The Stars of ISTAR 2023:
- Message from the Clinic Director and Foundation Chair
- STAR Clients and STAR Volunteer
- 2022-2023 At a Glance
- Scholarship Recipients
- Research News and Workshops
- ISTAR Staff and Foundation
2023 Message from the
Clinic Director
It is my pleasure to share these stories and updates about the work the Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research (ISTAR) has done over the year. It is our privilege to work with people who stutter and their families and to increase awareness about stuttering in our community. Once again, we decided to release our annual newsletter on International Stuttering Awareness Day, Oct. 22!
ISTAR’s mission is to provide effective stuttering therapy to people of all ages, to train speech-language pathology students and clinicians to deliver stuttering treatment, to conduct research studies into the cause and nature of stuttering, and to inform the public about stuttering. We strive to fulfil this mission every day.
2023 has been an exciting year! We have settled into our new home at Corbett Hall on the University of Alberta North Campus and have conducted intensive clinics, refresher clinics and extended therapy on site and remotely. It has been so wonderful to offer choices to our clients for treatment options based on what they are needing at any given moment. In addition, we welcomed three new ISTAR babies and wish our ISTAR clinicians and new moms the very best!
We also hosted a team of documentary filmmakers to film portions of our February refresher for use in Echoed Words, a documentary that was released in the fall of 2023 about the positive impact of therapy on the life of one of our clients.
ISTAR clinicians were busy again this year training speech-language pathology students from the University of Alberta, the University of Toronto, and Western University as well as training clinicians from Saskatchewan and abroad. We continue to have a keen interest in research into the cause and nature of stuttering and routinely gather data to help us better understand stuttering. This year we treated 337 children, teens and adults and trained 40 students and clinicians.
We continue to be blessed with receiving generous donations from the Elks of Canada Lodges, the Alberta Elks Foundation, the Canadian Royal Purple Lodges, the Elks & Royal Purple Fund for Children, our Endowment Grants, and compassionate individual donors. These donations help to provide financial assistance to our clients who are in need and without them many clients would not be able to receive life-changing therapy.
Our most heartfelt thanks to all who support ISTAR, whether through donations or volunteering to be practice partners and audience members, and especially to those who choose ISTAR for your therapy needs. Please enjoy these stories and join us in celebrating International Stuttering Awareness Day!
All the best,
Holly Lomheim, MSLP, R.SLP, S-LP (C)
Clinic Director, Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research
Message from the ISTAR Foundation Chair
It is indeed a great honour and privilege to serve as the Chair for the ISTAR Foundation Board
and to write to you.
The ISTAR Foundation has been entrusted with the responsibility to enable ISTAR to achieve its vision and mission of impacting the lives of those who stutter or have other
speech disorders. We do this through advocacy, partnerships and fundraising.
This report and my message here are not just routine “to-do” tasks, but
opportunities to highlight the impact this small but mighty organization (ISTAR) has been making for more than 36 years. This impact would not have been possible without unconditional support from all of you as well as my fellow Foundation members.
The ISTAR Foundation has continued to support clients taking ISTAR treatment programs and we have been working to raise awareness about stuttering and ISTAR’s work through presentations to community-service clubs.
With a deep sense of gratitude, I wish to thank all the donors, partners, the Foundation members and ISTAR clinicians and staff. Jointly, we have the intention to deliver and the ability to change many lives. As the Chair, I assure you that we will continue to work together for everyone who stutters or has other speech disorders.
Sincerely,
Dr. Anwar Haq
Chair, ISTAR Foundation Board
STAR Donor
U of A student Jayan Juneja found his voice with the help of ISTAR and donors like professor emeritus Peter Flynn, for whom supporting the institute is more than a philanthropic gesture; it's profoundly personal.
STAR Clients
ISTAR experience provides precious confidence booster to young girl struggling with speech issues
After immigrating from Moldova, Magdalena Manoli and her family are deeply grateful for the program that supported her during a time of upheaval.
ISTAR provides therapy and support to Edmonton man after a head injury
A grateful Mark Destacamento received therapy and support from the Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research to treat a stutter that developed after he was struck on the head.
STAR Volunteer
Hard work, perseverance bring great rewards in speech and in sport, says ISTAR client Ken M’Pindou
As an ISTAR ambassador and Olympic Games hopeful, Team Canada bobsledder Ken M’Pindou wants to inspire young people who stutter like him.
2022-2023 At a Glance
TO US, EVERY VOICE MATTERS
Most of us think that talking on the phone, ordering our own food and saying our own name are all relatively simple tasks everyone does on a daily basis.
However, for nearly 300,000 Canadians, this is not a reality. Individuals who stutter or are experiencing communication challenges struggle to use their voices each and every day. The Institute for Stuttering Treatment and Research (ISTAR) can help.
