Stammering, Its Cause and Cure Part 13

Even THIS physical improvement is not unusual.

Another man reports the change brought about in his condition as follows:

"Just about two years ago I was one of the worst stammerers I know that ever was; it was simply awful. I could not speak a word without the most terrible stammering you ever heard. My parents were heartbroken over my condition, which grew worse all the time. I did not grow and develop like my brothers. My shoulders were stooped, my chest sunken--in fact, I was in a terrible condition. After staying with you for six weeks I came home and every one who knew me when I left was simply astonished at the improvement, not in my speech alone, but in my physical condition also. Am stronger and well now and I say it is a comfort to be able to talk like other boys."

This case is not an unusual one, however, for it is frequently found that the stammering child grows into a physically deficient man as a result of his speech impediment.

Concomitant with these physical betterments comes a changed mental att.i.tude, whereby the former pessimistic outlook has been changed to an optimistic view of life. The former abnormal timidity of the student has been replaced by a perfect confidence; the old unreasoning fear-of-failure is transformed into a feeling of supreme self-reliance; and the depressed, care-worn expression which may once have marked the stammerer's countenance has given place to that of cheerfulness.

The weak and vacillating will now manifests itself as a dominant, masterful power-of-will and the stagnant mentality of the stammerer has now given place to a vigorous, forceful, creative mental power. The mind-wandering or lack of ability to concentrate is gone and in its place is an intense and well controlled power-of-concentration. In addition to this, the nervousness which marked the every movement of the stammerer has disappeared and the self-consciousness which made life a misery is replaced by a calm self-control, resulting in an entire self-forgetfulness, perfect poise and a feeling of self-possession.

These benefits accrue gradually as the course progresses, but when, upon the completion of the course, perfect speech is finally restored, the results are fully evident and entirely permanent. Their permanency is the crowning result of the proper methods--methods which eradicate the trouble at its source--treat and remove the cause instead of treating the effect.

CHAPTER VIII

SOME CASES I HAVE MET

During the last twenty-eight years, I have personally met more than 22,000 stammerers, diagnosed 97,000 cases by mail and corresponded with more than 210,000 people who stammer or stutter. In this time, it is only natural that I should have come in contact with almost every conceivable type of stammering in practically every form.

I am going to describe a few of these cases in this chapter, give their history and description very briefly, follow out the course of the trouble when unchecked and indicate the circ.u.mstances of cure when the stammerer has placed himself for treatment.

I shall make no attempt to discuss all types of speech disorders nor even all of the forms of any one type, but rather to take up those cases which can be regarded as most common and which are typical of the disorders of the largest number of stammerers and stutterers. Since a whole volume could easily be filled with descriptions of cases, it is evident that those discussed here must be but briefly described.

(The case numbers in the following pages refer to specific cases, but not to the order of their treatment, since the cla.s.sification is a decimal system used to indicate type, duration, stage, etc.)

Case No. 65.435--This was a boy of 8, brought to me by his mother after he had experienced untold trouble in school. The boy complained of a pain in his head when making an effort to talk or after having spoken under the strain for some minutes. I found the spasmodic contractions accompanying his trouble to be very p.r.o.nounced for a boy so young in years and upon making the examination, was not surprised to find his to be a case of Combined Stammering and Stuttering. There was no indication of Thought-Lapse, but there was a condition that could easily have been mistaken for it--viz.: a woeful lack of confidence in his own ability to speak, which in this boy's case was due to the fact that he had stuttered almost since his first word and had rarely spoken words correctly. As has been previously explained, every child learns to speak by imitation and his confidence in his speaking-ability must be gained by constant rea.s.surance from some source that he is speaking correctly. Early in life this boy had found that he was NOT speaking correctly and at that moment began to feel the lack of confidence which had been growing upon him daily. Although in the midst of his school work, arrangements were easily made to remove him from cla.s.s and place him for treatment. Notwithstanding the fact that his trouble was unusually severe for a boy of that age, seven weeks at the Inst.i.tute saw him made into a new boy, his confidence regained, his speech under perfect control and his physical condition greatly improved. He returned to school, where his unusual proficiency enlisted the aid and co-operation of his teachers to such an extent that he was able to finish the semester with his cla.s.s.

