Stammering, Its Cause and Cure Part 17

Care of the Health: Every safeguard is thrown around the physical welfare of those attending the Inst.i.tute. The location and extraordinary sanitary precautions almost preclude the possibility of protracted illness--this was evidenced by the startling fact that during the severe and nation-wide influenza epidemic of the fall and winter of 1918-1919, not a single student of the Inst.i.tute was taken ill. This speaks wonders for the remarkable good physical condition of the many students who were here at that time.

In the event, however, that a student does become ill, the Inst.i.tute House Physician is at once summoned and in the case of a child, this physician's opinion will be sent immediately to the parents.

In illness as in health, the kindly, courteous and yet un.o.btrusive services of Mother Bogue are at the disposal of the student. Every care is bestowed, special meals provided and every want looked after with the same pains as if the student were in his or her own home.

Christian Influences: Indianapolis is a city of numerous beautiful churches of all denominations, many of which are in the immediate vicinity of the Inst.i.tute. During the entire stay, students are surrounded by the very best moral and religious influences and each Sunday sees groups of students leaving the Inst.i.tute to attend services at the different churches.

Children Properly Cared For: Children placed in our care are given special attention. As with the other students they are surrounded with the most wholesome moral influences. Regulations provide that they must remain inside the Inst.i.tute grounds except during the proper hours of the day, following their regular work. It is a very frequent occurrence to have parents bring their children with the idea of remaining with them during the course, only to return home within a few days, leaving the children with us, having satisfied themselves in that short time that the children are being just as well cared for here as if they were in their own homes.

Parents sometimes remark that children will get homesick and want to go home, but our experience with hundreds of cases proves that it is usually the parent who gets homesick to see the child instead of the child getting homesick to see the parents. The home-like surroundings of the Inst.i.tute and the care and attention which they are given, allow small opportunity for children to become homesick, especially when it is remembered that they are busy for the larger portion of the day, at work which is to them of absorbing interest. In fact, we often find that children make so many good friends that they are reluctant indeed when the time comes for them to return home. Many of our students can testify that some of the finest friendships of their lives had their beginning here at the Bogue Inst.i.tute.

Care for Ladies: My lady-a.s.sistants, as well as Mother Bogue, will see to the comfort and enjoyment of lady-pupils. Ladies have their own dormitories in a separate portion of the building and find their stay a most enjoyable one.

A Reflection of Ideals: The congenial home-life at the Inst.i.tute, the minute attention to the wants of the students, the care given to women and children, the solicitude for those who are ill or who for any reason need special attention--this is but the reflection of an ideal--that ideal is to make the Bogue Inst.i.tute, not only in instruction and results, but in every way, just what I would have liked to have been able to find when I was searching for a cure for stammering, more than twenty-five years ago. The comforts, the conveniences, the atmosphere of helpfulness--these things all contribute toward your quick and certain success--and that, I may say, is why we have them.

THINGS YOU WANT TO KNOW

Deposit Surplus Money: As a matter of convenience to those who bring with them extra money, we grant them the privilege of depositing it in our safe. Other valuables may be left for safe-keeping when desired. If the students prefer, they may deposit money with one of the city banks.

Pupils should not carry much money with them; they may lose it.

Pupils' Mail: Relatives, friends and others addressing letters to persons in attendance at this Inst.i.tute should address all mail to students: "c/o BENJ. N. BOGUE" to avoid delay in delivery.

Foreign Students: It will be necessary for those who speak foreign languages to learn the English language before they will be admitted to this Inst.i.tute. The instruction is only given in English, but persons of all nationalities can be cured if they have the proper knowledge of the English language. When once cured in one language, persons are cured in all languages, however.

Companions for Pupils: Parents, guardians or companions may accompany small children or others, when they wish to do so. It is entirely satisfactory for those accompanying the pupil to be a.s.sociated with the children during treatment. They may room together, if desired, or they may secure adjoining rooms.

When You Leave for Home: When necessary, we secure railroad tickets for our young pupils, check their baggage and place them safely aboard the proper train, when they leave Indianapolis for home, and otherwise take especial and careful interest in having them properly started homeward after their stay with us.

Rich and Poor Stand Equal: Claim is made that this is one of the most commendable features of the Inst.i.tute. It is not so in all inst.i.tutes.

Fine clothes and freedom with money are not the test by which the student secures his standing, but by his earnest, faithful work and gentlemanly or lady-like conduct. It is inward worth, not outward adornment and display of wealth, that wins friends and gives the student a place on our roll of honor. The student is judged by what he is, and not by what he has.

Neglected Education: No one need hesitate to place himself under our instruction on account of neglected education or advanced age. All embarra.s.sments are carefully avoided. Scores of backward pupils, who do not even know how to read or write, enter every year, and are entirely and permanently cured by the Unit Method.

