The period from the age of 6 to the age of 11 (inclusive) is in truth the Speech-Setting Period, for it is at this time that the child's speech habits become more or less fixed, and his vocabulary, while constantly developing, manifests tendencies which may be traced through into the later life of the adult.
This Speech-Setting Period marks two very important events in the speech development of the child. First, it marks the period of second dentition or the time when the milk-teeth are "shed" and the new and permanent teeth take their place. This is a critical period and statistics show that there is a marked increase in speech disorders at this time. The second event of importance, both to child and to parents, is the beginning of the work in school. It must be remembered that heretofore the child has been under the watchful care of the parents during most of his hours, while now, with the beginning of his work in school, he is having his first small taste of facing the world alone—even if only for a little while each day.
Regardless of the attitude which the child takes toward his work in school, this work presents new problems and new possibilities of danger from a standpoint of speech development. A slight defect in utterance which at home is passed over from long familiarity, is the subject of ridicule and laughter at school. For the first time in the child-life, the stammering or stuttering youngster may experience the awful feeling of being laughed at and made fun of, without exactly knowing why. He will have to face the questions of his thoughtless companions who will attempt to make him talk merely for the sake of entertaining themselves. To the child who stutters or stammers, this is torture in its worst form. The humiliation and disgrace which the stammering child must undergo on the way to school, in the school-yard and on the way home again, is a tremendous force in the life of the youngster—a force which may seriously impede his mental development, his physical welfare and his progress in school. He finds himself unlike others, deficient in some respect and yet not realizing the exact nature of his deficiency or understanding why it should be a deficiency. He stands up to recite with a constantly increasing fear of failure in his heart and unless he is fortunate enough to have a teacher who understands, is apt to fare poorly at her hands, also. Even in the case of the teacher who does understand the child's difficulty and consequently permits written instead of oral recitations, there is a constant feeling of inability on the part of the child, a knowledge of being less-whole than those about him, which saps the self-confidence so necessary to proper mental development and normal progress. He furthermore misses much of the value of the studies that he pursues, for, as a noted educator has said, "In order for a child to remember and fix clearly in his own mind the things he studies, those things must be repeated in oral recitation." And this the stammering or stuttering child cannot do.
SENDING STAMMERING CHILDREN TO SCHOOL: With these facts in mind, the question arises as to whether it is ever policy to send a stammering or stuttering child to school, knowing that he is afflicted with a speech-disorder. In the first place the parents who send a stammering child to school exhibit a careless disregard for the rights of others and a further disregard for the many children who must, of a necessity, associate with this stammering child, with all the consequent dangers of infection by imitation or mimicry. Speech defects of a remediable nature among school children could be materially reduced by refusing to allow children so afflicted to play or in any way associate with the others who talk normally.
Aside, however, from the question of the parents' obligation to society and to the children of others (which should be, in the end, a means of protection for their own children, as well) there is the bigger and more selfish aspect of the question, viz.: the effect on the child himself.
No better suggestion can be given than that contained in "The Habit of Success" by Luther H. Gulick, who says: "If you take a child that is really mentally subnormal and put him in school with normal children, he cannot do well no matter how hard he tries. He tries again and again and fails. Then he is scolded and punished, kept after school and held up to the ridicule of the teacher and other students. When he goes out on the playground, he cannot play with the vigor and skill and force of other children. In the plays, he is not wanted on either side; he is always 'it' in tag. So he soon acquires the presentment that he is going to fail no matter what he does, that he cannot do as the others do and that there is no use in trying. So he gives up trying. He quits.
"That is the largest element in the lives of the feeble-minded—that conviction that they cannot do like others, and is the first thing they must overcome if they are to be helped. There is no hope whatever of growth, as long as they foresee they are going to fail."
The futility of trying to "cram" an education into a subnormal child has never been better expressed than in the statement quoted above. There is nothing to be gained by insisting that a child who is ill, attend school—and it should be remembered that so far as school is concerned, the child who stutters or stammers is just as ill as the one with the measles, save that the illness of the stammering or stuttering child is chronic and persistent, while that of the other is temporary.