Case No. 7.232--This was another boy of early school age, whose case is described here because of the contrast of the one just mentioned. The present case was that of a boy soon to be 10 years old. He had stammered, not since his first word, but only since he had been allowed to play with two children, twins, who lived in the neighborhood, and both of whom had stuttered since their first attempts to speak. While I never examined the twins, it seems from what I learned of them, that the predisposition to stammer was an inherited one, both the father and grandfather having been inveterate stammerers. Be that as it may, their defective enunciation, practiced in the presence of the boy whose case I am describing, caused the boy himself to acquire a habit of imperfect enunciation which took the form of simple stuttering and which all the home efforts of his mother and father had failed to eradicate. At the time he was brought to me, I gave him the usual examination, traced his trouble back to its original cause--Unconscious Imitation diagnosed his case as one of Simple Stuttering and recommended the procedure to be followed. This boy left my care after three weeks and experienced no further difficulty to this day, although he is now 24 years old and engaged in work that necessitates his making impromptu speeches almost every day. Here was a case of Simple Stuttering, taken at the right time, which yielded almost magically to the treatment, but had it been allowed to run on, would have progressed into the Advanced Stage of Stuttering and later, in all probability, into an extremely severe case of Combined Stammering and Stuttering.

Case No. 986.523--This was the case of a Polish boy who found it almost impossible to begin a word or a sentence. In describing his case to me, he finally managed to say, "Before I utter a word it takes me a long time and after I utter the word, I become red in the face and so excited that I don't know where I am, or what I am doing!" I found this boy to be extremely high-strung and of a nervous temperament, easily excited. He was of an emotional type, was more-than-ordinarily sensitive about his trouble and brooded over it constantly, having long fits of deep melancholia that were a constant source of worry to his parents. He was furthermore at a critical age, from the standpoint of his speech development, just approaching 16. Although naturally of an agreeable disposition, his trouble had made him irritable and often sullen. He wore an air of dejection almost constantly. It was evident to me immediately upon examination that his trouble had had a grave effect upon his mind and that it would in time (and not so long a time, either) have a deep and permanent effect that no amount of effort could eradicate.

It would be naturally expected that his symptoms would indicate Thought-Stammering, but this is not true. Instead I found his to be a bad case of Spasmodic Stammering, in which the convulsive action took place immediately upon an effort to speak and which resulted, therefore, in the inability to express a sound--the "sticking" tendency so common to stammering and particularly to this type.

While the worry over his stammering had left him in a mental state that made him impotent so far as normal mental accomplishments were concerned, still the removal of his stammering by the eradication of the cause would, I felt, entirely relieve the condition of mental flurry and stop the nervousness.

The case was so urgent that the boy's parents decided to place him for treatment immediately. The results were so gratifying as to be almost unbelievable. By the end of the first day's work, the boy's whole mental att.i.tude was changed. His outlook on life was different. He felt the thrill of conquering his difficulty and before many days, he was working like a Trojan to make his cure complete and permanent. At my suggestion, he remained with me for seven weeks, at the end of which time he went back East, entirely changed in every particular. He was smiling now, where before he seemed to have forgotten how to smile. He was full of life, enthusiasm and ambition--no one who had seen him the day he first came here, could realize that this was the same boy that entered a few weeks before with the desire-to-live almost extinct.

There are hundreds of cases riot far different from this--I have cited the case of this Polish boy to show what a complete transformation is made in the mental state by a few weeks' work along the right lines.

Case No. 87.522--Here was a case of a type that is very, very common.

It was that of a girl, 17 years of age, from a good family, well-educated and having all the marks of careful training in a home of refinement. The most marked characteristic of her case was the tendency to recur. In other words, she was an Intermittent Stammerer, who had believed (as had her parents) that the tendency to get better was an indication that she would soon outgrow the trouble. "If Marie still stammers by the time she is 18--" this had come to be almost a household word, for if she stammered at that time, it was the intention of her parents (so they said) to have the girl placed under treatment.

As was to be expected, she continued to stammer and continued to get steadily worse, although the tendency to be better and worse by turns was maintained throughout the years. The periods of improvement were eagerly seized by her parents, year after year, as indications of out-growing, while the periods of relapse were seldom spoken of and usually ignored. It was another case of the old saying that: "We like to think that the thing will happen which we want to happen," and since they wanted the daughter to outgrow her trouble, they insisted in believing, despite their own unexpressed fears, that the daughter would "eventually get over it!"

She did not get over it, however, and the critical age of 16 brought on a condition so severe that her parents became alarmed about her and sought advice as to what should be done.

An examination of her case brought out the fact that she had probably inherited a predisposition to stammer, but that the immediate cause of the trouble had been fright, caused by a nurse who had tried to discipline the girl when small, by telling her that the "bogey-man"

would get her if she didn't do certain things as told. This disciplining by means of fear is never a safe procedure and in this case had been carried to extremes on many occasions, finally resulting in the child becoming a stammerer.

