What “The Kinga??s Speech” Teaches Us About Stuttering

The film “The Kinga??s Speech” won the Academy Award for Best Picture??[on Sunday night.] The movie??has come in for some criticism for its depiction of the political machinations surrounding??the abdication of Edward VIII?? and??Britaina??s??appeasement of Hitler.??The British-born writer Christopher Hitchens, unsparing??and deliciously eloquent as always, puts the politics of????George VI??in a far less favorable light than the??movie does.????????????

But??”The Kinga??s Speech” has??won almost universal praise??for its??portrayal of??the reluctant monarcha??s stuttering, a speech pattern that includes involuntary repetition of sounds and syllables and a??speech blocksa?? that cause prolonged pauses. Many young?? children who stutter grow out of the problem, but perhaps as many??as one in every 100 adults are affected by the condition,??80 percent??of whom are men. Stuttering clusters in families, so researchers have been searching for??inherited genes that might cause the condition.??Last year,??in The New England Journal of Medicine,??NIH researchers reported some success??with??results showing an association between??three mutated genes and??stuttering,??although??those mutations are probably responsible for a very small minority of cases.??

Ita??s been said that??”The Kinga??s Speech” will do??for stuttering what “Rain Man” did for autism: Plant??a sympathetic view of??a disability in the public consciousness. One??danger of??such??a quick infusion??of??awareness, however,??is that??it can harden??into a??fixed, if largely favorable,??stereotype.??We are finding out — or are being reminded — about all the famous people who??have stuttered??(many of them writers).??First-person accounts are popping up all over the place because of the film.??The??best Ia??ve come across is??by??Philip French, a British film critic, who??describes vividly what it was like to??listen to the??radio broadcasts of the real King George VI, wondering if??he would??make it to the end a??like a drunken waiter crossing a polished floor bearing a tray laden with wine glasses.a??

French writes about the special anxiety in his family:??

In my household, however, there was an additional source of unease — a special elephant in the corner of the room or, more accurately, a little Dumbo at the festive table, namely myself. I can recall no social experience prior to the king at Christmas 1937 and thus I cana??t remember a time when I too didna??t stammer. Increasingly as the years passed, I became conscious of my family and our guests at that special annual occasion pretending not to look in my direction and clearly wondering exactly how they should react in my discomfiting presence.

In the movie, the Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush, has his??royal client, played by Colin Firth,??sing, swear (the swearing is the reason for the filma??s R rating), and perform various strange vocal exercises.??Despite their quarrels and class differences, the??strong bond between the two men (at one level, the??movie is??a Masterpiece Theater-style bromance)??is??also??presented as??being crucial?? to the kinga??s heroic, and eventually successful, efforts to control his stutter.????

After??I saw the movie, and??as a part of the runup to Sunday nighta??s show, I??began to??do a little research into stuttering. And??after making some inquiries, last week I ended up emailing and then talking to??Alex Johnson. Johnson is??provost and vice president for academic affairs and a professor of communication science and disorders at the MGH??Institute of Health Professions??in Boston, an organization that trains speech therapists as well as??nurses and other health professionals.??Diagnosis and treatment of??stuttering has been a focus of Johnsona??s??clinical career.

Certainly look??beyond this blog post??if youa??re seeking??expertise. But??Ia??ll pass along a??few??of the things I learned??from??my conversation with??Johnson,??his??blog??post on “The Kinga??s Speech,”??a piece??about Logue by??Caroline Bowen, an Australian speech-language therapist who is an expert on Logue,??and??a ??few other scattered??sources:

• One semantic issue can be put to rest??right off the bat:??Johnson told me that stuttering and stammering are interchangeable. The only difference is that the??British prefer??stammer over stutter.????


• Johnson and others familiar with stuttering are quick to point out the contrast??between “The Kinga??s Speech” and other??depictions of stuttering.??Herea??s a portion of Johnsona??s blog post:

This movie is so unique in its accurate??representation of the stuttering experience.??I have, over the years collected episodes of television shows, cartoons (Porky Pig?), popular movies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjbkBjYwc84), and some novels that have included persons who stutter as characters.??People who stutter are most often portrayed in these media??as cognitively challenged,??mentally unhealthy, shy, dangerous, or as the object of ridicule.?? How difficult a road this has been for people who stutter.

• Lionel Logue, the speech therapist played by Rush,??was trained as??an??elocutionist, a now-extinct??profession??devoted to proper vocalization and??public speaking. (Interesting fact from a quickie Google search: Alexander Graham Bella??s father was a prominent elocutionist.)??In??his native Australia, Logue??was something of a celebrity, and his recitals were well attended.??Like Logue, many early speech therapists and speech a??correctionistsa?? had been??elocutionists, and understandably,??they applied??elocutionist techniques to speech therapy.??So, for example, ??in the movie,??Logue has his star pupil??repeat??tongue twisters, a common exercise taught by elocutionists.??


• Apparently, Logue never gave a full account of??the techniques he used with the king.?? Still, once you make allowances for the need to??streamline??messy history into a??story (the screenplay for the movei also won an Oscar),??most of what we see is probably a fairly good??reflection of Loguea??s techniques, according to Caroline Bowen.??In her estimation, the two aspects that dona??t ring true are the use of swearing??to increase fluency (what a shame — ita??s a hilarious scene) and His Royal Highness agreeing to let??Logue call him??by??his??nickname, Bertie.


• Logue is shown using??singing a lot in the royal therapy sessions.??Johnson says that contemporary speech therapy for stutterers wouldna??t typically include??singing but that therapists do use techniques that tap into??the fluency that??most stutterers experience when they sing and??take into account the??timing and rhythm of speech.


• In one of the moviea??s??early scenes, Logue shows the then-Duke of York that he can speak without stuttering if he doesna??t hear his own??voice as he speaks.??Johnson told me that this scene bears some resemblance to a??delayed auditory feedbacka?? techniques that have been part of??mainstream stuttering therapy for decades.??Modern electronics have made it possible for people who stutter to wear auditory feedback devices that look like hearing aids.??They cost about $4,000 to $5,000 according to a recent article in The Washington Post. Johnson said that??some models??help people who stutter by??not delaying when they hear their own voice but also??by slightly altering the pitch.??


• Johnson told me??that????stuttering therapy??today??falls??into two broad categories: Efforts??aimed at modifying the behavior of speaking??and those that??focus on eliminating the fear of speaking.??”The Kinga??s Speech” is moving??partly because??Logue is portrayed as being such a master??at easing fear:??The mere commoner, and an Australian to boot, who calms the king.??In the final scene of the movie, George VI,?? facing the dreaded microphone, reads his??speech more to??Logue than to the??radio audience.

- Peter Wehrwein, Editor, Harvard Health Letter