The King's Speech
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-12-21/kings-speech
![Colin Firth as King George VI in Tom Hooper's film, "The King's Speech." - Laurie Sparham/ The Weinstein Company](http://thedianerehmshow.org/sites/thedianerehmshow.org/files/imagecache/620xH/images/headline/thekingsspeech.jpg "Colin Firth as King George VI in Tom Hooper's film, "The King's Speech." - Laurie Sparham/ The Weinstein Company")
Colin Firth as King George VI in Tom Hooper's film, "The King's Speech."
Laurie Sparham/ The Weinstein Company
Britain's King George VI never aspired to be king, but in 1937 when his older brother gave up the throne to marry his American lover, he had to step up. The new monarch suffered from a debilitating stutter, a condition that he and many others thought would preclude him from becoming an effective leader. In a new movie, "The King’s Speech" we learn the story of the remarkable friendship that developed between King George VI and the speech therapist who helped the king conquer his stammer and deliver speeches - speeches that buoyed the spirits of his countrymen before and during World War II. The speech therapist's grandson and two speech experts join me to talk about stuttering and how it can be treated. Please join us.
Guests
Mark Logue
co-writer "The King's Speech"
filmaker, grandson of Lionel Logue
Vivian Sisskin
Dept. of Hearing and Speech Sciences
University of Maryland
Shelley Brundage
associate professor,
Speech and Hearing Sciences,
George Washington University
Comments
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Hi Dianne
Great Show. I wanted to let the audience know about the National Stuttering Association. The National Stuttering Association is the largest self-help support organization in the United States for people who stutter. Its mission is to bring hope and empowerment to children and adults who stutter, their families, and professionals through support, education, advocacy, and research.
They have a great web site - www.westutter.org.
The NSA also sponsors local support groups across the country for people who stutter. They provide a safe and friendly environment for people who stutter to meet other stutters, talk about issues affecting their lives, find out about therapies, socialize, etc. There are local support groups in Maryland, Virginia and DC. Information can be found on the NSA web site.
Matt Zenkowich
Chapter Leader of the Northern Virginia Stuttering Support Group
Hi Diane, Very interesting approach to this wonderful movie. I have question, how did Colin Firth learn to stutter so well? Was he, perhaps, coached by Derek Jacobi (of I, Claudius), who portrayed the Archbishop Cosmo Lang in film?
In respect to longitudinal developmental brain activation studies of stutter, functional magnetic resonance imaging would spare the children exposure to ionizing radiation.
Read more about functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain and mind here:
http://brainmindinst.blogspot.com/2009/03/fmri-mental-processing.html
The method may however possess drawbacks as well. The children would have to lie absolutely still in a noisy tunnel for perhaps twenty minutes and need to be of certain age to be able to fulfill this requirement. It would be difficult to find anyone sufficiently cooperative younger than five years of age, and that may be late in the developmental process. The recording of event-related potentials from scalp electrodes is less intrusive and may constitute a viable alternative.
Fluency enhancing devices such as the Speech Easy and Fluency Master. can help persons who stutter gain some control over their speech. It doesn’t benefit everyone, but some users for the first time find that there is something that they can do to get the sound started and keep it going. Use of a fluency enhancing device isn’t a cure but an aid which some feel is incredibly helpful.
Hi there Diane!
First of all, I must say that was a fantastic show! I'm currently a graduate student at FIU studying Communication Science and Disorders. I find stuttering is most interesting to me. I worked with a high school student and used intentional stuttering as a therapy technique to build confidence within.
I look forward to graduating in August of 2011 as an official Speech Language Pathologist and specializing in this area of study. I will definitely forward this show and movie along to my colleagues and professors! Thanks for sharing.
Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year,
Mailin
Hello Diane,
What a wonderful show! Thank you for covering this interesting topic. As a person who stutters, I have had great success overcoming my own struggle with various speech therapies across the years. I have had the most lasting success in recent years with the McGuire Program which is unusual in that it has recovering stutterers helping other stutterers. I look forward to seeing the movie!
Brian Passalacqua, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine
University of Nevada School of Medicine
Reno, NV
Hi Diane,
Terrific show, as always. Can you please post the link to King George's 1939 speech? You tried to play it once during the interview but the earlier one (from 1936, I believe) had been loaded instead. You did not have a chance to try again before the end of the hour. I would be very interested to hear it.
Thanks.
Thank you for an enlightening and wonderful show. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) offer help to thousands of people who stutter through individual and group treatment programs. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is the national association to more than 140,000 speech-language pathologists, audiologists and speech-language-hearing scientists. ASHA’s Web site www.asha.org/public has valuable information related to stuttering and provides an online directory to help people find SLPs near them www.asha.org/findpro.
Ann-Mari Pierotti, MS, CCC-SLP
Associate Director, Clinical Issues in Speech-Language Pathology
apierotti@asha.org
My family has found that the Stuttering Foundation's Web site, www.stutteringhelp.org, is a great resource for help.
-Katie
Good show. Up until this movie, the only ones I knew of that were about therapy and stuttering were the ones done by the Stuttering Foundation. This film that the general public might see may help dispel some myths about those who stutter. Genetics definitely played a part in our family.
I thought it was a great show and mentioned that stuttering affects all races and ethncities equally. I want to let people know that a great source for Hispanics is the Spanish-language version of the Stuttering Foundations's site at www.tartamudez.org. The regular site of the foundation (www.stutteringhelp.org) is an excellent site in itself, and it is a godsend for Hispanics (especially parents) who do not know where to turn that all the same features of the main site are available in Spanish.
Stuttering affects the Hispanic community and the populations in Latin American nations equally. This is an article about the Latino community and stuttering that you may find helpful:
http://www.impre.com/salud/general/2008/11/23/tartamudez-tambien-afecta-...
An important main thing is that Hispanic parents know that every child in the U.S. has the right to free speech therapy as is explained in the Stuttering Foundation's brochure "Special Education Law and Children Who Stutter"