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I would like to inform my fellow SLPs about a movie I just saw called "Rocket Science." It was shown at the Seattle International Film Festival and will be distributed widely. The movie depicts a high-school boy named Hal who stutters. Hal's SLP is portrayed as a bumbling idiot who does nothing to try to help him. The SLP tells Hal that stuttering is not his specialty, but that he read in a speech-language pathology journal that it is impossible to stutter while whispering or putting on an accent, so why doesn't he just try that (as if that advice would be printed in any journal in this day and age). He also says that hyperactivity is his specialty and he wishes Hal were hyperactive, then he would be able to help him. As if any SLP would have such poor training and be so unethical! I've seen inaccurate depictions of SLPs in movies and TV, but this was the worst.
I've done a little research on the film since I saw it, and it turns out the director dealt with a severe stutter as a child and so he has personal experience to draw upon, and they actually brought in an SLP to teach the actor to stutter. So it could have been worse. But the poor depiction of the SLP in the film really gives the impression that there is no treatment for stuttering and casts a terrible light on our profession.
Shelly Gramza
Seattle, Washington
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