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Stammering, Its Cause and Cure

B >> Benjamin Nathaniel Bogue >> Stammering, Its Cause and Cure




The Bogue Unit Method is three-fold in action. From this it takes
the name "Unit Method." The first Unit of Treatment has for its
purpose the building up of physical efficiency. "The first
requisite is to be a good animal," says Herbert Spencer. This is
certainly true of the stammerer, for in his case, normal health is
a valuable aid during the time of treatment. Consequently, the
first step is to build up the physical organs and be sure that
these are functioning properly.

The second Unit of Treatment restores the mental equilibrium,
stabilizes the mental activities and places them under perfect
control. The inability of the mind to control the organs of speech
has led to a condition which might be described as a "flabbiness
of the mental muscles" which necessitates that the mental
condition be altered and improved so that the mind can once more
possess the capacity for properly controlling the organs of
speech.

The third Unit of Treatment synchronizes and harmonizes mental and
physical actions and re-establishes normal co-ordination between
the brain and the muscles of speech, which completes the work
necessary to bring about a cure. After both physical and mental
conditions have been made normal, it merely remains to link up
these two properly-working forces, co-ordinate their activities
and firmly inhabitate the correct principles of control, after
which it can be said that a complete cure is permanently effected.

Daily Record of Progress: Beginning with the first day, a complete
report in writing is made of the progress. Each point on which the
student makes progress is noted. If proper advancement is not made
on any particular point, special effort is put forth to bring that
point up to the standard which has been set. This makes it
possible for the instructor to give individual attention to each
student, something which is absolutely essential in many cases. In
other words, it will not do to start the student off and let him
work out his own salvation. The instructor must be constantly at
hand, giving advice, correcting faulty articulation and constantly
aiding the stammerer in a hundred ways to route the malady.

After having been under treatment for seven days, the student is
subjected to his first treatment test. After passing this
examination satisfactorily, the student is assigned additional
work from another angle. Some students require as much as ten days
to complete the work necessary to pass this first test--in fact,
it might also be said that this test will determine the speed with
which the student is to progress. From this time until the
completion of the course, additional tests are given at various
intervals, according to the needs of the case, until the Final
Cure Test proves that the malady has been eradicated.

Conscious of the Improvement: The stammerer is profoundly
conscious of a distinct change for the better by the end of the
very first day under treatment. In other words, there is an
immediate and noticeable improvement, not only in his nervous
condition, but also in his physical and mental state as well.

Before the student passes from under the treatment, he is
thoroughly aware of the benefits which the work has brought about.
For, after he has met every progress test and has been examined on
every phase and every principle of speech, he passes to a rigid
Final Test. In this test, more than ever before, he finds the
results of his efforts. He discovers that he can use his speech in
any way that he desires--in any way that it will be necessary for
him to use it in his future life. He finds himself able to produce
any sound--labial, dental, lingual, nasal or palatal or any
combination of these sounds in any language. He finds every word
now is an easy word, articulation is under perfect control and the
formation of voice a process involving no apparent mental effort
or physical contortions.

A young woman of 20 years was placed under my care by her mother.
She stammered very badly and at the time when her condition was at
its worst, found it almost impossible to make herself understood
by any means. After five weeks of careful instruction, this young
woman had no difficulty whatever in speaking, there was no "piling
up of thoughts," as she expressed her former condition, and her
articulation was excellent. A few days after she returned home,
she wrote as follows: "I have been talking ever since I came home
and have had no trouble whatever. I just love to talk and I
believe I have said more in the last five days than in the whole
last five years."

Additional Results: The Bogue Unit Method of Cure when earnestly
followed out by the student, does much more than eradicate the
impediment of speech. It increases the weight of the below-the-
average student, stops all spasmodic or convulsive efforts of
face, arms and limbs and increases by several inches what was
formerly a flat and poorly developed chest.

A very bad case who came to me for treatment several years ago was
a young man of 26. He not only stuttered but stammered very badly.
He placed himself under my guidance for a period of a little more
than six weeks. At the end of that time he found no difficulty in
talking nor were there any spasmodic movements of the facial
muscles, as before. In reporting some time later, he said:

"When I left I tipped the scales at 20 pounds heavier than when I
went to you. My folks are certainly pleased to hear me talk
without the straining and strangling exertion I had before in
trying to force my words out. Now they flow out nice and easy."

Many children, both boys and girls, are under developed. This may
have resulted from several causes, but it is frequently traceable
to the stammering or stuttering as an indirect cause. The Bogue
Unit Method takes these children in a poor physical condition and
while eradicating the defect of speech, brings about a healthy
physical development. An Ohio woman reported excellent results in
a letter which said:

"I am glad to inform you that my son Allan since taking the
treatment in June last, has not to my knowledge, stammered once,
for which we are all very grateful to the Bogue Method. I also
wish to say that his physical condition is much improved and he
has increased in weight about ten pounds."