CHAPTER VIII

A HEART-TO-HEART TALK WITH PARENTS

If you are the mother or father of a child who stammers, you should first of all read Chapters IX to XIV, inclusive, in Part Two of this book. These chapters deal with the speech disorders of children from before the first spoken word up until the age of 21, when structurally as well as legally the mind and body of the infant merge into that of the adult.

No mother or father can understand their child's disorder without having read these Chapters. To fail to understand is to multiply the chance for error in deciding what to do. Therefore, I repeat, if you are the mother or father of a boy or girl who stammers, read chapters on Child Stammering before you go further.

There are three mistaken beliefs in the minds of many parents of stammering children which must be rooted out before the child will have an opportunity to be cured of his trouble.

These beliefs are:

1--That the child will outgrow his trouble and therefore need only be permitted to "grow older," at which tune the trouble will disappear.

2--That the child could stop stammering if he would try--that the trouble is but a malicious habit of the child's, which he could put away from him if he would.

3--That the child's trouble is incurable and that nothing can be done for him.

All of these beliefs are entirely fallacious and based purely upon ignorance of the cause and progress of the child's trouble. There is not the slightest scientific foundation for them, they are not beliefs based on facts or upon experience--yet in many homes, they const.i.tute the chief obstacle between the stammering child and his complete and permanent cure.

As long as you believe that your child will out-grow his or her trouble, you take no steps to have the disorder eradicated.

What happens?

The trouble becomes worse from month to month and from year to year, until in many cases where the "outgrowing belief" persists, the trouble pa.s.ses into a chronic and incurable stage and the stammering child becomes the stammering man or woman, condemned to go through life under a handicap almost too great to bear.

Write it on your heart that your child will not outgrow his trouble.

Ponder over the information given in the Chapters on Child Stammering.

This is not hearsay or guess-work but facts gleaned from a lifetime of experience.

If you, as the father or mother of a stammering child, cling to the second belief, that your child could stop stammering if he would try, then I can see from this distance that your child has stored up for him in the future, more than his due of misery. For as long as you believe that he can stop of his own free will, you will be impatient with him when he stammers. You will scold him and tell him to "stop that kind of talking!" Thus you will irritate him, and bring to his heart that sickening sensation that he is totally helpless in the grip of his speech disorder and yet--"Oh, why will they not understand?"

Like the first belief, this belief that the child could stop if he wanted to, is based upon ignorance. No mother or father who has ever experienced the sensation of fear that grips the heart of the stammering child when he tries to speak, will say that he could stop if he would.

I say to you--and I want to emphasize this--that the first and foremost ambition of your child who stammers, is to be free from it. The greatest day of his life will be the day when he can talk without that fear, without sticking and stumbling and hesitating over his utterances.

I say to you again--if that boy or girl of yours could stop their stammering, he or she would stop it this very instant. They would never stammer again--if they were endowed with the power to stop. But they are not. That is the very seed of their trouble--their inability to control the actions of the vocal organs so as to produce normal speech.

They have lost the control of those organs and they cannot of their own volition re-establish that control.

The third belief, that stammering cannot be cured, is so easily demolished that I shall devote but little time to it. It, like all false beliefs, has its foundation in ignorance. The mother or father who knows the facts, knows also that stammering can be cured. You may not know whether your boy or girl can be cured, but you are offered a way to find out--definitely and positively, by describing your child's case on my Diagnosis Blank and returning it to me for a thorough Diagnosis.

Put your beliefs to one side--whatever they may be. You can get the facts if you want them. You can learn the truth if you will. Truth is better than false beliefs and facts are better than superst.i.tion or hearsay, which in every case leads to misery, dejection and despair--a ruined life where a successful, happy and contented life might have been--except for stammering.

You have a well-defined responsibility to your son or daughter. You have a duty to perform--that is, to equip that boy or girl of yours to go out into the world as well equipped as any other boy or girl--and that means equipped with perfect speech--without which they will be too greatly handicapped to fully succeed.

CHAPTER IX

THE DANGERS OF DELAY

In many of the cases which have come to my attention in the past many years, the stammerer or stutterer has been afflicted with a malady more difficult to cure than stammering, viz.: The Habit of Procrastination.

"Oh, I will wait a little while," says the stammerer. "A little while can't make any difference!" And then the little while grows into a big while and the big while grows into a year and the year grows into a lifetime and he is still stammering.

Several months ago, an old man, stooped in stature, care-worn of countenance and halting of step, presented himself to me for diagnosis.

His face was drawn into long, hard lines. His eyes shifted from side to side, glancing furtively here and there.

In his trembling hands was a worn old derby which he turned about nervously as he stood there talking. The nervousness, the trembling of the hands, the drawn face, the shifting eyes--all this was explained by the story that this man told as he sat there beside the desk.

"I fell from a ladder when I was ten years old," he said. "After that, I always stammered. My parents thought it was a habit--I can remember yet how my mother scolded me day after day and told me to 'quit talking that way.' But it was useless to tell me to quit. I COULDN'T quit! If I could have done it, certainly I WOULD, for having stammered yourself, you know what it means.