Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-03-26
STAMMERIN0.
An Amfctlon which Can Be Easily Cared
by Proper Treatment.

An Amfctl0n which Can He Easily Cared
by Proper Treatment.
Stammering is an affection Of the
vocal organs, causing a hesitancy and
difficulty of utterance. The best
authorities now regard its origin as dis
tinct from any physical defect. There
can be no doubt that the impeachment
is aggravated by physical weakness or
debility of any kind, but these in
fluences have nothing to do with the
primary cause of the infirmity. A
nervous dread of speaking is usually
associated with ~stammering, but this is
rather a result than a cause. If o
stitutional nervousness were productive
of stammering the number of cases
would be much greater and include an
excess of females over males, whereas
the fact is that men furnish by far the
greater proportion of those so affected,
besides, stammerers are not in general
persons of weak nerves otherwise than
in the act of speaking. Nervousness
is associated with speech in stammer-
ing because of the consciousness that
the defect is made the subject Of
observation. The strength of the
impeachment lies in habit, in
mismanagement of the breath and
organs of utterance, rendered habitual
in extreme youth and the removal of
the defect depends upon the acquire
ment Of voluntary control over the or
gans of speech. Children have often
been known to be infected with the
habit by the most casual example. If,
on the first appearance of this defect on
the part of a child, parents and nurses
were careful to check it by patient di-
rection and instruction, an unfortu-
nate habit of a lifetime might
always be prevented. Stammering
usually makes its appearance at
about the fifth year, but h%arshness
and Impotence with children, especial
ly if there is constitutional timidity
combined with natural slowness of men
tai action, may induce it at even a much
later period. The varieties of stammer-
ing are very great. Sometimes there
is great muscular disturbance and a
painful effort to a%rticulate certain let
tiers. This trouble arises from disordered
respiration and disappears when the
habit of closing the CLOTHS is overcome
and the air is allowed to pass freely in
and out of the lungs. Another trouble
consists in the reiteration of syllables
before words can be fully form. The
source of this difficulty arises from the
habit Of trying to speak with
the mouth rather than the throat. All
effort ofspeech should proceed from the
throat, and when this change is made
huency can be easily regained. STAN
mering is in nearly every case quite
durable by the cultivation of a habit OF
correct speaking. This can only be &C.
quired by studying the processes of
speech. the relation of breath to articu-
late sounds, the position of the tongue
and other vocal organs, and a patient
application of these principles in slow
and watchful exercise. The lungs con
!, stitute a pair of bellows, and the mouth,
in all it's varying shapes the nozzle OF
the bellows. The passage of the throat
} must be kept open and the breath ex-
, PEELED by means of the ascent of the
diaphragm. not by downward pressure
of the chest. All sound originates in
the throat, and all effort in speech
must be thrown back behind the articu
+ lating organs, which must be KEEP
| passive, yielding to the air, always
l opening to give it exit, and never re-
sisting it by the ascent of the tongue OF
of the jaw. The head must be held
!, firmly on the neck to- give free play to
| the organs, andthe fact never forgotten
that tluency of speech depends upon
l the unrcstrained emission ofthe material
3 of speech, which is breath. The one
difficulty found in curing stammerine
+ by the application of these common.
l sense principles is that the victim of the
habit has not the needed patience and
persistence to apply them.-Chicagc
Inter Ocean.