Stammering, its cause and cure

by Benjamin Nathaniel Bogue

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 passed 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 passed 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. There is no doubt that correct breathing is very vital both to the stammerer and the non-stammerer, if they are to speak fluently and well. But breath-control does not even begin to solve the problem of curing stammering. It is but an element, and a small element, in the proper articulation of words. And however well this plan of breath-control might have succeeded, it could never have succeeded in really curing stuttering and stammering.

Most of these ill-advised efforts and half-baked methods sprang up, not as a result of sound knowledge but rather as a result of the lack of it. In fact, looking back at the manner in which the stammerer was treated for stammering under these methods, we can see now that nothing but the most profound ignorance of the fundamental principles underlying the art of speaking could have made it possible for these misguided instructors to pass out as science the jargon and hodge-podge which they did try to pass off as scientific knowledge. The absurdities propounded in the name of stammering cures were too numerous even to enumerate in this volume.

SPEECH PRINCIPLES FUNDAMENTAL: Back of every spoken word, whether that word be French, English, Italian, or any other language, are the unchangeable principles of speech. These principles of speech are fundamental. They do not change basically nor do they vary in the individual. When you speak correctly, you do so as a result of following the correct principles of speech. I speak correctly by the same method as you. And when you speak incorrectly, or when you stutter or stammer, you do so because you have violated one or more of these fundamental principles. Any other person who stammers or stutters as you do, violates the same principles and requires the same method of correction as yourself. The severity of your case depends upon how many of the principles of speech you violate. A diagnosis will determine this—and therefore what is necessary to be done to bring about perfect speech. The number of speech violations to be corrected will also determine to a certain extent the time required for correction.

SPEECH DEFINED: Speech, in all the diversities of tongues and dialects, consists of but a small number of articulated elementary sounds. These are produced by the agency of the lungs, the larynx, and the mouth. The lungs supply air to the larynx, which modifies the stream into whisper or voice; and this air is then moulded by the plastic oral organs into syllables which singly or in accentual combinations constitute words.