The King's Speech: Beyond the stammer

City Lit speech therapy The King’s Speech, Starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, will be released on 7 January, raising awareness of stammering and the barriers it can create for adults. Did you know that 1% of the adult population stammers? That's around 459,000 adults in Britain alone*.

The film is based on a true story, and despite being about a King (George VI), it reflects the everyday struggles of adults who stammer. We were awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2007 in recognition of our innovative and ground-breaking work with adults who stammer, and we see examples of these struggles on a daily basis.

One student, Jeff Hammill, was made redundant when an investment bank he was working for got hit by the credit crunch, “I knew that I would have to start going to interviews, but having a stammer, I found this prospect very stressful.”

Jeff added: “I decided to take a speech therapy course at City Lit. I was very nervous – I had never had group therapy before. The tutor encouraged me to be more open about my speech difficulties – a challenge for someone who has been (unsuccessfully) trying to conceal their stammer for so long! Once I got the hang of not trying to hide it, the less I focussed on it, the less I stammered.

“Following the course I got an interview at a large investment bank. I found myself announcing to the interviewer that I had a stammer, and I even requested extra time to answer questions. The response was very positive, and being up front about my stammer created talking points. I was subsequently offered a job.”

Stammering therapy has changed dramatically since the time of King George VI, Jan Logan, speech and language therapist at City Lit said, “Whilst there is still no cure for stammering, there are many ways that people can learn to manage their stammer and speak more easily. We’re now able to help adults to find their voice and to live successful lives despite having speech difficulties.”

Chris Mackintosh, a City Lit speech therapy student, recently attended a preview of ‘The King’s Speech’ which he found extremely powerful: “The one thing this film will do is the very thing I thought was virtually impossible. It will allow audiences into the world of a stammerer, let them see behind the stammer and experience emotions they wouldn’t have previously understood. In this way it will hopefully promote a more expansive understanding of stammering and also the vigorous role that speech therapy has to offer.”

Read Chris's full review here

*Figures from the British Stammering Association website.



Story added 17th January 2011

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