It is the earnest hope of the writer that the two home treatments given herein for dealing with that most distressing complaint of stammering will prove as effective as it has been with his own patients. It is hoped too, that the information will be useful to all those concerned with stammer via: parents, teachers and others who are in charge of children.

This chapter is written as much for adults who stammer, as it is for children who are afflicted with this kind of speech impedi­ment, but be it noted, I am confining my observations solely to that speech defect known as stammering or stuttering, which is not occasioned by any anatomical or structural abnormality of the organs of speech. It is thus curable without having recourse to surgical measures.

There is an essential difference between a stammer and a stutter, and this I maintain in spite of the synonymy of the two words as given in a dictionary. Stuttering is a convulsive repetition, whereas stammering is a blocking of speech.

It used to be thought that on training left-handed children to be right-handed there was a danger of their becoming stammer or stutters. This appears now to be an old wives' tale. Where the danger can lie, however, is in using FORCE in trying to effect the change over. The child can be aware of an element of cruelty, and if he be a sensitive nature, an inhibition can be induced result­ing eventually in a stammer.

The medical examination having established the integrity of the speech organs themselves, the cause of the trouble must be sought for elsewhere. Experience teaches that the defect can be due and traced to inhibitions brought about maybe by some shock or fright, or indeed by sustained mental tensions as the result of anxiety; but parents and others must not confuse—which they are very apt to do—the non-fluency of speech in children with stammer­ing. Parents and teachers are then prone constantly to reprove the child in severe tones for his hesitancies. This in turn, has the effect of making him self-conscious of the manner in which he speaks, and, as a result of this self-centring he becomes nervous. Hence through admonitions shot at him from time to time to speak "properly" a true, honest-to-goodness stammer develops out of what was originally nothing but an ordinary and very common hesitancy, which is more in evidence in some children than in others. This hesitancy in speech is certainly not confined merely to children, for are not all adults more or less subject to this peculiarity of being non-fluent in their daily conversational inter­course with their fellow beings? Just note how various types of people respond with the spoken word when being interviewed on television or radio. Notice too the varied and many hesitancies that manifest themselves in speeches made through these mediums, not to say anything about the non-fluency of even every day small 'talk of ordinary folk. Therefore, the er—ers' and other meaning­less sounds must not be confused with a predominant speech defect such as true stammering. Rather are they, more often than not, unconscious devices used in order to gain time when one is at a loss for words appropriate to the occasion or subject-matter in hand. These sounds serve to fill in a blank, what would otherwise be felt as an embarrassing silence. This lack of facility to command an uninterrupted flow of words can be attributed to a variety of reasons, perhaps the chief of which is undue nervousness whilst facing an audience, or it can be due to nervous tensions when dealing with difficult people or with people in difficult situations. There must indeed be very few of us who can get on to our hind legs to deliver a fluent after-dinner speech, or say anything before a television microphone without shaking at the knees, or experi­encing an "all-gone" feeling in that region, or without being un­pleasantly aware of "butterflies" in the tummy. Some find the greatest difficulty even to put questions at a public meeting. But hypnotherapy would soon free most of these cases from their nervous tensions and consequent nervousness.

There is a number of factors involved in the development of speech. No infant is capable of articulating words, but in every newly born babe the speech potential is present. It is situated in a region of the brain known as Broca's area, which, curiously enough is located only on the left side of the brain in right-handed persons. Now, whether the child will eventually speak English, French, German, Chinese or any of the many hundreds of different languages extant and fluently at that with good pronounciation, enunication, modulation, intonation will naturally depend upon his geographical and educational environment, and also upon his physique and general state of health.

Language, therefore, is an acquired art, the beginnings of which are automatically learnt in early childhood, progress in an increase of vocabulary being made right through to adulthood and then on and on through life consistent with one's educational back­ground and literary tastes, aptitudes, general development and mental make-up.

