FALL OR INJURY AS A CAUSE: Step into any gathering of average
American parents for a half-hour and if the subject of the
children should come up, you are sure to hear one or more dramatic
recitals of the falls and injuries suffered by the junior members
of the household, from the first time that Johnny fell out of bed
and frightened his mother nearly to death, to the day that he was
in an automobile crash at the age of 23. And these tales are
always closed with the profound bit of confided information that
these falls are of no consequence--"nothing ever comes of them."

While in a great measure this is true, there are many falls and
injuries suffered in childhood which are responsible for the ills
of later life, although it is seldom indeed that they are blamed
for the results which they bring about.

Injuries and falls are a frequent cause of stuttering and
stammering. Usually, however, an injury results in stuttering or
stammering, not because of any change in the physical structure
brought about by the injury but rather by the nervous shock
attending it. In other words, cases of stammering and stuttering
caused apparently by injury might, if desired, be traced still
further back, showing as the initial cause an injury but as a
direct cause the fright or nervous shock resulting from that
injury.

A good example of this is found in a case of a young man who came
to me some years ago. He said: "When I was about five years old,
my brother and I were playing in the cellar and I wanted to jump
off the top step. When I jumped, I hit my head on the cross-piece
and it knocked me back on the steps and I slid down on my back,