She had a case of Genuine Stammering in its second stage and, according to her own statement at the time the examination was made, had become much worse in the last two years. At age 15 it seems that everyone felt secure in the belief that her trouble would pa.s.s away, but at age 17, the condition became critical, the disorder having previously pa.s.sed into the second stage.

Two and a half weeks worked a wonderful improvement in the girl's condition, at the end of which time she was compelled to return to her home on account of a death in the family. She remained at home for almost a month, after which she returned to me to complete the cure.

Even under such an unusual and unfavorable circ.u.mstance as this, she remained with me the last time only four weeks, and has, according to her report, never stammered since, nor has she been oppressed by the overpowering sense of fear that formerly seized her when she thought of trying to talk.

Case No. 84.563--This case first came to my attention over ten years ago, when I was called upon to make a diagnosis. This showed the trouble to be a case of Combined Stammering and Stuttering, originally caused, it seemed, from having a.s.sociated with an old man who was janitor in a wood-working plant belonging to the father of the boy whose case I am describing. The janitor had stammered ever since anyone about the place had known him and probably all of his life. In his early days, with his youth to carry him on, he had tried to hold down several jobs of consequence, but with varying success, dropping down the ladder rung by rung until he reached the place of janitor. The boy in question, having a.s.sociated with the old man, early acquired the habit of mocking his defective speech, with the result that he himself soon began to stutter, which later turned into a combined form of disorder known as Combined Stammering and Stuttering.

He came to me at the time he was 28, having found it necessary to go to work on his own account, upon the failure of his father's business. I explained to him that his was a case of Combined Stammering and Stuttering, outlined to him the probable course of his trouble and what he might reasonably expect if he allowed it to continue. Having been married only a short time and being rather reluctant to leave home for the length of time necessary to take the course, he decided to postpone treatment until some later date. I heard nothing more from him for almost three years, when he walked in one day, looking like a shadow of his former self. There were dark rings around his eyes, his gaze was s.h.i.+fty and I could hardly believe that this was the young fellow who had seen me three years ago. Nevertheless it was the same man, with a story that pointed out the danger of postponement. His trouble had become steadily worse, he said, until it had ruined his control over himself. He had become nervous, irritable and cross, without meaning to be so, had lost one good position after another and finally, as a climax to a long string of misfortunes, his wife had left him, declaring that she would not put up with him in such a condition.

A second examination revealed the fact that his stammering had progressed so rapidly since he had last talked with me, that it was now perilously near the stage known as Thought Lapse. His control was not entirely shattered, however, and he was accepted for treatment. It was something over two months before he was back in shape again, but those two months did a wonderful thing for him, for it put him in first-cla.s.s physical condition, removed all traces of his impediment and restored the mental equilibrium which had been so long endangered. Later, as a result of his restoration to perfect speech, his family differences were adjusted, and at the last reports, he was making splendid headway in a business of his own. Such is the power of stammering to destroy--even home and happiness itself--and such the power of perfect speech to build up again.

Case No. 465.722--This was the case of a man born in Ireland, who came to this country as a boy, and the original cause of whose trouble was a blow over the head in a street fight soon after landing in America.

When he came to me, he was 52 years of age and not only had one of the most severe cases of Spasmodic Stammering I have ever seen, but was in the first stages of Thought Lapse. He was practically speechless all of the time and his trouble instead of manifesting an Intermittent Tendency as it had formerly done, was now constant, indicating that he was in the chronic stage of his difficulty. Aside from his Spasmodic Stammering, he seemed unable to think of the things which he wished to say. In other words, his trouble had been affecting him so long that he had lost the power to recall and control the mental images necessary to the formation of words.

I not only gave him the usual examination but applied the special Bogue test, both of which convinced me that his case was far into the incurable stage. There was little or nothing I could do for him at that late date and so I told him. He acted as if dazed for a few moments, and when the full force of the truth dawned upon him, it was as if a cord had snapped and broken. Hope was gone. He was an incurable--and knew it now, only too well. And as he turned and left me, I knew from the droop of the shoulders and the hang of the head, that life meant but little to him now. He was merely waiting--waiting for the last page to be written and his book of despair to be closed.