Stammering or stuttering is due to an interference to the easy flow of words forming sentences, and this interference is due mostly to psychological causes, which, in turn, create physiological dis­turbances, especially affecting the rhythmic breathing, the lips and tongue, so that the organs of speech are unable to perform their normal function. Those who are afflicted with this distressing habit of stammering usually seek the services of a teacher specialising in speech training. Whilst I am all in favour of voice production, which entails training in regulated breathing, so essential to beauty of speech, and also training in the correct use of the tongue and lips, which training most people sadly need, it leaves the basic cause of the stammer untouched.

Everyone of us would derive great benefit, in more ways than one, by undergoing a course of instruction in the art of speaking at the hands of a competent teacher of elocution, but the stammered requires something more. He does not need to be TAUGHT speech as such, for that faculty is present at birth and has developed already in his early life in the otherwise normal individual. What IS required, however, is the removal of the inhibiting factor or factors that prevent him from exercising this faculty freely.

As already stated, in most cases there is nothing wrong with the actual speech apparatus itself, but rather with its manner of use.

It is common knowledge that the stammered can read aloud and even recite fluently when alone, and still more easily can he sing words of a song. He can do all this in public too with far more comfort than if he has to speak, for the rhythm and the words, being ready made, keep him on the rails as it were, over which they travel easily. This frees him from undue strain. There are even occasions when in company he loses himself completely in what he is saying, so that there is not a trace of his impediment. This proves the point that the sufferer from this kind of speech defect CAN speak well on the rare occasions, when conditions for him are just right, e.g. when attention is drawn from himself.

I repeat that it is not training in speech as such that is called for by getting the stammered to utter phrases like "how now brown cow" or "the sea cease-eth but it suffice-eth us," which latter even a good speaker would find it difficult to enunciate distinctly without some practice—but that the cause of the impediment should be sought in the Psyche and brought into the light of consciousness by hypnotherapy which embraces hypnoanalysis.

I shall now give three methods of treating stammering or stuttering, two of which can be undertaken in one's own home, and the third in the consulting room of a hypnotherapist.

1. THE FORCED STAMMER

The stammerer is instructed deliberately to produce an ex­aggerated stammer and to indulge in the practice of forcing the stammer in the privacy of his own room, or at any opportune place and time. He must put all the effort he can into producing the worst possible stammer of which he is capable, and to sustain the effort in talking against all the resistance he can command. He will soon find this exercise to be such a strenuous business that he will be more than glad to revert to ordinary speech, which he will now feel to be so easy by comparison because of the release from the consciously imposed tension in keeping up an enforced stammer. This release can be so great that there is now little or no stammer at all on resuming ordinary speech in the company of other people. Obviously this intentional forced stammer must be practiced over and over again.

Now, although this method does not directly reach the basic cause, it can bring about in the course of time, such an improve­ment in fluent speech that the original cause of the stammer be­comes inoperative in producing it; it loses its power.

This method was devised by a Dr. Knight Dunbar, but the principle was known and used by Demosthenes 350 years B.C. He was afflicted with a very severe stammer, but he was determined to get the better of it, and to this end he put pebbles into his mouth in order to INCREASE HIS IMPEDIMENT and to FORCE himself by almost superhuman efforts to overcome his speech defect. And he succeeded too, in that he became the greatest orator of ancient Greece. Stammerers go ye and do likewise!

We have the same principle at work in the training of patients to relax. They are told to tense to the utmost limit their arms their legs and later the whole of the body, and to keep up this tensing business for as long as possible. At last they have to give in through strain-fatigue, whereupon they will experience what relaxation really feels like after the severe self-induced tensions which have been superimposed upon those unconsciously present. It is just this extra forced tension, especially of the speech organs that the stammerer deliberately makes, that causes him to be so aware of his ease when he relinquishes the strain; hence his speech is facilitated, and as he progresses, so his confidence increases and his pleasure in conversational intercourse is established.