CHANCES FOR OUTGROWING AT THIS AGE: The opportunities for the stammering or stuttering child to outgrow his trouble are about five times as great in the Formative Period, between the ages of 2 and 6, as they are in the Speech-Setting Period, from 6 to 11. In the former, as previously explained, statistics show that about 1 per cent.—or one in a hundred—outgrow their trouble before the age of 6, while after this age the percentage drops to one-fifth of one per cent, or about one person in every five hundred, which is a very small chance indeed.
In speaking of the tendency of parents to wait in the hope that speech disorders will be outgrown, Walter B. Swift, A.B., S.B., M.D., has this to say:
"This suggestion may frequently be offered, even by the physician. Many people say, 'Let the case alone and it will outgrow its defect.' No treatment could be more foolish than this. No advice could be more ill-advised; no suggestion could show more ignorance of the problems of speech. Such advisers are ignorant of the harm they are doing and the amount of mental drill of which they are depriving the pupil. Nor do they know at all whether or not the case will ever 'outgrow' its defect. In brief, this advice is without foundation, without scientific backing, and should never be followed."
ADVICE TO PARENTS: Parents of children between the ages of 6 and 11 who stammer or stutter, should follow out the suggestions given in the previous chapter, with the idea of removing the difficulty in its incipiency if possible, or at least of preventing its progress. If by the time the child is eight years of age, the defective utterance remains, this fact is proof that the speech disorder is of a form that will not yield to the simple methods possible under parental treatment at home and the child should be immediately placed under the care of an expert whose previous knowledge and experience insures his ability to correct the defective utterance quickly and permanently.
In all cases after the age of 8, the matter should be taken firmly in hand. There should be no dilly-dallying, no foolish belief in the possibility of outgrowing the trouble, for whatever chances once existed are now past. First of all, the child's case should be diagnosed by an expert with the idea of ascertaining the exact nature of the speech disorder, the probable progress of the trouble, the present condition, the curability of the case and the possibilities for early relief. A personal diagnosis should be secured where possible, but when this cannot be brought about, a written description and history of the case should enable the capable diagnostician of speech defects to diagnose the case in a very thorough manner. The result of this diagnosis should be set down in the form of a report in order that the parent may have a permanent record of the child's condition and may be able to take the proper steps for the eradication of the speech disorder. With this information as to the child's case in hand, parents should be guided by the advice of Alexander Melville Bell, one of the greatest speech specialists of his age, who said:
"Stuttering and Hesitation are stages through which the stammerer generally passes before he reaches the climax of his difficulty, and if he were brought under treatment before the spasmodic habit became established, his cure would be much more easy than after the malady has become rooted in his muscular and nervous system."
Truly may it be said of the stammering child at this period, that "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries."
Youth, as we shall define it from the standpoint of the development of speech disorders, is the period from the age of 12 to the age of 20. From the twelfth to the twentieth year is a very critical period in the life of both the boy and the girl who stammers—a period which should have the watchfulness and care of the parent at every step. This is known as the period of adolescence and may be said to mark the time of a new birth, when both mind and body undergo vital changes. New sensations, many of them intense, arise, and new associations in the sense sphere are formed.
To the boy or girl passing through this stage of life, it is a period of new and unknown forces, emotions and feelings. It is a time of uncertainty. The sure-footed confidence of childhood gives way to the unsure, hesitating, questioning attitude of a mind filled with new and strange thoughts and a body animated by new and strange sensations.
These are the symptoms of a fundamental change, the outward manifestations of the passing from childhood to manhood or womanhood. This is childhood's equinoctial storm, marking the beginning of the second season of life's year. In this storm, it is the paramount duty of the parent to be a safe and ever-present pilot through the sea that to the captain of this craft is as uncharted as the route to the Indies in Columbus' day.
The revolution now taking place in both the mental and bodily processes results hi a lack of stability—an "unsettledness" that manifests itself in restlessness, nervousness, self-consciousness or morbidness, taking perhaps the form of a persistent melancholia or desire to be alone.
At this time in the life of the boy or girl, the possibilities for stuttering or stammering to secure a firm hold on their muscular and nervous system are very great. Next to the age of second dentition, children at the age of puberty are most susceptible to stammering or stuttering.
During adolescence, the annual rate of growth in height, weight and strength is increased and often doubled or more. The power of the diseases peculiar to childhood abates and the liability to the far more numerous diseases of maturity begins, so that with the liability to both it is not strange that this period is marked at the same time by increased morbidity.
