Stammering, 1938 - Susan Isaacs advises her corespondent that dealing with this is entirely a matter for professionals.

May, 1938 in Home and School "Readers’ Questions"

Stammering

“P.C.S.” writes: - I have been wondering if you could give me some advice for my little boy, P., aged six years. This last twelve months he has been stammering rather badly and I cannot account for it. He is quite normal and healthy and quite up to the average in his class.

            He is of a very excitable nature and is never happier than when dressed up as a cowboy and ‘shooting’ everybody.

            I have tried making him talk slowly, but this is inclined to aggravate him, as he walks away without having finishes what he wants to tell me.

            He is a good sleeper, goes to bed regularly at 7 o’clock and sleeps the clock round.

            I should be very grateful if you could give me come course to adopt to help him, as I am so afraid of it becoming permanent.

            I cannot tell from the facts you give in your letter what the cause of your boy’s stammering may be, not unfortunately can I advise you how to deal with it, since stammering is one of those things you cannot deal with unless you know what had led to it. if the boy is so very excitable, probably there is some very strong emotional conflict behind the stammering.

            I see from your address that you are not very near any Clinic. Would it be possible for you to take your boy to Birmingham? If you could do this it would be a very good thing, as at the Child Guidance Clinic there they would probably be able to discover the main cause of your boy’s excitement and stammering, and advise you how to treat him. The address is, The Child Guidance Clinic, Sheep Street, Birmingham: Medical Director, Dr. C. L. C. Burns.

            Meanwhile there is one very definite piece of advice I can give you, viz: - not to try to deal with the stammering yourself. It is a serious matter to make the boy more aware of his difficulty than he already is, by trying to force him to speak slowly. This sort of treatment always makes the stammering worse.

            Everything that brings greater tenseness, greater self-consciousness, greater anxiety, will increase the stammering, whereas everything that will make the boy calmer, help him relax the tightness of his muscles, make him feel more at ease with other people, less aware of himself and more interested in other things, will lessen the tendency to stammer.

            If I were you I would deliberately take no notice of it, and try to show the boy by your own manner that it did not worry you.

            What he really needs is some relaxing exercises, but these are best learnt from someone who understands how to do them, and is an expert teacher. If you tried to teach them to him yourself you might only make him more tense, taut and stiff.

            Do try to take the boy to Birmingham for proper first-hand advice, and meanwhile leave the stammer alone.