‘That’s how we talk’: Camp for kids who stutter launches in Calgary

A camp for children who stutter underway in Calgary is taking a different approach, encouraging kids to embrace the stutter and speak with confidence.

A camp for children who stutter is in Calgary this week, and it is taking a different approach to how people handle the speech disorder.

Instead of trying to change how someone with a stutter talks, “Camp Dream. Speak. Live” encourages people to embrace it and speak with confidence.

“We are learning about communication and owning our space when we’re talking in front of the whole group,” said Theo Greening, 8, who is one of the more than a dozen attendees.

The camp is a partnership with the Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research at the University of Texas at Austin.

Similar camps have been held every year internationally, but this week marks the first stop in Canada.

On Wednesday, the children paraded through parts of Fish Creek Park to show off handwritten signs and then took turns on a microphone to share their messages about stuttering.

The kids hope to take the lessons they’re learning this week back to their friends and classmates next school year.

“I think I’ll be talking to them about how we stutter and why we stutter,” said Ibukun Akinwamide, 8.

“We are made like this. That’s how we talk,” the girl said.

The family of 10-year-old Oliver Netsko, who spoke to CTV News last year about his efforts to change the stigma around stuttering, played a big part in bringing the camp to Calgary.

“We’re also learning about voice, to not speak too loud and too quiet. It’s been very fun,” said Netsko.

The week-long camp is free for the children to attend.

The goal is to hold it annually in Calgary.

“It’s been really exciting to see the kids right from the first day; they get up and they’re so confident and they stand with that microphone. That is what we’re teaching—just to be confident communicators, regardless of whether you stutter or not,” said Carmen Archibald, a speech-language pathologist.