About three years ago, five-year-old Sayler N. was feeling fine and went down for her afternoon nap.  Later, she woke with a high fever and couldn’t speak.  Eventually, she began talking with a stutter.  This was very scary for both Sayler and her parents.  They felt that there was no explanation for her condition since she had met all her growth milestones, so Sayler’s parents contacted Shea Center speech language pathologist, Terri Hutchison.

Stuttering is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is broken. More than 70 million people worldwide stutter, which is about 1% of the population.

When The Shea Center was closed for in-person appointments due to the pandemic, Sayler began Zoom speech therapy.  Since the Center has reopened, Sayler has been doing speech therapy utilizing hippotherapy as a treatment tool.  She has made a lot of progress, is gaining confidence, and has become much more social.  Her mother, Riane, calls Sayler a social butterfly as she happily shares her riding stories with her teachers and friends.

The highlight of Sayler’s week is riding at The Shea Center.  Her other favorite sport is surfing.  Sayler was on a surfboard with her mother at 11 months old and got her own surfboard at age four.