The significant fact about stuttering in children as far as it relates to the period of adolescence, is that this stage marks the most pronounced susceptibility to the malady as well as the time during which it may most quickly pass into the chronic stage. Examinations show that the largest percentage of stutterers among boys was at the ages of eight, thirteen and sixteen, while the largest percentage among girls was at the ages of seven, twelve and sixteen—the earlier age of severity in girls being explained by the fact that the girl reaches a given state of maturity more quickly than a boy.
Parents of stammering or stuttering children between the ages of twelve and twenty, may well note with alarm the increasing nervousness, the hyper-sensitive feelings, the overpowering self-consciousness and the morbid tendencies which mark a state of mental depression, brooding and worry over troubles both real and fancied.
PERIOD OF MOST FREQUENT SUICIDE: Statistics gathered over a period of years indicate that the cases of suicide of stammering children occur at this time with greater frequency than at any other. Rarely has a case been found where a child has attempted to take his life before the age of 12 and seldom after the age of 20.
At frequent intervals there can be found in any of the large papers, a very brief note of the suicide of a child who had found life too much of a burden for him to bear and who, as a consequence, fell to brooding over his troubles and as the easiest way out of them, took his own life. A Chicago boy attempted suicide by inhaling gas, although he was discovered before it was too late. Another took his own life by shooting himself with a revolver given him some years ago as a birthday present; still another took poison as the easiest way out of his humiliation, embarrassment and despair.
The average age of these boys was about 16 1/2 years, which marks a period of intense self-consciousness and extreme sensitiveness of the youth to ridicule and disgrace.
TENDENCY TO RAPID PROGRESS: The condition of the young person between the ages of 12 and 20 can hardly be considered to be normal in any way. The physical processes are un-normal and are undergoing a change, and the mental faculties, too, are un-normal, overwhelmed as they are with new emotions and sensations. The nervous condition is marked by a much higher nervous irritability, which contributes to a condition most favorable for the rapid progress of the speech disorder, always easily aggravated by a subnormal physical, mental or nervous condition. Cases where the Intermittent Tendency is a pronounced characteristic are liable at this period to find the alternate periods of relief and recurrence to be more frequent than ever before and to note a marked tendency of their trouble to recur with constantly increasing malignancy. Cases that at the age of 11 or 12, for instance, might have been said to have been in an incipient state, have commonly been known at this age to pass through the successive intermediate stages of the trouble and become of a deep-seated and chronic nature in a surprisingly short period of time.
In some cases where the transition from a simple to the complex form of the difficulty takes place at this age, it is found that the disorder has passed beyond the curable stage, in which case, of course, nothing is left to the unfortunate stammerer but the prospects of a life of untold misery and torture, deprived of companionship, ostracized from society and debarred from participation in either business or the professions.
CHANCES OF OUTGROWING: The chances for outgrowing a speech disorder at this age are considerably less than at any other time in the previous life of the individual. The unbalanced general condition tends to make the stammerer more susceptible instead of less so. As previously explained, this period marks the time when speech disorders progress rapidly from bad to worse and, as a consequence, the chances for outgrowing diminished from 1 per cent, before the age of 6 to practically zero after the age of 12. SUGGESTIONS: There is little that can be said for the good of the young person at these ages. The time for home treatment is past. The simple suggestions offered for the assistance of those in the Formative or Speech-Setting Periods would be of little value here because the growth of the individual has made the eradication of the trouble quite improbable without a complete re-education along correct speech lines—best obtained from an institution devoting its efforts to that work. Whatever steps are taken, however, should be taken before the disorder has become rooted in the muscular and nervous system and before it has passed into the Chronic Stage.
In answering the question: "Where Does Stammering Lead?" nothing truer can be found than the words of a man who has stammered himself:
"What pen can depict the woefulness, the intensified suffering of the inveterate stammerer, confirmed, stereotyped in a malady seemingly worse than death? Are the afflictions, mental and physical, of the pelted, brow-beaten, down-trodden stutterer imaginary? Nonsense! There is not a word of truth in the idea. His sufferings all the time, day in and day out, at home and abroad, are real—intense—purgatorial. And none but those who have drunk the bitter cup to its dregs feel and know its death, death, double death! These afflicted ones die daily and the graves to them seem pleasant and delightful. The sufferings of the deaf and dumb are myths—but a drop in the ocean compared to what I endured! And who cared for me? Who? I wag the laughing stock, a subject of scoffing and ridicule, often. I could fill an octavo with the miseries I endured from early childhood till the elapsement of forty summers."
