Stuttering Experts Praise ‘The King’s Speech’ For Highlighting Condition

As The King’s Speech hits theatres Friday, experts on stuttering hope the film about George VI’s debilitating stammer will raise awareness about the oft-misunderstood condition.

“In one fell swoop, this film has done what we’ve been trying to do for 64 years, and that is really get across to people the huge challenge that life becomes for people who stutter,” Jane Fraser, president of the Stuttering Foundation of America, said Thursday in a phone interview.

“Every day is a challenge. Every time you open your mouth.”

The film — opening Friday in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and across Canada on Dec. 22 — is gaining serious Oscar buzz for its stirring portrayal of King George VI (Colin Firth) and the speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush) who was by his side as he ascended the throne.

Fraser has already watched the historical drama in the U.S., where it was released earlier this month, and says Firth did an “extraordinary” job in accurately portraying the speech impediment.

“I think Colin Firth has, for the first time ever, been able to capture the real agony and the fears that a person who stutters goes through,” said Fraser, whose father stammered as a child and founded the non-profit Stuttering Foundation in 1947 in Memphis, Tenn.

“What people need to understand is that for a person who stutters, that fear may be just as great walking into a fast-food place and asking for a hamburger, knowing they’re going to say, ‘Buh buh buh buh burger,’ wondering if everybody’s going to turn around and laugh.”

Fraser was in London on Thursday to meet Firth at a fundraiser for children who stutter.

Peter Reitzes, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based speech language pathologist who stutters himself, has also seen the movie south of the border and says it perfectly captures the emotions of the condition.

“It got the isolation, the frustration, the loneliness, the desperation, it got the subtleties,” he said.

As the film points out, the King developed his stammer around age five, partly due to anxieties about royal pressures.

Ottawa-based speech language pathologist Kara Beck says while anxiety can aggravate the condition in a child, it’s not a causal factor for stuttering, which affects about one per cent of the population in Canada.

“We know that there are neuro-physiological causes and that genetics plays a big role in stuttering,” said Beck, co-ordinator of stuttering treatment at the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre.

“But for a person who stutters, we also know that tension and anxiety makes their stuttering worse. … There is a relationship but I think it’s often misunderstood by the public.”

Another big myth surrounding stuttering, said Beck, is that people who stammer may be less intelligent or that if they just calm down and relax, they’ll be able to get their words out.

“They’ve done studies to show that people who stutter are every bit as intelligent as the rest of the population and some research also that shows that … anxiety or nervousness in a group of people who stutter is the same as a group of people who don’t stutter,” she said.

“So … people who stutter have the same range of variability in terms of how outgoing they are or how much they enjoy public speaking.”

In fact, children who stutter quite often have “very advanced language,” said Fraser, whose uncle also stuttered.

“Their language is way ahead of their motor skills, their ability to get the words out, and so we do know that they are often very highly intelligent.”

Beck said stuttering isn’t particular to one group, occurring “in every culture, in every language, in every country.”

Many celebrities have also had stammers, including actors Eric and Julia Roberts and James Earl Jones, according to the Stuttering Foundation website.

At the Ottawa Rehabilitation Centre, which has been around for over 30 years and treats patients aged 13 and up, the number of stutterers they see tends to fluctuate depending on how much advertising they do, Beck noted.

“Even though we’ve been here for a long time, it’s not always known that we’re here by people who stutter or they don’t realize that there is effective treatment,” she said.

“Or they’ve had treatment as a child and didn’t find it to be effective or are just uncomfortable about even coming forward to say that they stutter or seeking out treatment for themselves.”

The King’s Speech, Beck added, is a great opportunity to increase awareness about the condition and show those who stammer that help is available.

“It’s just a great chance to get that kind of positive message out that people who stutter can do absolutely anything, they can occupy any kind of job and just for people to understand that they’re just as capable, just as intelligent and that there’s effective treatment.”