The Stammerer's Choice - A Comparative Survey of Speech Therapy

CHAPTER ONE

Introductory

In the following chapters a sincere attempt is made, if not to solve, at any rate to come nearer to a solution of a very old and difficult riddle, the riddle of the stammer, perhaps as old as the riddle of the Sphinx. The greatest writers of the far distant past have written about stammering, they have defined it with very varied degrees of accuracy, they have advocated certain lines of treatment for its correction, they have described famous stammerers of the past, but—it remains a riddle, a riddle because for every stammerer who is successfully freed from his disability, many have met with disappointment and have had to continue their lives handicapped by their impediments, sometimes talking fluently, at others reduced to helpless silence, never sure of themselves from one hour to another.

For the last thirty years there has been a steadily growing tendency to classify stammering as a nervous disorder, rather than as a bad speech habit with nervous repercussions. This is no mere question of nomenclature, it is an opinion that will make or mar the lives of thousands of stammerers. If stammering were proved to be a nervous disorder, it would be necessary to treat it as such; but if it is found to be almost always nothing more than a bad speech habit in its initial stages with nervous repercussions developing in the later stages, it must be treated through speech re-education, through which alone a life of freedom and happiness may be expected. To treat a speech habit as a nervous disorder is to produce something far worse than a negative result; it is not a failure to succeed, it is something positive, definite harm has been done. To treat a stammer as a nervous disease is to substantiate the idea that the patient is now a nervous one. Such is the power of suggestion of which much more will be said presently that it is impossible to exaggerate the importance of keeping this side of the treatment, on the few occasions when it is required, in the background. This advice, urged with the greatest seriousness, will be found to be corroborated in the writings that will be examined.

As we study the theories of the speech therapists of the past we find that they were almost unanimous in classifying stammering as a vocal disorder with a tendency to nervous repercussions, but it was the more successful who stressed the vocal factor and minimized the nervous factor. Since the turn of the century the tendency has been to focus attention more and more on the nervous factor, but in spite of this tendency nearly all the writers advocate treatment by re-education of speech with special attention to the increase of voice control. So we find that although past and present writers are more in agreement than in disagreement with regard to correction by speech re-education, there remains its classification as a nervous disorder rather than as a bad habit of speech.

Some have regarded this as a red herring to draw attention from failure to achieve satisfactory results: that may or may not be so—it is a matter of opinion—but one thing is certain, that to treat stammerers as nervous patients when they are nothing of the kind will risk doing harm that can never be undone. It is the stammerers who are waiting for assurance backed by evidence that their trouble is but a bad speech habit which not only can, but must be corrected by speech re-education by an expert in voice-production and control. The majority of stammerers are not what is called nervous: most of them are above the average in ability and general health, particularly as indicated by athletic ability; their anxiety is always associated with their speech limitations; as soon as they are freed from their disability they exhibit no further signs of anxiety. The truth of this is shown by the number of former stammerers who develop into first-rate public speakers and lecturers.

It is in the hope that a greater and more comprehensive knowledge may result from the careful study of the opinions of men of proved ability, from the study of what by trial and error has been proved to be true, and scrutiny of the methods which have been helpful in hundreds of cases, that the writings of nearly fifty men over a period of nearly a century and a half have been collected and from them excerpts have been taken and discussed.

Then, too, there have been sketched the careers of those two remarkable pioneers, James Hunt, of Ore House, Hastings, and Benjamin Beasley, of Brampton Park—men who did not seek the collective security of any organization but who trusted in their own knowledge, which they had acquired by hard thinking, and then took enormous financial risks and succeeded; but their work died with them and their systems faded out because their successors lacked the necessary skill and personality to continue to produce good results such as had been the secret of the early successes.

Such thoughts as these lie behind the writing of this book; to-day speech therapists are trained; they do not have to seek out their knowledge, it is conveyed to them by lectures and from books selected for them by their instructors. When qualified they do not have to wait for patients; they are appointed to a hospital or an education committee at a salary and patients are directed to them. These points are emphasized because it is important to remember how smooth is the road for the new generation of speech therapists, and how little need they have to possess or develop individuality.