Thus does the Rev. David F. Newton, himself a stammerer for forty years, speak of stammering and stuttering and its effects. And Charles Kingsley, a noted English divine and author who stammered, paints the stammerer's future in words of experience that no stammerer should ever forget:
"The stammerer's life is a life of misery, growing with his growth and deepening as his knowledge of life and his aspirations deepen. One comfort he has, truly, that his life will not be a long one. Some may smile at this assertion; let them think for themselves. How many old people have they ever heard stammer! I have known but two. One is a very slight ease, the other a very severe one. He, a man of fortune, dragged on a very painful and pitiful existence—nervous, decrepit, asthmatic—kept alive by continual nursing. Had he been a laboring man, he would have died thirty years sooner than he did."
To the man who has never been through the suffering that results from stammering or who has never been privileged to watch the careers of stammerers and stutterers over a period of years, these final results of stammering seem impossible. The inexperienced observer can only ask in wonder: "How can stammering or stuttering bring a man or woman to these depths of despair?"
To the stammerer who has but begun to taste the sorrows of a stammerer's life these effects of stammering appear to be the ultimate result of an UNUSUAL case—never the inevitable result of his own trouble.
Doubtless if Charles Kingsley were with us today, he could look back and tell us of the day when he, too, was sure that stammering was but a trifle. He, too, could point out the tune when he felt that sometime, somehow, his stammering would magically depart and leave him free to talk as others talked. And yet, having gone down the road through a long life of usefulness, Kingsley's is the voice of a mature experience which says to every stammerer: "Beware—there are pitfalls ahead!" And this man is right.
RESULTS OF STAMMERING: Experience proves that the results of continued stammering or stuttering are definite and positive, and that they are inevitable. Stammering is known to be at the root of many troubles. It causes nervousness, self-consciousness and sometimes brings about a mental condition bordering on complete mental breakdown. It causes mental sluggishness, dissipates the power-of-concentration, weakens the power of will, destroys ambition and stands between the sufferer and an education.
There is no affliction more annoying or embarrassing to its victim than stammering. No matter how bright the intellect may be, if the tongue is unable easily and quickly to formulate the words expressing thought, the individual is held back in business and is debarred from the pleasures of social and home life.
Stammering is a drawback to children in school. To be unable to recite means failure. It means humiliation. It means disgrace in the eyes of the other pupils. And finally, it means valuable time wasted—not in getting an education—but in suffering untold misery in TRYING to get one—and failing.
A boy fourteen years of age, who has failed to advance in school, and who finds stammering a handicap of serious proportions, tells me:
"I am fourteen years old and only in the fifth grade. I am afraid to recite because of my stuttering, and because of my not reciting when my teachers call on me, I am getting low marks in school and do not know if I will ever get through."
One mother writes:
"My little girl will not go to Sunday School because she does not like the other children to look at her so straight when she stammers."
A boy says:
"I am thirteen years old and in school. I am afraid to recite because of my stuttering; and because of my not reciting I get low average in studies."
Another boy told me:
"I am now in the third year of my high school course. On the first day of the term I went to school, I made such a miserable thing of myself that I quit. The school superintendent and principal saw me when I came back the second day as I was carrying my books out. Of course they stopped me and I made an explanation. I couldn't tell any of the new teachers my name. It was impossible to make any kind of a recitation. I was introduced to all of my teachers and have been STUMBLING ALONG ever since with grades anywhere from 0 to 60."
A SOCIAL DRAWBACK: No stammerer but knows that his malady marks him for the half-suppressed smiles of thoughtless people and the unkind remarks of those who really know nothing of the suffering which these unkind remarks occasion. It is true, but unfortunate, that the stammerer is not wanted in any social gathering, he can provide no entertainment, save at his own expense, and of all people he is most ill at ease when out among others.
A young lady writes:
"Mr. Bogue, I would give one of my eyes to get rid of stammering. That is all I am after. Please excuse this awful writing. I AM SO NERVOUS I CAN HARDLY GET THE PEN INTO THE INK BOTTLE."
