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 circumstances 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 classification 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 pronounced 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 reassurance 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 class and place him for treatment. Notwithstanding the fact that his trouble was unusually severe for a boy of that age, seven weeks at the Institute 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 class.
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.