2. THE SLEEP METHOD

Although this method appears to be but little known, it is by no means new. It is, however, only comparatively recently that it has been scientifically investigated and experiments made on sleeping persons especially in the United States of America with excellent results.

The procedure requires the services of either parent or a liked parent-substitute in the case of a child. It can be very effectively used for all kinds of improvement purposes, e.g. educative, the removal of any bad habit and unreasonable fears evoking interest in home and school work, enhancing the ability to pass examin­ations without anxiety, improving the health and accomplishments such as music, art, sports, athletics, and for imparting instruction generally (I refer readers to my book "Curative Hypnosis—Sug­gestion and Meditative Relaxation.")*

The parent is to sit at the bedside of the sleeping child. He is to place his hand lightly on the forehead and then gently stroke it. This has the effect of establishing a sympathic rapport between the parent and child. This is akin to the hypnotic state so that the parent is in "contact" with or can reach the unconscious mind of the child. Appropriate suggestions can now be given to the sleeper, the child being assured that mummy (or daddy) is with him, and that he is to continue to sleep. The suggestions of what the child is to be improved in or freed from had better be prepared and written down beforehand, so that there is an easy flow of words, these suggestions must be repeated over and over again in a subdued voice night after night. Becoming absorbed by the unconscious mind they fulfil themselves in the waking life of the individual, the child being told, whilst still asleep, that he will become fully conscious of the suggestions given and that he can thus enhance their value by using his intelligence and direct them to the best advantage by his own WILL. By this method the WILL can be made stronger and the nervous system strengthened, and emotional states satisfactorily dealt with. I remember reading somewhere that a chimpanzee at the zoo cannot THINK its way out of an EMOTIONAL problem, neither can a human being, he can only be TRAINED out if it, and hypnotherapy can accomplish this in the majority of cases.

3 HYPNOTHERAPY

Hypnotherapy in the consulting room is the technique of choice, for it not only follows more or less the same procedure as the sleep method in a more professional way, but in addition it em­braces hypnoanalysis which facilitates the tracing and recall of the cause of the trouble. It then brings it to the surface, during which process the actual living over again of the original incident that was responsible for producing the stammer or any other functional trouble, takes place. This "living over" is known in psychotherapeutic circles as an abreaction, and is so effective in dispersing the complaint for all time if it is thoroughly experienced.

The fact must not be lost sight of that unnecessary inhibitions with which the stammered is afflicted can handicap him in different ways over and above his stammer, throughout his life. These too can be eradicated by hypnotherapy in suitable cases.

Hypnosis is well in the public eye these days, and medically it has made much progress during the last few years. There is no question of imposing the will upon the patient, but rather the hypnotherapist makes the patient use HIS own Will to cure him. It is the will of the patient to get well. It is the will of the hypno­therapist to get him well. Both wills are thus in harmony and the desired result is the more likely to occur.

* Published by Thorsons Publishers Limited, 91 St. Martins Lane, London, W.I. Price Is. 6d. Postage 9d.

The hypnotic state is nothing more or less than a condition of profound relaxation, which is brought by employing the CONDI­TIONING technique as described in my book "Curative Hypnosis" already referred to. Relaxation having been induced the obstruc­tions to the innate healing forces of the organism are thus removed and they are aided by powerful curative suggestions. It is the unconscious mind that governs the heart's activity, the circulation, the digestive processes, the glandular secretions, the growth of the hair, of the nails, and so on, to the extent that hindrances to its function will permit. Hypnotic suggestions can exercise a bene-ficient influence upon this great inner mind, and remove inimical tensions, even reviving the instinct for the selection of health giving foods, as well as those most suitable for slimming in a natural way.

It will no doubt be readily gathered from what is written herein about stammering, that we are not directly concerned with the treatment of the speech defect itself in action, but rather with the discovery and removal of its impedimental CAUSE, of which the stammer is but the EFFECT. There are present inhibitory factors preventing the easy flow of words, but once these are re­moved, then there are no longer any obstructions to hinder fluent speech.

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