Here is a letter from one man:
"I am 36 years old, and have stammered for 28 years. I don't stammer so bad, but just bad enough to spoil my life. I always have to take a back seat in company. I belong to three lodges, but I do not take part in any of them because I am afraid they will ask me to take part in the order. It would make me feel cheap. I have often felt like committing suicide, but I would pull my nerves together and make the best of it again. I am now a janitor at a school."
HOPELESS IN BUSINESS: There is not a young man stammerer in this whole country who would not work night and day to be cured of stammering if he realized the hopelessness of trying to be a success in a business way, handicapped by stammering, unable to talk fluently, clearly and intelligently.
A man says:
"I am 33 years old and single. I have stammered ever since I was a child. It has made me nervous. At my age it is very embarrassing to me to stutter. I kept getting more nervous from year to year, and finally I have had to give up my position. I was a long-hand biller for ten years, but I am now troubled with writer's cramp and unable to do much. I can't get a clerk's job because of my stuttering."
And here is another—a man grown, who too late realized the futility of trying to get an education while yet handicapped by stammering. He said, a while back:
"I must say my stammering has spoiled my life and robbed me of a successful career. I would give much if my parents had sent me to be cured of stammering when a boy, instead of trying as they did to educate me."
STAMMERER APPEARS ILLITERATE: No matter how great the stammerer's knowledge may be, he often appears to be illiterate simply because he is unable to express himself in words. His knowledge is locked up by his infirmity, the same as though he had a steel band drawn over his mouth and fastened with a padlock which he is unable to unlock for want of a proper key. The man with the locked-up knowledge is under as great a handicap as the man without knowledge.
A man who had a chance to be a big success in business, had he not stammered, says:
"Stammering is the cause of all my trouble. My earlier associates have shunned me for several years, and I have sought the worst class of dives and the lowest kind of companions, where I was reasonably certain that I would not come in contact with those with whom I had associated in earlier years. My eyes are wet with tears—tears of remorse and regret—because I see no chance in life for me now."
The stammerer who thinks that success comes to the man who stammers—who believes that the business world is willing to put up with anything less than fluent speech, should read this heart-broken letter from a young man:
"I am a bookkeeper, and dearly love my work, but am afraid that I am going to have to give it up because my speech is getting worse, and I have noticed that the boss has mentioned it to me a couple of times now, and it almost breaks my heart to know that my position is going to get away from me. No one realizes how much one suffers, and I'm afraid I'm going to break down with nervous prostration soon. When one day is over with me, I wonder how I am going to get through with the next one."
What are the results of stammering? Should anyone ask that question, I could point to instances in my own experience that would prove that almost every undesirable condition of human existence may be the result of stammering. I have seen young men who are business failures, dejected, hopeless, drifting along, men who in early years were intellectual giants, and who before their death were mere children in mental power, because they allowed stammering to destroy every valuable faculty they possessed.
I could point to children whom stammering had held back almost from the time they began to talk—give cases of young men depressed, embarrassed, unsuccessful, because they stammer—cite instances of all the worth-while things in life turned from the path of a young woman because she stammered.
Yet in the past, not one of these knew what was coming. Not one realized where the trail was leading. No stammerer can of himself see into the future. But he can, at least, look into the future of others, who, like himself, are stammerers, and avoid the pitfalls into which they have fallen and save himself the mistakes they have made.
It has only been a few years since the impression was abroad that stammering was incurable. Not a particle of hope was held out to the afflicted individual that any semblance of a cure was possible by any method. This erroneous idea that stammering could not be cured grew up in the mind of the average person as a result of one or all of the following conditions:
1st—The inability of the stammerer to cure himself and his further inability to outgrow the trouble, (although he was repeatedly told that he would outgrow it) was the first reason that led to the foolish and totally unfounded belief that stammering could not be cured.
2nd—The principles of speech and the un-normal condition known as stammering have been surrounded with a great deal of mystery in the years gone by. The idea has been widely prevalent that the affliction was one sent by Providence as a punishment for some act committed by the sufferer or his forbears. This and many other ideas bordering upon superstition, are responsible, too, to a great degree for the belief that stammering is incurable.
3rd—Even if an attempt to cure stammering was made, this attempt was based upon the "supposition" that stammering was a physical trouble, due to some defect in the organs of speech. It followed that since no one was ever able to discover any physical defect, no one knew the true cause of the disorder, nor how to treat it successfully.
