STAMMERING is in the news again, and Sian Awford could not be happier.

“The King’s Speech is fantastic as a movie and great from my point of view, because the two really important characters are the king and the speech therapist,” she said.

As the film shows, “Bertie”, as he was called by his family, was already grown-up when help was first sought for his stammer.

His impediment did not matter too much until his brother David (Edward VIII) decided to abdicate so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. As King, Bertie would have to make many speeches, including some that would be broadcast live on the radio.

That he eventually managed to do so with no detectable stammer is a testament to years of hard work by him and Logue. Some of the techniques depicted in the film are still being used today.

For Sian, who works at the private Total Children’s Therapy, treatment is much more likely to succeed if it starts at an early age.

“From my experience, I’ve had good results up until the age of 10, and it’s much easier if you can get them below the age of five. After 10, we are beginning to treat them like adult stammerers,” she said.

“The time of rapid speech and language development is two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half, when children are joining sentences.

“At that stage, it’s quite normal for children to have bumpy speech. It’s very normal to have stops, starts and repetitions. Both my children went through it.

“Given that it’s a normal stage, how people react is really important. Teachers say things that might sound like good advice, like ‘Stop, take a deep breath and say it again,’ but that disrupts the flow.

“I try to get parents to think not about how the child is talking, but what they are talking about. The main thing is taking the pressure off the speech and listening to what they are saying.”

The letters or sounds most likely to trip up a stammerer are the “plosives” – p, b, t, d, k and g, although some stumble on s. Many sufferers develop an excellent vocabulary so they can avoid certain words.

“If there is a family history of stammering, it’s even more important that we see those families. In all my years of practice, I’ve never had a child that’s caught a stammer, but where you have parental anxiety, they are so much more likely to worry and jump on every little hesitation,” said Sian.

She recommends looking at the basics, such as making sure the child has enough sleep, has regular meals and bedtimes; and switching off the TV in favour of reading stories and rhymes.

“If you impose a rhythm, a stammer goes. Nobody stammers when they sing,” said Sian.

“If a child has gone through normal non-fluency and all is well, I always say to parents that there will be times when speech might get a bit bumpy again. Life changes can be stressful for children.”

While around five per cent of children stammer, the figure for adults is one per cent. Eight out of 10 adult stammerers are men.

Some end up in careers that involve speaking publicly, as the late television broadcaster Patrick Campbell demonstrated.

Sian’s adult clients have included a barrister, a vicar and an actor.

She points out that even US president Barack Obama and newsreaders have been caught stuttering over their words.

“It’s something we all do at times,” she said. “For some people, it’s held them back in life. They wanted to be a teacher or a doctor and perceive that they couldn’t possibly do that. It can be devastating.

“What we hope is that if we get all the children to a speech therapist early enough, it’s going to do so much towards eradicating it.”

l For free advice on child stammering, email info@totalchildrenstherapy.com or ring 01202 313171.