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 ent.i.tled 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 appet.i.te for drink and was laid up for a week. His wife wrote me the circ.u.mstances, told me it had been going on for nine years and that all efforts to eradicate the appet.i.te 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.ses 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.
CHAPTER IV
CAN STAMMERING BE CURED BY MAIL?
In the years past there have been attempts from time to time to induce the stammerer to seek a cure for his impediment in mail order treatments. As has already been told, I was the victim of one of these so-called "correspondence-cures" and know something about them from personal experience.
In the first place, the sufferer usually takes up with the mail order specialist because this man retails his "profound" knowledge at a low rate, a rate so low that even a single thought on the subject would convince anyone that his money was buying a few sheets of paper but no professional knowledge or experience.
The very best correspondence course I have ever known anything about was not as good as a number of books on elocution that are available in any good library. Usually these courses are written by some charlatan who is in business as a mail-order-man selling trinkets and stammering cures or running a general correspondence school, teaching not only how to cure stammering by correspondence but giving courses in "Hair-Waving" and "How to Become a Detective." It is needless for me to say that such as these are in the business, not for the good of the stammerer nor even for the purpose of helping him, but simply for the money that can be extracted from the stammerer or stutterer.
THE DIFFERENCE: There are two main differences, however, between the books which the stammerer may read without cost and the correspondence course for which he pays out his good money--many dollars of it. The correspondence course has been written by a man who knew little or nothing of the subject, and who put out a course for stammerers only because he knew something of the number of stammerers in his territory and said to himself, "My, but I ought to be able to sell them a mail-order cure." Forthwith he sits down and writes a course--it isn"t necessary to have anything in it at all. Often these men do not even take the trouble to consult reliable books on the subject. They do not profess to know anything about stammering or stuttering, their cause or their cure. They simply sit down and write--and when they have it written, they send it to the printer, have it printed and then split these printed sheets up into ten, or twenty, or fifty, or a hundred lessons--whatever their fancy may dictate, and begin to sell them. They have no thought of the results--results to them mean nothing save the number of courses that can be sold--and whether or not a single iota of good accrues to the stammerer from this expenditure of money is one of the things in which the correspondence school stammering specialist is not at all interested.
The most that can be expected from the very best mail course for the cure of stammering is that the subscriber will receive information worth as much as that which might be in a library book. He receives this in installments and for privilege of reading it piece-meal, pays from $50 to $100.
It is hopeless to try to cure stammering or stuttering by any method unless the instructor knows his business. And this knowledge comes not by chance but by long, hard study.
MAIL CURES A FAILURE: No stammerer should attempt to be cured by any correspondence method. When the decision has been made to have a speech defect removed, the sufferer should place himself under the care of a reputable inst.i.tution, the past record of which ent.i.tles it to consideration. Correspondence cures are a waste of money, a waste of time and finally leave the stammerer with the firm-founded belief that his trouble is absolutely incurable, when, as a matter of fact, he may have a comparatively simple form of stuttering or stammering which could be quickly eradicated by the proper inst.i.tutional treatment.
At no time should the stammerer resort to the use of any mechanical contrivance to aid him in speaking correctly. The cause of the trouble as previously explained, is inco-ordination. Mechanical contrivances to hold the tongue in a certain position, elevate the palate or for any other purpose may be positively harmful and should be strictly avoided--ALWAYS.
CHAPTER V
THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPERT DIAGNOSIS
A diagnosis is an examination or a.n.a.lysis to determine the ident.i.ty of a disease and to reveal its cause and characteristics. A reputable medical man will not undertake the treatment of any malady without having first made a searching examination and a thorough diagnosis of the trouble.
In the case of the stammerer or stutterer, expert diagnosis is very important and should be undertaken only by a diagnostician who has had previous training and experience of sufficient duration to enable him to be cla.s.sed as an expert on the subject. No stammerer or stutterer, however, should overlook the value of such diagnosis, for the reason that there are so many forms of speech disorders that it is totally impossible as well as unsafe for the sufferer himself to try to determine the exact nature of his trouble.
I recall the case of a certain young man who had depended upon his own knowledge to determine the ident.i.ty of his speech defect and the nature of his trouble. When a boy, he had swallowed a small program pencil with a metal tip, injuring his vocal cords, so he said, and causing him to become a stammerer. An examination of his condition and a careful diagnosis of his case revealed the fact that his vocal organs were as normal as those of any person who had never stammered. The diagnosis also revealed the fact that his stammering was not originally caused by any organic defect or any injury to the vocal organs, but that, on the other hand, he had, in the first place, inherited a predisposition to stammer, his father and his grandfather both having been stammerers whose trouble had never been remedied. The diagnosis showed that the onset of the trouble immediately after swallowing the pencil was due chiefly to the nervous shock and fright caused by the accident, which, in conjunction, with the inherited predisposition toward stammering, was too much for the boy"s mental control and he immediately developed into a stammerer. The young man had believed for many years that his defective utterance was totally incurable, that it was due to an organic defect which could not be remedied. The diagnosis quickly revealed, however, that a very different condition was responsible for his trouble and as a consequence, he found himself able to be cured where, without expert diagnosis, he had resigned himself to a life as a stammerer.