4th—Unfortunately there have been in the field a number of irresponsible charlatans, preying upon the stammerer with claims to cure, while in fact they knew little or nothing of the disorder, had never stammered themselves, nor had the slightest knowledge of the correct methods of procedure in the core of stammering. The failure of such as these to do any good led to a widespread belief that there was no successful method for the eradication of speech disorders.
From an experience covering more than twenty-eight years, during which time the author has corresponded with 210,000 persons who stammer and has personally met and diagnosed about 22,000 cases, it has been proved that all of these beliefs are fallacies of the worst character. Given any person who stutters or stammers and who has no organic defect and is as intelligent as the average child of eight years, it has been found that the Unit Method of Restoring Speech will eradicate the trouble at its source and by removing the cause, entirely remove the defective utterance.
THE STAMMERER'S CASE NOT HOPELESS: Stammerers should fix this fact firmly in mind: Stammering can be cured! There is hope, positive, definite hope for every case—this fact is based on every imaginable form of stuttering or stammering. It is not, in other words, a mere idle statement based on theory or guess-work, but a mathematical truth, taken from experience.
I recall very well the case of a man of 32 who came to me for help after five of the so-called schools for stammerers had failed to afford him any relief. Quite naturally this man was a confirmed skeptic. He did not believe that there was any cure for him. Anyone who had been through the trials that he had experienced would have felt the same way. But he placed himself under treatment, nevertheless, and in a few weeks' time, the Unit Method had restored him to perfect speech. He left entirely convinced that stammering could be cured, because it had been done in his own case which had so long seemed beyond all hope.
Many years afterward, he wrote a letter which I take the liberty of reproducing here for the encouragement and inspiration of everyone who is similarly afflicted and who feels as this man felt—that he is incurable:
"I tried to be cured of stammering at five different times by five different men at a total cost of more than one thousand dollars. None of them cured me. Then I decided to try the Unit Method. Nine years ago I did so—a decision that I have never regretted. It was evident that this method was based on a comprehensive knowledge of the art of speech. I am now a piano salesman and talk by the hour all day long; talk over the telephone perfectly; and many tell me that I speak more distinctly than the majority of people who have never stammered. I believe this is because I was taught through the Unit Method the very fundamentals of speech."
This man's case is typical of the hundreds of failures-to-cure which are responsible for the belief that stammering cannot be cured. The fact that he had made five separate attempts to be cured would, in the mind of the average man, establish the fact that stammering cannot be cured and yet it is seen that even in this extreme case, under the application of the proper scientific methods, the stammerer found freedom of speech without unusual difficulty and in a comparatively short time.
Not infrequently from some source will be heard a story, many times retold, to the effect that "So-and-so" who stammered for many years has been cured—that the trouble has magically disappeared and that he stammers no longer.
What is the cause of this? What brings about such a miraculous cure?
The answer depends upon the case. Usually, the story is much more a story than a fact. Few indeed have been the stammerers who have ever actually heard the man stammer before "his trouble cured itself" and then heard him talk perfectly afterwards. Like the stories of haunted houses, there is nothing to substantiate the truth of the statement, there is no evidence by which the story may be checked up.
In the rare cases where the facts would seem to indicate the truth of the statement, it will be found that the person in question never really stammered—that his trouble was something else—lalling, lisping, or some defect of speech that was mistaken for stammering or stuttering.
Another case of apparent miraculous cure is the case of the stammerer who, finding himself unable to say words beginning with certain letters, begins the practice of substituting easy sounds for those that are difficult and thus, provided he has only a slight case, leads many to believe that he talks almost perfectly. This fellow is known as the "Synonym Stammerer" and is usually a quick thinker and a ready "substituter-of-words." If he has stammered noticeably for some time until those in his vicinity have become acquainted with his affliction, and then discovers the plan of substituting easy sounds for hard ones, he may for a time conceal his impediment and lead certain of his friends to believe that he no longer stammers.
This "Synonym Stammerer" is storing up endless trouble for himself, however, for the mental strain of trying to remember and speak synonyms of hard words entails such a great drain upon his mind as to make it almost impossible to maintain the practice for any great length of tune. In this connection, let every stammerer be warned to avoid this practice of substitution of words. It is a seeming way out of difficulty sometimes, but you will find that you are only making your malady worse and laying up difficulties for yourself in the future.
