Question: I don't know anyone who stammers so I'm asking here: That trick Lionel pulled when he had Bertie reading with the earphones on and the music blasting - does it really work? Bertie obviously thinks he's still stammering, but don't stammerers sense if they're doing it even if they can't hear themselves speaking? And if it does work, why the drama with the radio broadcasts? Bertie could have put the earphones on and simply read the broadcast like he did "Hamlet".
littlestar
10th Mar 2011
The King's Speech (2010)
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: The technique is called "masking" and all though it can sometimes help those who stutter it is not 100% reliable. It will make some stutter less, others will not notice any difference. It would probably be very inconvenient to Bertie not to hear himself at all during an important speech, not to mention that those around him might find the whole thing strange. You can read more about research on this technique and other similar ones here: http://ajslp.asha.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/1/77.
littlestar