Regardless of the age of the student, there is an increased
vitality flowing through the entire body, the powers of endurance
are greatly increased and the health built up from every stand-
point. One man sent in an enthusiastic report in these words:

"I am fine and healthy; the people down here say I don't look like
the same person. I gained 17 pounds while I was out there. I am
talking fine. My mother says I talk them nearly to death. I talk
them all to bed at night, so they put out the light on me so I
will go to bed and hush. I went down town Saturday night and the
boys were sure glad to hear me talk without stammering."

Even THIS physical improvement is not unusual.

Another man reports the change brought about in his condition as
follows:

"Just about two years ago I was one of the worst stammerers I know
that ever was; it was simply awful. I could not speak a word
without the most terrible stammering you ever heard. My parents
were heartbroken over my condition, which grew worse all the time.
I did not grow and develop like my brothers. My shoulders were
stooped, my chest sunken--in fact, I was in a terrible condition.
After staying with you for six weeks I came home and every one who
knew me when I left was simply astonished at the improvement, not
in my speech alone, but in my physical condition also. Am stronger
and well now and I say it is a comfort to be able to talk like
other boys."

This case is not an unusual one, however, for it is frequently
found that the stammering child grows into a physically deficient
man as a result of his speech impediment.

Concomitant with these physical betterments comes a changed mental
attitude, whereby the former pessimistic outlook has been changed
to an optimistic view of life. The former abnormal timidity of the
student has been replaced by a perfect confidence; the old
unreasoning fear-of-failure is transformed into a feeling of
supreme self-reliance; and the depressed, care-worn expression
which may once have marked the stammerer's countenance has given
place to that of cheerfulness.

The weak and vacillating will now manifests itself as a dominant,
masterful power-of-will and the stagnant mentality of the
stammerer has now given place to a vigorous, forceful, creative
mental power. The mind-wandering or lack of ability to concentrate
is gone and in its place is an intense and well controlled power-
of-concentration. In addition to this, the nervousness which
marked the every movement of the stammerer has disappeared and the
self-consciousness which made life a misery is replaced by a calm
self-control, resulting in an entire self-forgetfulness, perfect
poise and a feeling of self-possession.

These benefits accrue gradually as the course progresses, but
when, upon the completion of the course, perfect speech is finally
restored, the results are fully evident and entirely permanent.
Their permanency is the crowning result of the proper methods--
methods which eradicate the trouble at its source--treat and
remove the cause instead of treating the effect.





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.

It would be naturally expected that his symptoms would indicate
Thought-Stammering, but this is not true. Instead I found his to
be a bad case of Spasmodic Stammering, in which the convulsive
action took place immediately upon an effort to speak and which
resulted, therefore, in the inability to express a sound--the
"sticking" tendency so common to stammering and particularly to
this type.

While the worry over his stammering had left him in a mental state
that made him impotent so far as normal mental accomplishments
were concerned, still the removal of his stammering by the
eradication of the cause would, I felt, entirely relieve the
condition of mental flurry and stop the nervousness.

The case was so urgent that the boy's parents decided to place him
for treatment immediately. The results were so gratifying as to be
almost unbelievable. By the end of the first day's work, the boy's
whole mental attitude was changed. His outlook on life was
different. He felt the thrill of conquering his difficulty and
before many days, he was working like a Trojan to make his cure
complete and permanent. At my suggestion, he remained with me for
seven weeks, at the end of which time he went back East, entirely
changed in every particular. He was smiling now, where before he
seemed to have forgotten how to smile. He was full of life,
enthusiasm and ambition--no one who had seen him the day he first
came here, could realize that this was the same boy that entered a
few weeks before with the desire-to-live almost extinct. There are
hundreds of cases riot far different from this--I have cited the
case of this Polish boy to show what a complete transformation is
made in the mental state by a few weeks' work along the right
lines.

Case No. 87.522--Here was a case of a type that is very, very
common. It was that of a girl, 17 years of age, from a good
family, well-educated and having all the marks of careful training
in a home of refinement. The most marked characteristic of her
case was the tendency to recur. In other words, she was an
Intermittent Stammerer, who had believed (as had her parents) that
the tendency to get better was an indication that she would soon
outgrow the trouble. "If Marie still stammers by the time she is
18--" this had come to be almost a household word, for if she
stammered at that time, it was the intention of her parents (so
they said) to have the girl placed under treatment. As was to be
expected, she continued to stammer and continued to get steadily
worse, although the tendency to be better and worse by turns was
maintained throughout the years. The periods of improvement were
eagerly seized by her parents, year after year, as indications of
out-growing, while the periods of relapse were seldom spoken of
and usually ignored. It was another case of the old saying that:
"We like to think that the thing will happen which we want to
happen," and since they wanted the daughter to outgrow her
trouble, they insisted in believing, despite their own unexpressed
fears, that the daughter would "eventually get over it!"

She did not get over it, however, and the critical age of 16
brought on a condition so severe that her parents became alarmed
about her and sought advice as to what should be done.