In an experience in meeting stammerers and in curing stammering it is only natural to assume that I have come across certain cases which could not be cured. It is only natural, too, to expect that in such a wide experience it would be possible to determine what cases are incurable and why.
Cases of incurable speech impediments may be divided into seven classes:
(1)—Those with organic defects;(2)—Those with diseased condition of the brain;(3)—Those who have postponed treatment until their malady has progressed so far into the chronic stage as to make treatment valueless;(4)—Those who refuse to obey instructions;(5)—Those who persist in dissipation, regardless of effects;(6)—Those of below normal intelligence;(7)—Those who will not make the effort to be cured.
Stutterers and stammerers whose trouble arises from an organic defect are so few as to be almost an exception, but where those cases exist, they must be regarded as incurable. The re-educational process used in the successful method of curing stuttering and stammering will not replace a defective organ of the body with a new one. It will not cure harelip or cleft palate, nor will it loosen the tongue of the child who has been hopelessly tongue-tied from birth.
A boy was brought to me some years ago by his parents in the hope that his speech trouble might be eradicated, but it was found upon examination that he had always been tongue-tied and that the deformity would not permit of the normal, natural movements of the tongue necessary to proper speaking. I immediately told the parents the unfortunate condition of their son and frankly stated that in his condition there was no possibility of my being able to help him.
DISEASED BRAIN: Taking up the second class—those who have a diseased condition of the brain—these cases, too, are very rare. I have met but a comparatively few. Where a lesion of the brain has occurred, and a distinct change has thus been brought about in the physical structure of that organ, an attempt to bring about a cure would be a waste of time—hopeless from the start.
THE PROCRASTINATORS: The third type of incurable cases is that of the stammerer or stutterer who, against all advice and experience, has persisted in the belief that his trouble would be outgrown and who has by this means allowed the disorder to progress so far into the chronic stage as to make treatment entirely without effect.
This type of incurable is very numerous. They usually start in childhood with a case of simple stuttering which, if treated then, could be eradicated quickly and easily. From this stage they usually pass into the trouble of a compound nature, known as combined stammering and stuttering. Here, also, their malady would yield readily to proper methods of treatment, but instead of giving it the attention so badly needed, they allow it to pass into a severe case of Spasmodic Stammering, and from this into the most chronic stage of that trouble. The malady becomes rooted in the muscular system. The nervous strain and continued fear tear down all semblance of mental control and in time the sufferer is in a condition that is hopeless indeed, a condition where he is subject for the pity and the sympathy of every one who stammers, and yet a condition brought on purely by his own neglect and wilfulness.
I recall the case of a father who brought his boy of 16 to see me some years ago. At that time, the boy represented one of the worst cases of stammering I ever saw. He could scarcely speak at all. He made awful contortions of the face and body when attempting to speak. When he succeeded in uttering sounds, these resembled the deep bark of a dog. These sounds were totally unintelligible, save upon rare occasions, when he would be able to speak clearly enough to make himself understood. I gave the boy the most searching personal diagnosis and very carefully inspected his condition both mental and physical, after which I was convinced that he could be cured, with time and persistent work. The father was given the result of my findings and told of the boy's condition. He decided to take the boy home, talk the matter over and place him under my care the next week. Ten days later he wrote me saying that the boy had secured a job in a garage at $6 a week and could not think about being cured of stammering at that time.
Two and a half years later—the boy was nearing twenty—I saw him again, and even after all my experience in meeting stammerers, could hardly believe that stammering could bring about such a terrible condition as this boy was in at that time. His mental faculties were entirely shattered. His concentration was gone. This poor boy was merely a blubbering, stumbling idiot, a sight to move the stoutest heart, a living example of the result of carelessness and parental neglect. Needless to say, I would not consider his treatment in such a condition. There was no longer any foundation to build on—no longer the slightest chance for benefiting the boy in the least.