Case No. 34.444--This young woman was very talented, had a beautiful singing voice and could not understand why she was unable to speak fluently when she could sing so well. The cause of her trouble was distinctly mental and did not lie in any defective formation of the vocal organs but rather in a lack of co-ordination between the brain and the muscles of speech. In her case, the speech disorder had not materially affected her health, although she admitted it had impaired her power of will and her ability to concentrate. Six weeks put her in good condition and gave her the opportunity to use her beautiful voice to excellent advantage in speaking as well as in singing--much to her satisfaction.

Case No. 667.788--This man came to me for a.s.sistance and relief from a severe case of Combined Stammering and Stuttering. He shook like a leaf when he talked, was very nervous, and could hardly sit still. His speech was marked by loose and hurried repet.i.tions of syllables and words, alternating with a slow and seemingly dazed repet.i.tion of words, as though he did not know what he was saying.

In a few moments, I learned that he was a habitual alcoholic, that he was acquainted with the Delirium Tremens and that he frequently went upon sprees lasting a week, which left him a physical wreck. He had no backbone, there was no foundation to build on and his case was declined as incurable, not altogether from the condition of his speech, but because it is useless and hopeless to attempt treatment of the stammerer who is also a chronic dissipator.

Case No. 34.343--This was the case of a young man who came to me at the age of 17. He was one of the type that "seldom stammer." He explained this to me and told me that many of his friends were not aware of the fact that he stammered.

I gave him an examination and found his trouble to be a case of Combined Stammering and Stuttering in the second stage. He was of the Intermittent Type and at intervals his trouble became very bad, at which times he made it a point not to go out among his friends--one of the reasons which made it possible for him to say that his friends did not know of his speech trouble.

This young man came to me hoping that I would tell him that his trouble was not severe and that he would outgrow it in a few years. I was able to tell him that at the time his case was not an extremely bad one, but I knew that instead of being outgrown it would become ingrown, and I so told him.

But he decided to postpone action until some later date, feeling sure, despite what I had told him, that he would outgrow his stammering.

Four and a half years later, he came back. This time he did not say that his friends knew nothing of his trouble. He was in bad condition, his "seldom stammering," as he had called it, was chronic now and the painful expression on his face when he tried to talk was ample proof of the condition in which he had allowed himself to get. His trouble had pa.s.sed into Genuine Stammering and was of a very severe nature. There was no thought of postponement in his mind at this time and he placed himself for treatment immediately. Eight weeks' time saw his work completed, with excellent results. His fear was gone, his confidence renewed and his health greatly improved, in addition to being able to talk fluently.

Case No. 66.788--Here was the case of a man of 30, a preacher, who found no difficulty in preaching to his congregation, from the pulpit, but whose trouble immediately got the best of him the moment he went down into the church and attempted to carry on a conversation individually. This became so embarra.s.sing to him that he finally gave up the idea of pa.s.sing through his congregation, but satisfied himself with standing at the door and greeting them as they pa.s.sed out. This, too, he was later compelled to give up on account of his speech, although during none of this time did he have the slightest trouble in delivering his sermons.

His was a case of Genuine Stammering. The mental control when he was in the pulpit was almost normal. Talking to individuals, this control was quickly shattered. He placed himself for treatment after having secured a brother-pastor to fill his place for two months. He was a good student, obedient to instruction, concentrating on his work with a creditable energy. As a result, in five weeks' time, he found himself able to talk to anybody under any condition without the slightest sticking or fear. He could talk over the telephone and was master of himself under the cross-fire of conversation which in his previous state had bothered him so seriously.

Case No. 48.336--This is a case that represents a very common type of Combined Stammering and Stuttering, and a type that is not so quickly cured as might be imagined. This was a young man of 18, who not only stammered but stuttered. His speech disorder, however, was further complicated by a bad habit of prefixing a totally foreign word or sound to the word or sound which he found it difficult to p.r.o.nounce. "B" was one of his hard sounds and in speaking the sentence: "We expect to leave Baltimore," he would say: "We expect to leave ah--ah--ah--Baltimore."

The fear of failure which caused him to acquire this habit of speaking, led his friends often to think that his mind wandered, although as a matter of fact, he was a very bright young fellow, without a single indication of Thought Lapse.

I diagnosed his case as Combined Stammering and Stuttering, and explained to him that he represented a type of stammering that might be called the "Prefix Stammerer" because of their habit of prefixing every hard sound with an easy word or an easy sound, even to the extent of losing the sense of the sentence--so great is the "Prefix Stammerer's"

fear of failure.

He placed himself for treatment, and although his trouble was complicated by this prefixing habit, seven weeks put him in good shape.

He forgot his fear of failure, found every word an easy word and every sound an easy sound. He learned to talk fluently again and returned to his home, both physically and mentally improved.