An examination of her case brought out the fact that she had
probably inherited a predisposition to stammer, but that the
immediate cause of the trouble had been fright, caused by a nurse
who had tried to discipline the girl when small, by telling her
that the "bogey-man" would get her if she didn't do certain things
as told. This disciplining by means of fear is never a safe
procedure and in this case had been carried to extremes on many
occasions, finally resulting in the child becoming a stammerer.

She had a case of Genuine Stammering in its second stage and,
according to her own statement at the time the examination was
made, had become much worse in the last two years. At age 15 it
seems that everyone felt secure in the belief that her trouble
would pass away, but at age 17, the condition became critical, the
disorder having previously passed into the second stage.

Two and a half weeks worked a wonderful improvement in the girl's
condition, at the end of which time she was compelled to return to
her home on account of a death in the family. She remained at home
for almost a month, after which she returned to me to complete the
cure. Even under such an unusual and unfavorable circumstance as
this, she remained with me the last time only four weeks, and has,
according to her report, never stammered since, nor has she been
oppressed by the overpowering sense of fear that formerly seized
her when she thought of trying to talk.

Case No. 84.563--This case first came to my attention over ten
years ago, when I was called upon to make a diagnosis. This showed
the trouble to be a case of Combined Stammering and Stuttering,
originally caused, it seemed, from having associated with an old
man who was janitor in a wood-working plant belonging to the
father of the boy whose case I am describing. The janitor had
stammered ever since anyone about the place had known him and
probably all of his life. In his early days, with his youth to
carry him on, he had tried to hold down several jobs of
consequence, but with varying success, dropping down the ladder
rung by rung until he reached the place of janitor. The boy in
question, having associated with the old man, early acquired the
habit of mocking his defective speech, with the result that he
himself soon began to stutter, which later turned into a combined
form of disorder known as Combined Stammering and Stuttering.

He came to me at the time he was 28, having found it necessary to
go to work on his own account, upon the failure of his father's
business. I explained to him that his was a case of Combined
Stammering and Stuttering, outlined to him the probable course of
his trouble and what he might reasonably expect if he allowed it
to continue. Having been married only a short time and being
rather reluctant to leave home for the length of time necessary to
take the course, he decided to postpone treatment until some later
date. I heard nothing more from him for almost three years, when
he walked in one day, looking like a shadow of his former self.
There were dark rings around his eyes, his gaze was shifty and I
could hardly believe that this was the young fellow who had seen
me three years ago. Nevertheless it was the same man, with a story
that pointed out the danger of postponement. His trouble had
become steadily worse, he said, until it had ruined his control
over himself. He had become nervous, irritable and cross, without
meaning to be so, had lost one good position after another and
finally, as a climax to a long string of misfortunes, his wife had
left him. declaring that she would not put up with him in such a
condition.

A second examination revealed the fact that his stammering had
progressed so rapidly since he had last talked with me, that it
was now perilously near the stage known as Thought Lapse. His
control was not entirely shattered, however, and he was accepted
for treatment. It was something over two months before he was back
in shape again, but those two months did a wonderful thing for
him, for it put him in first-class physical condition, removed
all traces of his impediment and restored the mental equilibrium
which had been so long endangered. Later, as a result of his
restoration to perfect speech, his family differences were
adjusted, and at the last reports, he was making splendid headway
in a business of his own. Such is the power of stammering to
destroy--even home and happiness itself--and such the power of
perfect speech to build up again.

Case No. 465.722--This was the case of a man born in Ireland, who
came to this country as a boy, and the original cause of whose
trouble was a blow over the head in a street fight soon after
landing in America.

When he came to me, he was 52 years of age and not only had one of
the most severe cases of Spasmodic Stammering I have ever seen,
but was in the first stages of Thought Lapse. He was practically
speechless all of the time and his trouble instead of manifesting
an Intermittent Tendency as it had formerly done, was now
constant, indicating that he was in the chronic stage of his
difficulty. Aside from his Spasmodic Stammering, he seemed unable
to think of the things which he wished to say. In other words, his
trouble had been affecting him so long that he had lost the power
to recall and control the mental images necessary to the formation
of words.

I not only gave him the usual examination but applied the special
Bogue test, both of which convinced me that his case was far into
the incurable stage. There was little or nothing I could do for
him at that late date and so I told him. He acted as if dazed for
a few moments, and when the full force of the truth dawned upon
him, it was as if a cord had snapped and broken. Hope was gone. He
was an incurable--and knew it now, only too well. And as he turned
and left me, I knew from the droop of the shoulders and the hang
of the head, that life meant but little to him now. He was merely
waiting--waiting for the last page to be written and his book of
despair to be closed.

Case No. 34.444--This young woman was very talented, had a
beautiful singing voice and could not understand why she was
unable to speak fluently when she could sing so well. The cause of
her trouble was distinctly mental and did not lie in any defective
formation of the vocal organs but rather in a lack of co-
ordination between the brain and the muscles of speech. In her
case, the speech disorder had not materially affected her health,
although she admitted it had impaired her power of will and her
ability to concentrate. Six weeks put her in good condition and
gave her the opportunity to use her beautiful voice to excellent
advantage in speaking as well as in singing--much to her
satisfaction.

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