By Robert Stoneback
The Daily Item
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DANVILLE - Stuttering has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue since the release of the motion picture “The King’s Speech,” and the discussion continues this week with the approach of The Academy Awards presentations on Sunday night.
The film about perpetual stammerer King George VI of England has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Its star, Colin Firth, has already won a Golden Globe for his performance.
But is the film’s portrayal of this disability accurate, or is it altered for dramatic effect?
For the most part, the film’s portrayal is correct, according to Dr. Kerry Cimino, a pediatric speech therapist at Geisinger.
“I think it was a pretty accurate view of a person with that kind of stutter,” she said. Stuttering can take the form of repetition of words, such as “car-car-car,” stretching out individual letters in words, or, as was most prominently seen in “The King’s Speech,” mental blocks where the speaker is struggling simply to get words out.
“It varies with every stutterer,” said Cimino.
There are about 3 million Americans, mostly children, who are affected by stammering. There is no determined cause as to why some stammer and some don’t, said Cimino.
Some scientists say that it is in part genetic as stuttering can run in families. Cimino said that about 50 percent to 80 percent of children with a stutter grow out of it with the help of therapy. Boys are two to three times more likely to suffer from stammering, though the reason why is unknown. It is also possible for adults to develop a stutter if they experience brain trauma or a stroke.
“The King’s Speech” featured treatments that focused on breathing exercises and muscle relaxation, and these are still common for stammerers today.
“A lot of it is due to tension and stress,” said Cimino. The condition can be exaggerated when the stutterer has to speak publicly, which is what happened to Firth’s character in the movie.
“(The patients) need to realize they’re speech can be okay if they relax and take their time,” explained Cimino. Breathing exercises are important as they slow down the pace of speech and give the speaker more time to collect his or her thoughts. Having a patient repeat sentences can also help him or her wrap their tongue around any tricky words.
An important scene from the movie had King George VI temporarily overcoming his stutter by singing words instead of speaking them. Cimino said that this is fairly common, as when the stammerer is not focused specifically on talking it is often easier for him or her to communicate. Even famous singers such as Carly Simon have struggled with stuttering, she said.
“It’s in conversation that they stutter, so the rhythmic speech helps,” she said.
Similar to rhythmic speech, it often helps younger children to speak if their attention is not on the act of talking, such as during playtime. Children who have grown up with a stutter usually are not aware that anything is wrong with their speech pattern. “When you’re four, you don’t really think about it so much,” Cimino said. For older children, she likes to give them a tape recorder so they can play back a conversation and hear where they stammered.
When a child has a stutter it’s best to start them on treatment as soon as you can. “You want them to start learning speaking techniques so that by adulthood they know those techniques,” Cimino said.