THE WILFULLY DISOBEDIENT CASES: Taking up the fourth class of incurables, those who refuse to obey instructions—I can only say that such as these are not deserving of a cure. They are not sincere, they are not willing to hold themselves to the simplest program no matter how great might be the resultant good. They spend their own money or the money of their parents foolishly, get no results and disgust the instructor who spends his or her efforts in trying to bring about a cure, against obstacles that no one can overcome, viz.: unwillingness to do as told. The old saying that "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" applies most forcefully to the case of the wilfully disobedient stammerer. You can instruct this individual in the methods to bring about a cure, but you can't make him follow them.
I well remember one case in point. A young man of 20 years came to me apparently with every desire in the world to be cured of stammering. The first day he followed instructions with great care, seemed to take a wonderful interest in his work and at the end of the day expressed to me his pleasure in finding himself improved even with one day's work. By the third day, the novelty had worn off and his "smart-aleck" tendencies began to come to the surface. He was impertinent. He was impudent. He was rude. He failed to come to his work promptly in the morning, was late at meals, stayed out at night beyond the time limit set by the dormitory rules and persisted in doing everything in an irregular and wilfully disobedient manner.
I was not inclined to dismiss him because of his misconduct, because it was evident that here was a boy of more than ordinary native intelligence, a fine-looking chap with untold opportunities ahead of him, if he were cured of stammering. So I put up with his misdeeds for many days, until one morning I decided that either he must come to time or return to his home—and he elected to take the latter course.
In looking up this boy's record later on, it was found that he was incorrigible, that his parents had never been successful in controlling him at any time and that he had been expelled from school twice.
There is no need for me to say that this boy was afflicted with something even worse than stammering—something that science was not able to help—i. e., a lack of sense. His case was incurable, just as much so as if an inch of his tongue had been sheared off. With such stammerers as this I have neither patience nor sympathy. They have no respect or consideration for others and are consequently entitled to none themselves.
THE CHRONIC DISSIPATOR: The fifth type of incurable might be called the "chronic dissipator" and his stammering is hopelessly incurable just as far as his habits are incurable. The person who persists in undermining his mental and physical being with dissipation and who, when he knows the results of his doings, will not cease, cannot hope to be cured of stammering. Cases such as these I do not attempt to treat. They are neither wanted nor accepted.
I recall the case of a man of 32, a big, stalwart fellow, who came to me about two years ago with a very severe case of combined stammering and stuttering. He made his plans to place himself under my care but before getting back, fell a victim to his inordinate appetite for drink and was laid up for a week. His wife wrote me the circumstances, told me it had been going on for nine years and that all efforts to eradicate the appetite had failed. I immediately advised her that I considered his case incurable and could not accept him for treatment. In such cases, a cure is built upon too shallow and uncertain a foundation to offer any hope of being permanent.
BELOW NORMAL INTELLIGENCE: There is another incurable case which must be included if we are to complete this list of the incurable forms of speech impediments. That is the case of the stammerer who is of below normal intelligence. These cases are very rare and I do not recall but four instances where a case has been diagnosed as incurable on account of the lack of intelligence. This is a direct refutation of the statement that stammerers are naturally below normal in mental ability. Out of more than twenty-six years' experience in meeting stammerers by the thousands, I can say most emphatically that stammerers as a class ARE NOT NATURALLY BELOW NORMAL INTELLIGENCE OR MENTAL POWER, SAVE AS THEIR TROUBLE MAY HAVE AFFECTED THEIR CONCENTRATION OR WILL-POWER.
THE LACKADAISICAL: The last and largest class of incurable cases of stammering are those who will not make the effort to be cured. These are the spineless, the unsure, the cowards, who are afraid to try anything for fear it will not be successful.
They are usually afflicted with a malady worse than stammering or stuttering—"indecision"—a malady for which science has found no remedy. Knowing the dire results of continued stammering, still they stammer. Reason fails to move them to the necessary effort. Common sense makes no appeal. Well, indeed, in such cases, may we paraphrase the words of Dr. Russell H. Conwell and say:
"There is nothing in the world that can prevent you from being cured of stammering but YOURSELF. Neither heredity, environment or any of the obstacles superimposed by man can keep you from marching straight through to a cure if you are guided by a firm, driving determination and have health and normal intelligence."
These seven classes of incurable cases complete the list. And the number of such cases, all taken together, is so small as to be almost out of consideration. For, out of a thousand cases of stuttering and stammering examined, I find but 2 per cent. with organic defects or of an incurable nature. In other words, 98 per cent. can be completely and permanently cured.