Sander Flaum has been a stutterer since he was five years old. He has also been head of his high schools Honor Society and its newspaper editor. He is an alumnus of The Ohio State University, an Army veteran, recipient of multiple prestigious awards, and the Principal of his own company, Flaum Navigators. Sander Flaum is also a tireless advocate for stutterers and, together with his wife Mechele, founded the Sander and Mechele Flaum Communication Scholarships for treatment sessions at the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic for Ohio State students who stutter.

Sander Flaum in his own words: "Tha-tha-thats all, folks!" I've met a lot of stutterers, young and old, in my career as marketing director of a major pharmaceutical company, CEO of a global advertising agency, and, now, as managing partner of a consulting company. Many of my colleagues view their stuttering as a handicap and spend much of the time (in my view, too much) bemoaning their situation, getting psychological counseling, going to group therapy sessions with other stutterers, and focusing on the “right to stutter” instead of spending their time on good speech therapy. My nose has been broken twice (not a pretty sight) since I was a kid by other boys;and once in the Army for taunts about my stuttering. I could have buried my talents, as so many other stutterers do, by not speaking. I could have become an engineer, an IT person, or an accountant. I didn’t like any of those choices so I turned to a profession that required public speaking, debating, and leadership.

I hated the Porky Pig cartoon as a kid. Tha-tha-that’s all, folks!” It made me cringe in my seat. I felt my friends’ eyes on me. They even imitated Porky to my face—at least the older and bigger ones did. I hated being different. The choice was, and still is, for all of us either to feel sorry for ourselves or move on and do something about it.

The last thing you want to think about in your later years is that you didn’t make it to your goals because of your stutter. Make yourself practice every morning before you start your day to build a legacy of fluency and great accomplishments as a spouse, parent, and leader."

What is a fluency disorder?
Commonly known as ‘stuttering’, fluency includes repetitions, prolongations or pauses while speaking. Interjections (“uh”, “um”) and revisions (restating something a different way) are normal interruptions in the flow of speech. A disorder in fluency consists of multiple repetitions of a sound or word, long durations of a sound, and persistent and frequent occurrences of these behaviors throughout the day. The onset of disordered fluency generally occurs between ages of 2-5 years. While research indicates that approximately 75% - 80% of the children spontaneously recover, a pattern that lasts more than 6 months should be of concern. 

For those individuals whose stuttering pattern persists, intervention services can assist them in improving their speech pattern while decreasing the occurrence of the stuttering behaviors.  Such intervention services are provided by speech-language pathologists.

Funding for Ohio State Students:
An ongoing innovative program, financially supported by Mechele and Sander Flaum via The Rose Flaum Foundation, funds OSU students’ clinical speech services for their life-long stuttering disorder.  Over 1% of all Americans, which is 3 to 4 million individuals, exhibit this debilitating communicative disorder.  With behavioral intervention via speech services, individuals can experience significant improvement of their communication effectiveness that positively impacts the degree of success in personal and professional/academic endeavors.   Reimbursement for services for students who are in needs of intervention is an identified need on The Ohio State University campus as most medical insurances do not cover assessment and intervention services.  Without the program provided by the Flaums, most students will go without this intervention.  For more information about this program contact The Ohio State University Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic at slhclinic@osu.edu.