? For who??? I sent on the form and got a phone call and was invited to a chapter meeting. It happened to be a spring meeting with a nature walk and a picture, which for me was the perfect start, as it all came so natural. And they al stuttered!!! Wow. . . From that day on my life changed. I now knew I was not the only one who stuttered, I was not a jerk, it was not my fault and I would give my life to spread this wonderful news to others. Needless to say I do voluntary workfor the local chapter, the national association and even internationally(the experience to hear people stutter in all the world's languages isindescribable!).

So what is so special about our self help group? Nothing really. We do what most other groups do. We mix interesting lectures with local and national speakers and speech training with different methods, with doing fun things together, such as bowling, go out and eat, see a movie, cycle ON the railroad with special bikes and picnic out in the open or go to the pool. Some of our members have special education or skills, which we gladly learn more about, such as massage, tai chi, flower arrangements, games etc. We also have meetings together with other local groups. Sometimes just over the day, sometimes weekend meetings or even longer.

But, the most important reason why I go to my chapter meetings is that we do it together! When we buy a ticket to the movies, we all stutter. When we practice our speech, we all struggle. When we tell a joke, everyone listens until the other is finished. When I have a bad day, I write or call my stutter buddies, as they understand. When I find a job I write or call my stutter buddies and they cheer with me, as they understand. They taught me how to survive, how to get back on my feet again and how to become stronger and when I trip, they are there to break my fall. That's what self help groups do. And that's why I know I will always have friends.

Australian McGuire Programme support group - Geoff Johnston (Kris Hoppe)

What do we do during our various regional support group meetings that might help other self-help groups? We're about facing fears and expanding comfort zones using a powerful and assertive speaking technique. Therefore many of our activities are challenging requiring people to let go and stop holding back with their emotions and speech.

Technique - meetings usually start with drilling our technique, in our case breathing, the Checklist, Laws and Directions. I think it's important to practise the technique regularly no matter which particular technique people are using.
Phone calls - during meetings we engage in activities such as ringing talk-back radio stations, ringing businesses at random from the Yellow Pages to overkill feared words and situations and "cold calling" family and friends of graduates attending the meeting.
We also ring into other support groups throughout the country holding a meeting at the same time. Over speaker phones we do introductions and hold partial joint meetings. We had three support groups in teleconferencing mode last week. It promotes the feeling of being part of a larger "family".
Speaking - every opportunity is given for people to speak during meetings. This consists of impromptu speeches (table topics in Toastmasters' language), conversations in pairs and small groups, and participating in one-act plays.
Taking it to the real world - during our "Improvement Days" held several times a year we do 100 contacts with strangers and make public speeches in a crowded shopping centre.
Weekly "contact" sessions are also held as part of ongoing coaching.
Leadership of the group is rotated monthly so that the group is not dependent on one particular individual.
Talking games such as Trivial Pursuit, Guess Who, etc. are used for light relief from the heavy assignments.
We participate in public speaking workshops using as a basis John Harrison's book, "Conquer Your Fear Of Speaking Before People".
We hold a Quiz night at least once a year to raise funds for the group but also to extend ourselves. The quiz master is rotated during the evening to give everyone a go. Every member is asked to fill a table of 10 so we might have over 150 people attend.
Attending Toastmasters (public speaking club) is an important part of our long-term recovery. In Adelaide, South Australia we started up our own Toastmaster club as an intermediate step for new graduates of our programme.
Karaoke nights are also great fun and an exercise in letting go and not caring what people think.

Our programme is all about empowerment. Rather than seeing ourselves as "victims" we are provided with the tools, coaching and support to help ourselves.

Irish Stammering Association Self Help Group - Jonathon Linklater (Kelly O'Malley)

Our belief is that Self Help Groups can benefit from a leader to promote good discussion and a positive outcome, otherwise it all falls away into people chatting. At times the Stammering Self Help Groups pick a theme to work on through the week - desensitisation, voluntary stuttering etc. - the people go away, do the work and discuss at the next week, and so on. But that isn't particularly funny or interesting though! At a recent meeting we discussed humorous things that have happened because of stammering. One lad told about his folks who were out and the phone kept ringing, so he took it out into the garden as it was a cordless phone - and he buried it. Later on his dad was out with the dog in the garden, the phone rang from its shallow grave and the dog dug it up. His dad came in and asked if the lad knew anything of it - he turned and blamed the dog. Many who stammer don't like the phone, but this "solution" brought a chuckle. An interesting meeting might be to share such humorous stories!

British Columbia Association of Person Who Stutter (BCAPS) - Mia Austinson (Beth Miller)

One thing that really works for us is commitment to have fun! We meet 3 times a year for a Refresher (hosted by a SLP) in various places around our Province. Our groups vary in age and we always allow group members to actively participate in the decision making process. Together, we produce self-help groups that meets the needs of the stutterers. Of course, we find it difficult to meet on a regular basis (i.e. monthly meetings), so we don't push for the 'ideal'. Instead, we focus on what is more manageable. Although, we do have one self-help group in Vancouver that has managed to get-together once every 2 months. It appears their get-togethers are more geared toward 'hanging out'. This appraoch has led to a unified group that makes plans to attend 'other' stuttering refreshers. Also, they like to pick a stuttering topic & research it for their debate meetings (i.e. speecheasy device). Les Anderson will soon complete the first "self help manual" for self-help groups.

