Meg Shake, a Speech-Language Pathologist in the Communication Disorders Outpatient Clinic since 2006, is featured in a Sports Illustrated article. She received her UG degree from Wake Forest and her graduate degree from UK in Communication Sciences and Disorders.

The article, “Work in Progress”, focuses on former UK basketball player Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who now plays pro ball with the Hornets. In the summer of 2011, Shake and Kidd-Gilchrist met at UK’s Center of Academic and Tutorial Services (CATS). Kidd-Gilchrist had worked on his stutter with speech-language pathologists as a child, never learning how to control it. Instead he coped by avoiding situations, such as public speaking, that would bring attention to his stutter. However, being part of the hugely successful 11-12 UK Wildcats made hiding from media interviews impossible.

Excerpt from the article: “If [Mark] Price [Hornets assistant coach] was his shot doctor, Shake was his speech guru. She met with him twice a week and demystified the phenomenon that is human speech: how the mouth and tongue and lips form different sounds, how vocal cords vibrate, and how we all stammer occasionally at the onset of pressure. Kidd-Gilchrist relearned, in a sense, how to speak.”

Their work together was a success, and Shake would often listen to Kidd-Gilchrist’s media interviews and compliment him on his progress. Shake knew that for Kidd-Gilchrist the desire to speak fluently went deeper than media interviews.

Excerpt from the article: “This [the therapy] was for when he gives his wedding vows,” Shake says, “and when he gets his honorary degree from UK, and when he goes to his grandchildren’s graduation. It was for a more fluent future.”      

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