CHAPTER VI

CAN STAMMERING AND STUTTERING BE OUTGROWN?


Probably the most harmful and oft-repeated bit of advice ever
given to a stammerer or stutterer is that which says, "Oh, don't
bother about it--you will soon outgrow the trouble!" It is the
most harmful because it is palpably untrue. It is so oft-repeated
because the person giving the advice knows nothing whatever about
the cause of stammering and just as little about its progress or
treatment.

The fact that we hear of no cases of stuttering or stammering
which have been outgrown does not seem to alter the popular and
totally unfounded belief that stammering and stuttering can be
readily outgrown.

If the reader has not read the chapter on the causes of stuttering
and stammering and the two preceding chapters on the Intermittent
Tendency and the Progressive Character of these speech disorders,
then these chapters should be read carefully before going further
with this one, because it is essential to know the cause of the
trouble before it is possible to answer intelligently the
question, "Can Stammering be Outgrown?"

To any one who understands the nature of the difficulty and the