To the pale-green sea-groves straight and high,
Chasing each other merrily.
—Tennyson.
CHAPTER VII
CORRECTION OF SPEECH DEFECTS
In addition to the ordinary faults and failings in speech possessed by many in common, there are the special and specific defects, such as stammering, stuttering, lisping, and the like. Every defective is to be pitied, as many professions and occupations are of such a nature as practically to bar men and women who cannot speak well. There are the social and ethical handicaps, also, to be considered, as well as that of economics. The defective speech of a child renders him the butt of his playmates’ rude and often brutal jokes. The sensitive is thus driven away from society. He becomes a solitary and not infrequently his life is ruined.
Speaking of the stutterer, one who is not afflicted by this disease (for so authorities have determined it to be), cannot realize what a terrible life he lives. Dr. Scripture, of Columbia University, New York City, who is one of the greatest authorities on this subject, says: “One boy often threw himself on the floor, begging his mother to tell him how to die. Another boy asked for a letter to his father, telling him to keep the other children from laughing at him. Many stutterers become so sensitive that they imagine everybody is constantly making fun of them. The life of a stutterer is usually so full of sorrow that it can hardly be said to be worth living.”[3]
The speech delinquent is shy, timid, super-sensitive, constantly harboring the thought that people are laughing at him. He gradually shuns society, lives unto himself, and in many instances becomes morally depraved. He contracts a morbid outlook upon life in general, and often is driven to criminality. This statement is no exaggeration. The Board of Education in New York City, after thorough investigation, found that “one school child in four suffers from speech defect,” and that “among boy criminals, nine in ten suffer from the same malady.”
In the Grand Rapids schools classes for the sole purpose of correcting speech defects were organized.
The mechanical arrangement was as follows: Twelve classes were arranged for in five different schools with a half hour a day for each class. The children were grouped according to age, kind of defect, etc., and a teacher with special training for the correction of speech was sent from school to school to give the instruction.