Furthermore, parents should not scold or berate the child because he stammers or stutters.  No child stammers or stutters because he wants to, but because he has not the power to control his speech organs.  In other words, the child cannot help himself—­and scolding and harsh words simply cause confusion and dejection which in turn react to make a more serious condition.

The chances for outgrowing:  The author’s examination and diagnosis of more than 20,000 cases of speech disorders has revealed the fact that at this period in the life of the child afflicted with stammering or stuttering, slightly less than 1 percent. outgrow the difficulty.  With proper parental care it might be possible to increase this percentage, perhaps double it, but this should hardly be called “outgrowing.”  In the mind of the average person, the expression “outgrowing his stammering” means that the stammerer has been able to go ahead without giving the slightest heed to his trouble and that it has, by some magical process, ceased to exist.  This is a fallacy.  Stammering and stuttering are both destructive and progressive and no amount of indifference will result in relief—­but on the other hand, will terminate in a more malignant type of the disorder.  It is true, however, that more care on the part of the parent in looking after the formation of speech habits in the Pre-Speaking and Formative Periods of the child’s speech development, would result in fewer cases of chronic stammering and stuttering in later life.

CHAPTER XI

DEFECTIVE SPEECH IN CHILDREN

(3) The speech-Setting period

The period from the age of 6 to the age of 11 (inclusive) is in truth the Speech-Setting Period, for it is at this time that the child’s speech habits become more or less fixed, and his vocabulary, while constantly developing, manifests tendencies which may be traced through into the later life of the adult.

This Speech-Setting Period marks two very important events in the speech development of the child.  First, it marks the period of second dentition or the time when the milk-teeth are “shed” and the new and permanent teeth take their place.  This is a critical period and statistics show that there is a marked increase in speech disorders at this time.  The second event of importance, both to child and to parents, is the beginning of the work in school.  It must be remembered that heretofore the child has been under the watchful care of the parents during most of his hours, while now, with the beginning of his work in school, he is having his first small taste of facing the world alone—­even if only for a little while each day.