ISTAR offers specialized treatment to children, teens and adults who stutter. In addition, ISTAR conducts research into stuttering and offers advanced professional training for speech-pathology students and clinicians while also raising awareness about stuttering and its treatment.
ISTAR is committed to ensuring that people who stutter are aware of treatment options and have an opportunity to receive the treatment they need.
Scholarship Recipients
Congratulations!
ISTAR is pleased to congratulate the following recipients of scholarships issued from the Alberta Elks Foundation for the 2022-23 year. We also congratulate U of A student Carly Brown on receiving the Deborah Kully Scholarship in Stuttering Treatment and Research through FGSR in 2022-23. We wish each of these U of A students the best in their future studies and clinical practice or research!
Deborah Kully/Alberta Elks Foundation Scholarship
Youran Lin
Erin Peterson
Einer Boberg/Alberta Elks Foundation Memorial Graduate Award in Stuttering Treatment and Research
Awarded annually to students in speech-language pathology who have completed a practicum at ISTAR and demonstrated strong clinical skills with an interest in treatment and research in the area of stuttering
Grace Hill
Research News
Jessica Harasym O'Byrne, MSLP, R.SLP, S-LP(C) successfully defends thesis
Congratulations to ISTAR clinician Jessica Harasym O’Byrne for successfully defending her PhD thesis entitled “Draw it… so they understand": an arts-based reflexive collective case study exploring how youth navigate (mis)understandings about communication changes after concussion.
As a clinician for nearly 20 years, Jessica has always had a passion for working with people who stutter. Through her doctoral work, she has extended her research and clinical expertise to include those experiencing changes in communication after concussion. We are thrilled to have her on our ISTAR team and know that our clients and colleagues will benefit from her work in this area.
"A sensorimotor approach to disfluency adaptation in typically fluent adults"
Loucks T., Aalto D.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 151, A64 (2022)
Delaying auditory feedback (DAF) during speech is a potent auditory perturbation that can interrupt and prolong syllables and words, even though these disfluencies rarely affect typical speakers under non-altered feedback (NAF). Adaptation or compensation to auditory perturbations has been shown in typical speakers through a gradual reduction in the amplitude of formant shift responses. However, despite considerable research on DAF, it is still not known whether typical speakers adapt to DAF. In this study, we tested whether a comparable form of adaptation occurs with DAF in typical speakers as shown by a reduction in altered feedback disfluencies (AFD) during repeated consecutive readings, after a pause between readings and to a novel reading. We then tested for carryover effects after a single DAF exposure.
"Stuttering treatment approaches from the past two decades: comprehensive survey and review"
Gupta G., Chandra S., Dautenhahn K., Loucks T.
Journal of Student Research, Volume 11 Issue 2 (2022)
This comprehensive survey and review presents stuttering treatment approaches that have been reported in the past 20 years in order to highlight the different characteristics in each intervention.
Eleven formal programs, nine fluency induction techniques and seven adjunct therapy approaches were identified through the comprehensive survey and summarized.
The most common results were the Lidcombe program and altered auditory feedback techniques.
Workshops
ISTAR workshops, presentations and training sessions during fiscal 2022-23
- "Fluency Workshop for Alberta Health Service Speech-language Pathologists," February 2021 through April 2022 with AHS
- Presentation delivered to Shareholders Conference from Trinity College, Dublin, October 2022
- Comprehensive Stuttering Program (CSP) one-day training, held in August and September 2022
- BC School District #22 (Vernon) "Delivering Fluency Therapy Services to School Age Children" half-day session in October 2022
- Effective communication workshop for a local business, fall 2022
- Accent modification workshops, April and October 2022
ISTAR staff
Thank you to our ISTAR staff, clinicians and administrators
- Holly Lomheim
- Jessica Harasym O'Byrne
- Ashley Saunders
- Bethany Drzewiecki - Calgary clinician
- Spenser Halfyard
- Erin Dodd
- Kiera Hughes - Calgary clinician
- Administrative assistants - Marlo DeVouge, Camryn Konowalyk and Crystal
ISTAR Foundation members
Thank you to our ISTAR Foundation members
A special thank you to two of our longtime Foundation members: Michael Niven (served from 2014 to 2023) and Lars Christensen (served from 2006 to 2023).
- Darren Abbott
- Al Gummesen (incoming Elks representative)
- Anwar Haq (Chair)
- Erin Johnson (Vice-Chair)
- Shamez Kassam
- Nazir Kassamali (Treasurer)
- Heather McLeod (previous Elks representative)
How to donate
OR CONTACT
John Voyer
Assistant Dean, Development
780-248-5781
jvoyer@ualberta.ca
