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."