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 p.r.o.nounced susceptibility to the malady as well as the time during which it may most quickly pa.s.s 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, embarra.s.sment 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 pa.s.s 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 pa.s.sed 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 a.s.sistance 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 inst.i.tution 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 pa.s.sed into the Chronic Stage.
CHAPTER XIII
WHERE DOES STAMMERING LEAD?
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 elaps.e.m.e.nt 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 a.s.sertion; 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 embarra.s.sing 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 princ.i.p.al 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 embarra.s.sing 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 a.s.sociates have shunned me for several years, and I have sought the worst cla.s.s 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 a.s.sociated 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, embarra.s.sed, 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.