The most able man cannot decide correctly without the facts.  To decide in the absence of information is guesswork—­and guesswork is a poor method of deciding what to do—­in the case of the stammerer as in every other case.

Therefore, it behooves the stammerer to become enlightened to as great an extent as possible, to banish ignorance of his trouble and replace it with facts and sound knowledge.

CHAPTER VI

THE SECRET OF CURING STUTTERING AND STAMMERING

If the reader has followed this work carefully up to this point, he is now informed on the causes of stuttering and stammering, on their characteristic tendencies and their peculiarities.  We are now ready to ask, “What are the correct methods for the cure of stuttering and stammering?” and to answer that question authoritatively.

As to the successful mode of procedure in determining the proper methods for the cure of stuttering and stammering, I know of no suggestion better than that offered by Alexander Melville Bell, who says: 

“The rational, as it is experimentally the successful method of procedure, is first to study the standard of correct articulation (not the varieties of imperfect utterance) and then not to go from one extreme to another, but at every step to compare the defective with the perfect mode of speech and so infallibly to ascertain the amount, the kind and the source of the error.”

We have already done that:  We have located the cause of the trouble.  We not only know that stammering is caused by a lack of co-ordination between the brain and the muscles of speech, but we know the things which may bring about the lack of co-ordination.  Now, how to cure?  Simply remove the cause.  Re-establish normal co-ordination between the brain and the muscles of speech.  Restore normal brain control over the speech organs.  Make these organs respond freely, naturally and promptly to the brain messages.

That sounds simple.  But if it is as simple as it sounds, why is it that so many in the past have failed to cure stammering and stuttering?  Why have so many so-called methods of cure passed into the discard?  The answer is, they were based on the wrong foundation.  They struck at the effects and not at the cause of the trouble.  And as a result, the methods failed.

These so-called methods have aimed at many different effects.  One method, for instance, had as its theory that if you could cure the nervousness, the stammering would magically disappear.  The unfortunate sufferer was doped with vile-tasting bitters and nerve medicines, so-called, in the hope that his nervous system would respond to treatment.  But the nerves could not be quieted and the nervous system built up until the cause of the nervousness—­which was stammering—­was removed.