"The King's Speech" is a fabulous movie about over coming enormous obstacles. The king had a terrible speech impediment---a speech debilitating stammer. I, too, had a speech impediment when I was young---a lisp and stutter. My elementary school, Sierra Oaks, had me go through speech therapy during the second grade. That didn't fix it, so I was sent to Easter Seals. Finally, I figured out how to say "S." It was monumental for my self esteem! When I had millions of dollars, I donated money to Easter Seals for helping me have a normal life. I am truly grateful to them, as I know King George VI was grateful to his speech therapist.
Over the years I realized that my stutter which was random was caused by thinking so much faster than I could speak. I would forget what I'd verbalized to someone and have to retrace my last thoughts by saying the last words that I said again. This would typically trigger the rest of my line of thinking, so I could continue what I was saying. Now that I'm aware of the root cause, I rarely stutter.
It is also amazing how this movie, "The King's Speech," also discusses that speech impediments in young children are typically due to a traumatic mistreatment by someone who is around them. Anyone who read my memoir, "The Romance of Kilimanjaro," can guess who the culprits were!
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