‘Camp Dream. Speak. Live.’ for Young People Who Stutter Returns to Stony Brook Southampton July 27-31

Camp Dream. Speak. Live. — which provides a free, confidence-building experience centered on communication, connection and self-expression for children and teens who stutter — is returning to Stony Brook Southampton July 27-31.

Hosted by Stony Brook University’s Department of Speech-Language Pathology in the School of Health Professions in partnership with the Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research, the camp is led by expert speech-language pathologists and mentors who stutter. The program provides campers with community, support and opportunities to build confidence through creative self-expression, communication practice and fun, and helps attendees build friendships, strengthen their voices and dream big, together.

Developed by the Arthur M. Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research, this program — open to children and teens who stutter, ages 6–17 — does not target fluency as an outcome. Instead, the targeted goals include:

• Increasing children’s communication competence
• Improving how they feel about their ability to communicate
• Lessening the influence of stuttering on their overall quality of life
• Increasing their positive perception of their ability to establish peer to peer relationships
• Enhancing their leadership skills.

Online registration is open now. The camp is free and will be held each day from 9 am to 3 pm.

The camp made its New York State debut last year at Stony Brook Southampton, and served as a hands-on clinical experience for graduate students in the Speech-Language Pathology graduate program on the Southampton campus. Working one-on-one with campers, the students helped create a space where self-expression came first.