News Highlights

Putting a positive spin on stuttering

Judy Kuster says new film helps people cope

Professor helps people cope with stuttering disability.

2010-12-20
By Robb Murray, Free Press Staff Writer [Published in The Free Press, Mankato, Minn., 12/18/2010]

For Todd Marten, sometimes just pulling up to a gas pump or a McDonald’s drive-through window can be a royal pain.

Marten, a 48-year-old Mankato-area resident who has been a stutterer since fourth grade, has to make sure a certain pump is open so that, when he calls it in to the clerk, he can actually say the words “pump four.”

It’s worse at the drive-through, where he’s sometimes faced with a choice even before he makes his choice.

“Do you order what you want, or order what you know you can say,” he recalled.

For people who stutter, life can sometimes be lonely. The disorder is more often laughed at than understood, and because it poses no physical health risks, it’s seldom considered a major issue.

That’s why Marten and many others who stutter — or those who know someone who stutters — say the recently released film “The King’s Speech” is the positive portrayal of a person who stutters that they’ve been waiting for.

Judy Kuster is a Minnesota State Mankato professor and expert on stuttering who has administered an annual online stuttering conference since 1998.

She said a lot of progress has been made recently on figuring out stuttering’s origins. Chief among the findings: There is a genetic component, but not a parental or psychological one.

Some have thought that stuttering was a result of psychological problems, or that certain styles of parenting could worsen a person’s stutter. The new research is good news for sufferers and their loved ones, but it doesn’t do much to alleviate the social stigma.

Kuster said this film, which is generating Oscar buzz, is one of the few positive major motion picture portrayals of a person who stutters.

“We want people to understand that it’s not something to be laughed at, and that there are things people can do to make it easier on the person who stutters,” Kuster said.

Marten says he’s led a lifetime with minimal teasing. In fact, when he was a kid, a friend who sat behind him would recognize when Marten didn’t want to read aloud in class and he’d simply start reading when it was Marten’s turn.

Most of the trouble, he says, has been in his own mind.

If you didn’t know Marten was a stutterer, it might take a while to notice. But Marten knows, and that brings a little stress to each day that most people would never even think to consider.

And he’s excited to see the film.

“I’m looking forward to seeing a person in a leadership role who had to deal with it and overcome it,” he said. “And I encourage people to go and see it to gain a perspective on it.”

For the complete Free Press story, click on http://mankatofreepress.com/local/x1531220021/Film-puts-positive-spin-on-stuttering.

For more Free Press news go to http://mankatofreepress.com.

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