NBA star shares experience as a person who stutters

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist played eight seasons in the National Basketball Association and was the second pick in the 2012 NBA draft. Michael Jordan — yeah, that one — then the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets, selected him. His career excited NBA fans everywhere, but it wasn’t until Kidd-Gilchrist retired from basketball in 2020 that he began changing lives.

In 2021, Kidd-Gilchrist, who has lived with stuttering his entire life, founded Change & Impact, Inc., a nonprofit that works to improve healthcare access and expand resources for people who stutter. As founder and CEO, he travels the country, engaging with individuals at universities, corporations and children’s hospitals to share his experiences. He has also testified before state legislatures and Congress, advocating for legislation to improve speech therapy insurance coverage for stuttering and to support research on stuttering interventions. Kidd-Gilchrist’s efforts have helped pass bills in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New York, but “my hope is to have something similar in all 50 states,” he has repeatedly said.

On Feb. 3, Kidd-Gilchrist visited Binghamton University to speak with students in the Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program and faculty and staff from the Division of Speech and Language Pathology at Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences. His presentation took place at the University’s JC Center in Johnson City, New York, during , a required course in the MS-SLP curriculum.

“I have never been a victim to my situation,” said Kidd-Gilchrist, who was born in Philadelphia and raised in Southern New Jersey. But his stuttering was a challenge, especially since, as a child, Kidd-Gilchrist didn’t know anyone else who stuttered and didn’t receive any therapy services.

“I had my first speech therapy session when I was 18 years old, so I went a long time being picked on, being teased,” he said. “In therapy, I got introduced to a metronome, and I have learned how to talk to the rhythm of the ‘tick, tick, tick.’”

Kidd-Gilchrist, who still receives speech therapy, thanked the current and future speech-language pathologists for their commitment to the profession: “My relationship with my speech therapist was a great one; it was a real bond. Many people who stutter don’t have resources; they don’t have any help, so I appreciate your work.”

Assistant Professor Cody Dew, who directs the Binghamton University Stuttering Clinic and teaches SLP 541, coordinated Kidd-Gilchrist’s visit.

“It’s important for our students to hear from someone like Michael because he brings a lived perspective that cannot be replicated by textbooks, clinical case studies or even well-intentioned simulations,” he said. “Michael’s experiences challenge common assumptions about stuttering: particularly the idea that success, confidence or leadership require fluent speech.”

Dew, who also shares firsthand experience with students as an individual who stutters, explained that “for future speech-language pathologists, hearing directly from a person who stutters helps ground their clinical training in real human experience and reminds them that the people they serve are experts in their own lives.”

In addition to Kidd-Gilchrist, Dew plans to have another individual who stutters serve as a guest lecturer, but this one is closer to home: Professor Rodney Gabel, who founded the division in 2019 and developed both the MS-SLP program and an undergraduate minor in speech and hearing science. According to Dew, the course also incorporates the voices of people who stutter through recorded interviews and documentary material. Dew said this is invaluable for students and that student feedback has consistently highlighted how impactful these experiences are.

“Many students report that hearing directly from people who stutter reshapes how they think about therapy goals, helps them recognize unexamined biases, and increases their confidence in engaging in more authentic, collaborative clinical conversations,” he said.

Binghamton University’s first MS-SLP students began the two-year program in August 2024. The first cohort will graduate in May 2026. Graduates will be eligible to take the national certification examination to become speech-language pathologists (SLPs).