Eastern ND Chapter - Manish Rami (Amy Ulwelling)

We typically chose activities from the "Over 100 things to do at an NSA chapter meeting" from the Chapter Leaders Handbook. Our members enjoyed role-playing various situations (presenting in class, making inquiries on the phone, etc.) the most but also enjoyed open discussions (like comparing international politics, we had a member from Norway, one from Egypt.

Boca Raton, FL Chapter - Vikesh Anand (Deric Peterson)

I presented the idea of speaking loudly and with assertiveness at the meeting. Basically, the main exercise consisted of speaking in front of the group at a louder tone than normal. The speaker would raise their voice to the point where it felt uncomfortable, and loud. There was no specific topic to be discussed, anyone could speak at random about whatever they pleased, as long as it was in this loud and assertive manner. It gets quite fun as you begin to enjoy the loudness of your voice, and just when you don't think you are too loud, someone in the audience will ask for you to speak louder. Most people find that a tone which may seem loud to them is really not as such to the listener.

Royal Oak, Michigan NSA Chapter (http://www.geocities.com/nsaroyaloak/) - Bernie Weiner (Chad Clower)

One of the most unique and interesting things that we have done at our support group meetings is what we call "Talking To Our Stutter." In effect, this gives someone who stutters a chance to really "vent" their feelings towards something that has sometimes controlled their lives. It gives us a chance to talk to "our stutter" face to face and really let out some emotions and feelings that some of us might have been hiding for a good part of our lives.

The first thing that we do is to form pairs of two. This can be done by simply counting off, or picking names at random from a hat. One person then becomes "the stutter," the other person gets to tell "the stutter" whatever is on their mind. At first, people are a little inhibited and reluctant to really talk to "their stutter" about their feelings. But, once they get going, a lot of emotion comes out. Also, sometimes, some very funny things are said.

This exercise can be very theraputic, a good source of laughter, and a chance for people that have never expressed feelings about their stuttering to "let it all hang out."

This is a very simple concept, that works well when there are a lot of people attending a stuttering support group meeting. As our group sometimes has 20-30 people at our meetings, this exercise gives everybody a chance to speak.

Royal Oak, Michigan - Maria Garza (Megan Riesgaard)

Stuttering Game Show
My co-leader partner, Sarah, came up with a game for both adults and kids. She piloted it at a chapter meeting and it was quite successful. She set-up a Jeopardy like game and created categories of questions that related to stuttering (origins of it, statistics, NSA Conference locations and history, local support group history, etc). She then divided us into teams and we played it using her questions and categories. We didn't have any prizes, but we did learn a lot. We then used this same game, with slightly easier questions with the kids at the National NSA Conference last year. We gave them pretend money and candy for prizes. We also wore goofy, sparkly hats and talked into fake microphones. It was great!

Infomercial to Cure Stuttering
Again, Sarah piloted this at our meeting and then we transformed it into a workshop at the National NSA Conference. Basically all you need is some "off the wall stuff," and major creativity. We asked our attendees (either in our meetings or at the conference) to come up with their own informerial testifying how "some item" has cured them of stuttering. We bought a bag of toys last year and people made up stories about how a yo-yo or a water gun has cured them of stuttering. They also have to name it and price it. It is a lot of fun. People have wild imaginations and a great sense of humor. It allows people who would not otherwise talk in front of a room, the ability to do so with the use of their imaginations and laughter. Laughter and comfortableness are very important for people who stutter. As they are for everyone, I am sure. We had people doing infomerials that I hadn't yet heard speak for then a couple of words to one or two people. At that moment, they were speaking to a room of 80 people and laughing the whole time. It was priceless.

Team Resume
This is a good teambuilder and individual self-esteem builder. You basically come up with a list of questions concerning education, hobbies, experiences, uniquenesses, talents, etc, and you break the group into teams. You then ask each team to compile a resume (answering those questions). You then ask them to report out on their resume. Everyone learns a lot about one another and is able to talk about what they are proud of about themselves. It is not a focus on stuttering, but rather on self-esteem, which is important for all of us.

Plano/North Dallas NSA Chapter - Joseph Diaz (Kirsten Markiewicz)

Our group and facilitator had attended Ed Giordano's "Open Yourself for Success" the previous weekend and discussion ensued about that workshop. Of note was the challenge to think about a success we would like to achieve in the next 6 months. The goal was to bring together NSA members to mentor middle and high school students in speech therapy. We all felt that making connections with each other and having a positive attitude about friendships made a difference in our fluency and communicative confidence. Also a discussion about "snappy comebacks", those clever sayings one can use when someone notices that you stutter. Examples were: "Yes I stutter and I'm pretty good at it" or "Want to hear more?" and "Thanks for noticing".