We saw it again
Yes we did, we saw "The Kings Speech".
If you have ever had a child in speech therapy you would know how remarkable this story is.
Our story is dramatic, but not uncommon for kids on the spectrum. Our boy was nonverbal at age 3. He went to school and we communicated using sign language, "eye speaking", and the dragging of the Mommy to whatever he wanted. This went on until he was 5.
During this time evaluations (beyond painful) and doctors (aka morons) told me to put my son in a home and forget I ever had him. Naturally, we thought those doc's went to a medical correspondence school and got their degrees from somewhere south of the South Pole.
After checking into dentists we discovered that our son's mouth was malformed and had been since birth. It was impossible to tell there was a problem as an infant....
Not being able to pronounce sounds/words made things complicated at best. the boy did his best but sentances didn't make good sense, except for an odd word or two. The cuter half understood the boy well; OK the cuter half understood the boy entirely. No one else did.
Learning the english language was like picking up a second language. Kind of like King George IV. He struggled with language, knowing what should be said, how it ought to sound and getting it stuck....my boy could relate to that.
Anyway seeing that movie, really strikes home for us...there are different bits every time and there are things that we have seen modern speech therapists use but in different formats (tape recording, misc.) The marble thing....never seen that done although in the movie it did look pretty ridiculous (personally I would have liked to seen the old geezer show the Duke of York how to do it first just for fun). The Queen Mother, at that time Princess Elizabeth, was a becon of strength. Checking out someone who was considered avant guarde and unconventional was a BIG stretch for her....although maybe not so much, look at what they had been through with the so called professionals (Hmmmmm sound familiar?). I can TOTALLY RELATE!! I have heard, although debateable if true that the Queen has seen this movie and thought it was pretty accurate. I don't know if I believe it but the Telegraph usually gets it right so I guess I will trust them on this one. She should know, it was her dad after all.
Oddly enough, my Mom was pointing things out in the movie, like how the king had a bad temper, and so did my dad sometimes (um hello, so does everyone....I know i do too). We then discussed how the king was having the temper becuase he was frustrated in his way to communicate. That and back then people who used their left hands were re-trained to use their right hands for writing and such. My dad was retrained to use his right hand, many people were back then......the thought was that left handed people were not the best off. Obviously that is not true. MANY people are better off using the hand they are comfortable with. My dad did a cool thing and taught me how to use both hands. some for writing, some for opening things and all that.
As far as the movie goes, it was amazing how my Mom thought this movie was really amazing....and spot on. My Mom tells me that she remembers all this happening and that she was very impressed with the king's speech when she heard about it during the pre war period.
I again HAVE to recommend this movie. It is amazing and well worth the time to watch.
If you have ever had a child in speech therapy you would know how remarkable this story is.
Our story is dramatic, but not uncommon for kids on the spectrum. Our boy was nonverbal at age 3. He went to school and we communicated using sign language, "eye speaking", and the dragging of the Mommy to whatever he wanted. This went on until he was 5.
During this time evaluations (beyond painful) and doctors (aka morons) told me to put my son in a home and forget I ever had him. Naturally, we thought those doc's went to a medical correspondence school and got their degrees from somewhere south of the South Pole.
After checking into dentists we discovered that our son's mouth was malformed and had been since birth. It was impossible to tell there was a problem as an infant....
Not being able to pronounce sounds/words made things complicated at best. the boy did his best but sentances didn't make good sense, except for an odd word or two. The cuter half understood the boy well; OK the cuter half understood the boy entirely. No one else did.
Learning the english language was like picking up a second language. Kind of like King George IV. He struggled with language, knowing what should be said, how it ought to sound and getting it stuck....my boy could relate to that.
Anyway seeing that movie, really strikes home for us...there are different bits every time and there are things that we have seen modern speech therapists use but in different formats (tape recording, misc.) The marble thing....never seen that done although in the movie it did look pretty ridiculous (personally I would have liked to seen the old geezer show the Duke of York how to do it first just for fun). The Queen Mother, at that time Princess Elizabeth, was a becon of strength. Checking out someone who was considered avant guarde and unconventional was a BIG stretch for her....although maybe not so much, look at what they had been through with the so called professionals (Hmmmmm sound familiar?). I can TOTALLY RELATE!! I have heard, although debateable if true that the Queen has seen this movie and thought it was pretty accurate. I don't know if I believe it but the Telegraph usually gets it right so I guess I will trust them on this one. She should know, it was her dad after all.
Oddly enough, my Mom was pointing things out in the movie, like how the king had a bad temper, and so did my dad sometimes (um hello, so does everyone....I know i do too). We then discussed how the king was having the temper becuase he was frustrated in his way to communicate. That and back then people who used their left hands were re-trained to use their right hands for writing and such. My dad was retrained to use his right hand, many people were back then......the thought was that left handed people were not the best off. Obviously that is not true. MANY people are better off using the hand they are comfortable with. My dad did a cool thing and taught me how to use both hands. some for writing, some for opening things and all that.
As far as the movie goes, it was amazing how my Mom thought this movie was really amazing....and spot on. My Mom tells me that she remembers all this happening and that she was very impressed with the king's speech when she heard about it during the pre war period.
I again HAVE to recommend this movie. It is amazing and well worth the time to watch.