Another case which also shows the stammerer"s inability to diagnose his own trouble accurately was that of a woman who persistently refused to allow her son to have his case diagnosed, because of her belief that he was incurable and that the diagnosis would be a waste of time and money.
After months of coaxing, however, he succeeded in getting her to consent and I gave him a thorough diagnosis and report on his condition. This mother had been unduly alarmed--the boy was still in a curable stage and in fact completed the necessary work in much less than the usual time. This is but another case that shows the loss which comes from not knowing the truth.
Written Report of Diagnosis Valuable: It is well to get a personal diagnosis of the case where possible, but if this cannot be done, a written history of the case, together with a statement of the symptoms and present condition, should enable the expert diagnostician of speech defects to make a thorough and reliable diagnosis of the trouble.
This diagnosis, to be of the most value to the stammerer or stutterer, should be made up in the form of a written report, so that the information may be in permanent form and so that the sufferer can study his own case in all its angles.
WHAT DIAGNOSIS SHOULD SHOW: First of all, of course, the diagnosis should identify and label your trouble. It should tell what form of speech defect is revealed by the symptoms; it should tell the cause of the trouble; the stage it is now in; should indicate whether or not there is any organic defect; should give information as to the possibilities of outgrowing the trouble; and, most important of all, should state whether or not the disorder is in a curable stage.
When it is remembered that nearly a dozen more or less common speech disorders can be named, almost in one breath, and that some of these disorders may pa.s.s through four or five successive stages, it will be seen that an expert diagnosis and report is almost a necessity to the stammerer or stutterer who would have reliable and authoritative information about his speech disorder.
The stammerer or stutterer who voluntarily remains in the dark, who is satisfied with gross ignorance of his trouble, is surely not on the road to freedom of speech.
The most able man cannot decide correctly without the facts. To decide in the absence of information is guesswork--and guesswork is a poor method of deciding what to do--in the case of the stammerer as in every other case.
Therefore, it behooves the stammerer to become enlightened to as great an extent as possible, to banish ignorance of his trouble and replace it with facts and sound knowledge.
CHAPTER VI
THE SECRET OF CURING STUTTERING AND STAMMERING
If the reader has followed this work carefully up to this point, he is now informed on the causes of stuttering and stammering, on their characteristic tendencies and their peculiarities. We are now ready to ask, "What are the correct methods for the cure of stuttering and stammering?" and to answer that question authoritatively.
As to the successful mode of procedure in determining the proper methods for the cure of stuttering and stammering, I know of no suggestion better than that offered by Alexander Melville Bell, who says:
"The rational, as it is experimentally the successful method of procedure, is first to study the standard of correct articulation (NOT the varieties of imperfect utterance) and then not to go from one extreme to another, but at every step to compare the defective with the perfect mode of speech and so infallibly to ascertain the amount, the kind and the source of the error."
We have already done that: We have located the cause of the trouble. We not only know that stammering is caused by a lack of co-ordination between the brain and the muscles of speech, but we know the things which may bring about the lack of co-ordination. Now, how to cure?
Simply remove the cause. Re-establish normal co-ordination between the brain and the muscles of speech. Restore normal brain control over the speech organs. Make these organs respond freely, naturally and promptly to the brain messages.
That sounds simple. But if it is as simple as it sounds, why is it that so many in the past have failed to cure stammering and stuttering? Why have so many so-called methods of cure pa.s.sed into the discard? The answer is, they were based on the wrong foundation. They struck at the effects and not at the cause of the trouble. And as a result, the methods failed.
These so-called methods have aimed at many different effects. One method, for instance, had as its theory that if you could cure the nervousness, the stammering would magically disappear. The unfortunate sufferer was doped with vile-tasting bitters and nerve medicines, so-called, in the hope that his nervous system would respond to treatment. But the nerves could not be quieted and the nervous system built up until the cause of the nervousness--which was stammering--was removed.
There was a time, too, and it has not been so long ago, when the craze was on for using surgery as a cure-all for stammering. Terrible butchery was performed in the name of surgery--the patient"s tongue sometimes being slitted or notched, and other foolish and cruel subterfuges improvised in an effort to cure the stammering. Needless to say, there was no cure found in such methods. There is no chance of curing a mental defect by slitting the tongue and the absurdities of that "butchering period" which have now pa.s.sed away, are numbered among the mistakes of those who committed them.
A lack of thoroughness marked the later attempts to cure stammering.
One method was based, for instance, solely upon correct breathing.