Me, my brother, and my 17 year old AP STEM centered, gifted daughter all suffer or suffered from childhood stuttering and severe social anxiety. My brother and I both outgrew our stutter, but the severe social anxiety lead to self medication for me and my brother using mostly alcohol and, in my case, marijuana until it started to make me even more paranoid. I began self medicating around age 11 and ended up in AA in recovery around age 37. To my disbelief, a LARGE percentage of my friends in recovery all suffered or continue to suffer from some level of social anxiety which improved due to the frequent participation in AA and other 12 step programs. I know I have gone in a bit of a tangent here, but after several years I found myself RARELY having an instantly sweat drenching, lungs tightening, and unable to speak normally social anxiety induced panic attack. The point is that group meetings of people that share our problem showed far better results for me than good, professional therapy alone. My daughter has been in speech therapy since 4th grade with the school more or less talking to her once a year and forcing me to participate in a yearly ARD meeting after the eigth grade despite her still suffering which was greatly exacerbated by the passing of her mother after a 3.5 year battle with cancer in March of 8th grade. She is a gifted student, always ranking in the top 1% and was even part of the Duke University talent identification program at age 12 when her SAT score was 50 points higher than the nationwide average for graduating seniors in the US. Her junior year SAT score was 1540 and her GPA, while taking the hardest college level courses offered on her high school campus is above a 4.6 and will be closer to 4.8 by graduation. Verbal communication and anxiety AND their consequences are her only weaknesses, but their impacts are significant. The best colleges in the country are inviting her to apply including MIT and all of the Ivy League schools. The major problem is her very real fear of the verbal communication demands at virtually all major universities. During the ARD meeting with several staff members in the middle of her 10th grade year, I asked the speech therapist, assistant principal, and the rest of the staff if they would consider creating a weekly group support meeting for children with social anxiety and or fear of public speaking. Having taken part in such a group (I actually requested it be started) in college myself, I know it to be incredibly therapeutic and useful. 20 people signed up in 2 days. They already have such a program for grief sufferers. I absolutely know they could easily have a room full of takers at a high school of 3000+ students. The assigned speech therapist claimed the two issues were not related and that addressing anxiety was neither their purview or responsibility. She cited the case of a single stuttering student with an outgoing personality and no fear of speaking despite an obvious stutter as her proof. I STRONGLY disagreed and I literally watched the assistant principal roll her eyes in the facetime meeting. They merely inferred her problem must be psychological based on my input, she needed outside therapy, and then RELEASED themselves from any further responsibility for her condition and speech therapy progress. They flatly denied any connection between stuttering and anxiety, which I personally know to be total nonsense. The issues are joined at.the hip. I told them of my family experience and, as a longtime stutterer myself, I believe believed they are failing these kids if they don't address the anxiety component. They simply doubled down and disagreed. Verbal exercises do NOTHING to address the full blown panic attacks over the fear of not only stuttering, but the actual FEAR of having a VISIBLE anxiety attack while speaking. If stuttering and even speaking causes anxiety and anxiety causes stuttering, the snowballing effect inevitably leads to a visible and audible full blown panic attack that can can seem the stuff of nightmares for folks like me and my child. At that stage you begin dealing with trauma amd PTSD, based on my own experience and observations. I would appreciate feedback from any peers out there with insight and/or personal experience regarding this terribly serious problem. I am a single parent, disabled with limited energy and means, and my daughter graduates May 2023. I fear the window to help this sweet, smart, wonderful, vunerable, child to be closing and that her school has chosen to fail her and all the kids like her in her 3000+ student body. She has accomplished so much despite facing this challenge as well as the trauma/grief over my wife's passing simultaneously. Are there other folks out there like me, with an opinion or insight to share on this subject? Anxiously waiting to read what other folks like us might have to add to the topic... Thanks everyone. Peace.