THE SPEECH DISORDERS OF YOUTH
Youth, as we shall define it from the standpoint of the development of
speech disorders, is the period from the age of 12 to the age of 20.
From the twelfth to the twentieth year is a very critical period in the
life of both the boy and the girl who stammers--a period which should
have the watchfulness and care of the parent at every step. This is
known as the period of adolescence and may be said to mark the time of
a new birth, when both mind and body undergo vital changes. New
sensations, many of them intense, arise, and new associations in the
sense sphere are formed.
To the boy or girl passing through this stage of life, it is a period
of new and unknown forces, emotions and feelings. It is a time of
uncertainty. The sure-footed confidence of childhood gives way to the
unsure, hesitating, questioning attitude of a mind filled with new and
strange thoughts and a body animated by new and strange sensations.
These are the symptoms of a fundamental change, the outward
manifestations of the passing from childhood to manhood or womanhood.
This is childhood's equinoctial storm, marking the beginning of the
second season of life's year. In this storm, it is the paramount duty
of the parent to be a safe and ever-present pilot through the sea that
to the captain of this craft is as uncharted as the route to the Indies
in Columbus' day.
The revolution now taking place in both the mental and bodily processes
results hi a lack of stability--an "unsettledness" that manifests
itself in restlessness, nervousness, self-consciousness or morbidness,
taking perhaps the form of a persistent melancholia or desire to be
alone.
At this time in the life of the boy or girl, the possibilities for
stuttering or stammering to secure a firm hold on their muscular and
nervous system are very great. Next to the age of second dentition,
children at the age of puberty are most susceptible to stammering or
stuttering.
During adolescence, the annual rate of growth in height, weight and
strength is increased and often doubled or more. The power of the
diseases peculiar to childhood abates and the liability to the far more
numerous diseases of maturity begins, so that with the liability to
both it is not strange that this period is marked at the same time by
increased morbidity.
The significant fact about stuttering in children as far as it relates
to the period of adolescence, is that this stage marks the most
pronounced susceptibility to the malady as well as the time during
which it may most quickly pass into the chronic stage. Examinations
show that the largest percentage of stutterers among boys was at the
ages of eight, thirteen and sixteen, while the largest percentage among
girls was at the ages of seven, twelve and sixteen--the earlier age of
severity in girls being explained by the fact that the girl reaches a
given state of maturity more quickly than a boy.
Parents of stammering or stuttering children between the ages of twelve
and twenty, may well note with alarm the increasing nervousness, the
hyper-sensitive feelings, the overpowering self-consciousness and the
morbid tendencies which mark a state of mental depression, brooding and
worry over troubles both real and fancied.
PERIOD OF MOST FREQUENT SUICIDE: Statistics gathered over a period of
years indicate that the cases of suicide of stammering children occur
at this time with greater frequency than at any other. Rarely has a
case been found where a child has attempted to take his life before the
age of 12 and seldom after the age of 20.
At frequent intervals there can be found in any of the large papers, a
very brief note of the suicide of a child who had found life too much
of a burden for him to bear and who, as a consequence, fell to brooding
over his troubles and as the easiest way out of them, took his own
life. A Chicago boy attempted suicide by inhaling gas, although he was
discovered before it was too late. Another took his own life by
shooting himself with a revolver given him some years ago as a birthday
present; still another took poison as the easiest way out of his
humiliation, embarrassment and despair.
The average age of these boys was about 16 1/2 years, which marks a
period of intense self-consciousness and extreme sensitiveness of the
youth to ridicule and disgrace.
TENDENCY TO RAPID PROGRESS: The condition of the young person between
the ages of 12 and 20 can hardly be considered to be normal in any way.
The physical processes are un-normal and are undergoing a change, and
the mental faculties, too, are un-normal, overwhelmed as they are with
new emotions and sensations. The nervous condition is marked by a much
higher nervous irritability, which contributes to a condition most
favorable for the rapid progress of the speech disorder, always easily
aggravated by a subnormal physical, mental or nervous condition. Cases
where the Intermittent Tendency is a pronounced characteristic are
liable at this period to find the alternate periods of relief and
recurrence to be more frequent than ever before and to note a marked
tendency of their trouble to recur with constantly increasing
malignancy. Cases that at the age of 11 or 12, for instance, might have
been said to have been in an incipient state, have commonly been known
at this age to pass through the successive intermediate stages of the
trouble and become of a deep-seated and chronic nature in a
surprisingly short period of time.
In some cases where the transition from a simple to the complex form of
the difficulty takes place at this age, it is found that the disorder
has passed beyond the curable stage, in which case, of course, nothing
is left to the unfortunate stammerer but the prospects of a life of
untold misery and torture, deprived of companionship, ostracized from
society and debarred from participation in either business or the
professions.
CHANCES OF OUTGROWING: The chances for outgrowing a speech disorder at
this age are considerably less than at any other time in the previous
life of the individual. The unbalanced general condition tends to make
the stammerer more susceptible instead of less so. As previously
explained, this period marks the time when speech disorders progress
rapidly from bad to worse and, as a consequence, the chances for
outgrowing diminished from 1 per cent, before the age of 6 to
practically zero after the age of 12. SUGGESTIONS: There is little that
can be said for the good of the young person at these ages. The time
for home treatment is past. The simple suggestions offered for the
assistance of those in the Formative or Speech-Setting Periods would be
of little value here because the growth of the individual has made the
eradication of the trouble quite improbable without a complete
re-education along correct speech lines--best obtained from an
institution devoting its efforts to that work. Whatever steps are
taken, however, should be taken before the disorder has become rooted
in the muscular and nervous system and before it has passed into the
Chronic Stage.