As a result, while the task of the speech therapist is made easier, the stammerer must be more alert than ever before to find out if he is in the hands of a speech therapist with the skill and experience necessary if he, the patient, is to benefit. Failure to-day may not cost money, if the treatment comes within the comprehensive scheme of modern organization, but time has been lost, and what is far more serious, confidence has been undermined. To undertake to treat a stammerer and to fail is not just a negative fact—I am afraid I’ve failed. It is probably far more than that; it is almost certainly I undertook something beyond my powers and so I have left a stammerer worse than I found him. To undo the bad work of unsuccessful speech therapy may take months. The suggestive power of previous failure is often the greatest hindrance to success if and when the patient passes into capable hands.

When seeing a new stammerer for the first time the experienced therapist begins by asking a few questions: age, general ability and the number in the family, etc. etc. This is done for several reasons: it enables the patient to have a quiet look at his new doctor and to form an opinion whether he is likely to prove a pleasant mentor or an odious tormentor; it gives the therapist time to form his own opinion of the patient apart from what the introducing doctor has written about him and, even more important, to hear his speech in general and his voice in particular; it also enables him to form an opinion and to assess the material on which he has to work—clever or backward—industrious or lazy—athletic or lethargic. But the most important question of all is: Have you had any previous treatment? and the longed for answer is: None. A blessed word indeed—no wrong theories to explain away, no additional wrong habits to be corrected; the stammer is quite enough without incorrect and obstructive breathing rules to unlearn.

The correction of stammering is the only part of the work of a speech therapist that requires a high degree of skill; all the rest is just a matter of a little knowledge and skill and a great deal of patience; that is why most of the space in this book is devoted to the consideration of stammering. A successful speech therapist has the happiest work in the world, the opportunity of dispelling clouds in the lives of others, but it is work that above all others requires a genuine vocation.

Qualification is but the gateway of speech therapy just as it is of medicine or surgery or law; it is not the qualification but the experience that follows it that makes a good doctor, surgeon, or lawyer. It is necessary to pass through the gateway before it is possible to begin to gather the worth-while experience that is the basis of good work. Experience and experiment are the twin foundation stones of every progressive step in medicine and surgery. This applies, of course, to speech therapy but here there is an added factor, the most important of all—learning how to deal with people, because ultimately success depends on whether or not patients enjoy their visits. In the following pages have been collected the experiments and experiences of speech therapists for nearly a century and a half, for the benefit of the new generation of therapists who will carry forward the work of the older generation or fail to do so.

The beginning of the nineteenth century witnessed the last of the attempts to correct a stammer by surgical operation: that is why the excerpts begin from that time. To us to-day it must seem absurd that it was ever seriously believed that to cut a wedge out of the tongue would enable a patient to speak fluently; it seems ridiculous to us to-day but no doubt at the time that operation appeared as the discovery of the century. It is only additional and more advanced knowledge that makes former methods appear useless and ridiculous, so it is wise to be humble and to remember that what appears clever to us to-day may not only appear but be proved to be utterly useless in seventy years’ time in the light of fresh reasoning and knowledge.

New discoveries are not discoveries of new facts; the facts have long existed, but they have only just been observed. It is not the facts that are new, it is merely that they have been observed and their implications realized for the first time. We arrive at new realizations of long-existing facts by sifting carefully the evidence of the past, for amid the ashes of the past lie the discoveries of the future.

The late Harry Plunkett Greene was the first man to state the fact that since we have only one larynx apiece, our voices should be similar in quality and character whether we are singing or speaking; that statement of his, repeated again and again, constitutes a key-stone in the teaching of voice-production. For the speech therapist Harry Plunkett Greene’s discovery might well be called the foundation stone of corrective work both for stammerers and cleft-palates. This great artist and teacher was not the inventor of the dual purpose larynx; he was merely the first person to realize a self-evident fact and to state it.

Such thoughts as these are very helpful in reminding us of the beams in our eyes. In the following pages have been collected many theories and much careful thought for the benefit of those who have enough judgment to make good use of them, for it