THE PECULIARITIES OF STUTTERING AND STAMMERING
Each individual case of stuttering or stammering has its own
peculiarities, already more or less developed--arising from structural
differences (but not necessarily defects) in the organs of speech, as
well as differences in temperament, health and nervousness; or
peculiarities arising from habit--which is the result of previous
training or neglect, as the case may be.
SING WITHOUT DIFFICULTY: Almost without exception, the stutterer or
stammerer can sing without any difficulty, can talk to animals without
stuttering or stammering, can talk when alone and in some cases can
talk perfectly in a whisper. Some stammerers have less difficulty in
talking to strangers than in talking to friends or relatives while in
other cases, the condition is exactly reversed. A stutterer or
stammerer almost always experiences difficulty in speaking over the
telephone. One experimenter has shown, however, that a stammerer can
talk perfectly over the telephone so long as the receiver hook is
depressed and there is no connection with another person at the other
end of the line. This experimenter shows that immediately the receiver
hook is released and a connection is established, the halting,
stumbling utterance begins.
These peculiarities of stuttering and stammering for many years puzzled
investigators and were, in fact, finally responsible for arriving at
the true cause of stammering.
Almost every stammerer seeks for an explanation of these peculiar
manifestations. Why is it, for instance, that a stammerer can sing
without difficulty, although he cannot talk? This is one of the best
evidences that could be produced to show that stammering is the result
of a lack of mental control. The stammerer who can sing without
difficulty has no organic or inherent defect in the vocal organs, that
is sure. If the stammerer can sing, and if this proves that he has no
organic defect, then it follows logically that the cause of his trouble
is mental and not physical.
TALK WHEN ALONE: The fact that a stammerer can talk without hesitation
when alone and that he can talk to animals may be explained by a very
simple illustration--any stammerer can try this experiment on one of
his friends who does not stammer. He can prove that the reflex, or what
might be termed subconscious movements of the bodily organs are more
nearly normal than the same movements consciously controlled. Take, for
instance, the regular beating of the pulse. Let anyone who does not
stammer (it makes no difference in trying this experiment whether the
person stammers or not, save that we are trying to prove that the
condition may be brought about in one who is not a stammerer) feel his
own pulse for sixty seconds. Let him be thoroughly conscious of this
effort to learn the rapidity of its beating. If a disinterested
observer could record the pulse as normally beating and the pulse under
the conscious influence of the mind, it would be found that the pulse
under the conscious effort is beating either more rapidly or more
slowly or that it is not beating as regularly as in the case of
unconscious or reflex action.
This same condition may be noticed in another unconscious or reflex
action--breathing. The moment you become conscious of an attempt to
breathe regularly, breathing becomes difficult, restricted, irregular,
whereas this same action, when unconscious, is thoroughly regular and
even.
In the average or normal person who has learned to talk correctly,
speaking should be practically an unconscious process. It should not be
necessary to make a conscious effort to form words, nor should a normal
individual be conscious of the energy necessary to create a word or the
muscular movements necessary to its formation and expression.
This will explain why the stutterer or stammerer can talk without
difficulty to animals or when alone--there is no self-consciousness--no
conscious effort--no thinking of what is being done.
Another of the peculiarities of stammering is that the stammerer in
many cases seems to be able to talk perfectly in concert. This has long
baffled the investigator in this field, no reason being assignable for
this ability to talk in connection with others. The baffling element
has been this--that the investigator has assumed that the stammerer
talked well in concert, whereas a very careful scientist would have
discovered the stammerer to be a fraction of a second or a part of a
syllable behind the others.
You have doubtless been in church at some time when you were not
entirely familiar with the hymn being sung, yet by lagging a note or
two behind the rest, you could sing the song, to all appearances being
right along with the others.
When you talk over the long-distance telephone, the voice seems
instantly to reach the party at the other end of the line, yet we know
that a period of time has had to elapse to allow the voice waves to
move along the telephone wire and reach the other end. The elapse of
time has been too slight to be noted by the average human mind and the
transmission seems instantaneous. This is what happens in the case of
the stammerer who seems able to talk in concert--he is merely a
syllable or part of a syllable behind the rest, all the while giving
the impression nevertheless, that he is talking just as they are.
There are many other individual peculiarities which can be described by
almost every stammerer. These different peculiarities are more numerous
than the cases of stammering and it would be useless to attempt to
discuss them in detail. I will take up only two as being typical of
dozens which have come under my observation in twenty-eight years'
experience.
One stammerer explains his difficulty as follows: "I find I am unable
to talk and do something else at the same time. For instance, I have
difficulty in talking while dancing, while at the table or while
listening to music. If, for instance, I wish to talk to any one while
the Victrola is being played, I unconsciously cut it off." This is a
case where the stammerer finds that all of his faculties must be
concentrated upon a supreme effort to speak before this becomes
possible. In other words, he has not yet learned to control
sufficiently the different parts of his body so that they may act
independently. This might be termed a lack of independent co-ordination.
In the case of another young man, he found himself unable to control
the movements of his muscles. In describing his trouble, he said: "At
one time, when I was talking particularly bad, I was out with some
other fellows driving our car. I started to talk, found it almost
impossible and noticed a sharp twitching of the muscles of face, arms
and limbs. Try as I might, I found I could not control these movements
and in another minute I had steered the car into the ditch and wrecked
it. And now," adds the young man, "although father has a new car, I am
never allowed to drive it!"
Here was a case where the spasmodic action of the muscles had gotten so
far beyond control as to make the ordinary pursuits of life dangerous
to the young man who stammered. These spasmodic movements were always
present--he told of one occasion when he was in a barber's chair being
shaved. He attempted to say a word or two while the barber was at work
upon him, with the result that he lost control of the muscles of face
and neck, causing the barber to cut a long gash in his neck.
This was, of course, an abnormal case of spasmodic stammering,
evidencing extraordinary muscular contractions of the worst type. In
practically every case of stammering some such peculiarity is evident,
resulting from the inability of the stammerer's brain to control
physical actions.