Speaking up for stammerers (From The Northern Echo)

Speaking up for stammerers

11:32am Tuesday 11th January 2011 in Latest Features

As Oscar-tipped film The King’s Speech raises awareness about stammering, Steve Pratt finds out how the condition affects sufferers and how a County Durham group is lending support.

WHEN his father died, Iain Mutch was asked by the minister conducting the funeral service if he wanted to give a eulogy or a reading. He said no, the latest in a series of lost opportunities that made him determined to do something about his condition.

He’d previously been best man at a friend’s wedding – with the proviso that he didn’t have to make a speech or read out the telegrams.

He was called for jury service but, after hearing him read the oath to swear himself in, the judge said it wasn’t good enough and to read it again. “I made an even bigger mess and then he said, ‘Oh, you have a stutter’ and announced it to everyone in court,” he recalls.

Being unable to speak at his father’s funeral was the turning point. “I said nothing, it was just avoidance,” he recalls. “I wasn’t prepared to put myself through it. It was a lifetime opportunity and I bottled it because of my stutter. I buried him and ten days later I was in the help programme.”

The experience of fellow stammerer Peter Hawkes was perhaps less dramatic, but no less distressing. Stammering since he was three or four, he was virtually unable to speak in especially stressful situations.

Although bright, he began to skip school when he was 14, as his stammer marked him out from other pupils, and he left school at 16. “I used to look for jobs in warehouses and places where there was no speech required,” he says.

“My choice of work revolved around speech and they were jobs with no prospects. I was lucky when I found something I was interested in.”

Mr Hawkes, who now works as a freelance web designer in Bishop Auckland, has become involved in the Durham Stammering Support Group. Mr Mutch uses his experience in his role as Newcastle-based regional director of the McGuire Programme, an international course run by former stammerers to help people overcome their stammers.

This programme and the service provided by the NHS Speech and Language Therapy are not linked. But both will undoubtedly benefit from the new film The King’s Speech, which tells how King George VI overcame his stammer with the help of Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, and led the country through the Abdication crisis and the Second World War.

With both Colin Firth’s portrayal of the stammering monarch and the film tipped for Oscar success, the problems facing stammerers are being put firmly in the spotlight. The publicity will perhaps help remedy the public’s perception of the condition gleaned from Michael Palin’s comic stutterer in the film A Fish Called Wanda, or Ronnie Barker’s gentler portrayal of stuttering shop owner Arkwright in TV’s Open All Hours. Stammering cannot be cured but, given commitment and hard work, it can be controlled or managed so it causes least disruption to a person’s speech.

“The King’s Speech will raise awareness of the condition and I think it’s the first time a stammerer has been portrayed in a realistic and sympathetic way,” says Mr Mutch.

The McGuire Programme, developed in the US, uses a number of therapies, such as control through breathing and non-avoidance, to manage a stammer. “It’s one of those things where practise makes perfect. It becomes easier and easier and stops you beating yourself up if you have a block or a bad day speech-wise,” says Mr Mutch.

“It’s a matter of controlling it, instead of it always being in control of you.”

Having a stammer impacts on choices in life, relationships and employment. After getting married in 1999, Mr Mutch felt he was being selfish about his condition. “It was all about minimising everything I had to say. So I hadn’t even considered my wife’s feelings. It was all about me,” he explains.

He believes it’s possible to take some control.

“Our therapy is like any therapy – if you are afraid of spiders, you have to end up holding a big hairy spider. You have to do what’s uncomfortable to do.”

Among those who’ve taken the McGuire course are singer Gareth Gates, Scotland rugby international Kelly Brown and Wet Wet Wet guitarist Graeme Duffin.

“It’s not for everyone,” says Mr Mutch. “The McGuire programme can be a bit much for some people.”

ADIFFERENT approach is adopted by speech and language therapist Barbara Harnett, clinical lead in stammering for County Durham and Darlington Community Health Services. She lends professional help at the Durham Stammering Support Group, which meets monthly.

She says: “I set it up because there wasn’t very much support for stammerers. People come to us for individual therapy, but were saying they wanted more support from people who stammer.”

What happens in the group is shaped by the members. It could be social or therapeutic, or just chat with people in a similar condition.

“People talk about the different experiences they’ve had. Some of the discussions have been very illuminating. It’s the sort of forum where you can talk about stammering to people who really understand,” she says.

“It’s a social group as well, with people maintaining contact through email and Facebook.

Some might want to find a speech therapist or just meet other people who stammer. It’s nice to be in the same room and share experiences.”

■ The Durham Stammering Support Group meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month at Gilesgate Sports College, Bradford Crescent, Gilesgate, Durham City, DH1 1HN, from 6pm to 8pm.

■ Information about the support group and Speech and Language Therapy for stammering at cddchs.nhs.uk/your-healthservices and durhamstammeringsupport.co.uk

■ The British Stammering Association at stammering.org and the McGuire programme at mcguireprogramme.