Correcting Speech Defects

Abstract

THE MOTHER Of a nine-year-old boy who stuttered called to see speech teacher in a public school recently. She was very anxious because clinic nurse had told her that the cause of Jack's stutter was masturbation and that if he continued to masturbate, he would eventually become insane. To be sure this was rather an unusual statement. The majority of nurses now recognize that stuttering, lisping, masturbation, and thumb sucking are all symptoms of emotional maladjustment and that whole child must be studied to determine cause. This article is concerned primarily with symptoms known as speech defects, most common of which are stuttering, lisping, letter substitution, oral inactivity, and delayed speech. Stuttering, lisping, and letter substitution are generally recognized by layman; first as halting or repetitive speech, lisping as substitution of th for s, sh, ch, and j, and letter substitution as when one says wed for red, tandy for candy. Oral inactivity is characterized by extreme indistinctness. Words are run together, sounds omitted and listener may say Why I can't understand one word that boy says. Too frequently delayed speech is not recognized early. If child does not talk in sentences at two years, parents should seek cause from doctor, speech specialist, or both. The parent feels sure that speech will develop and so, because he lacks technic for encouraging it, continues to wait or takes him to a doctor who says, Oh, he's alright, a perfect specimen-he will soon be talking too much. Many such cases of delayed speech are found in kindergarten and first grade still unable to express themselves intelligibly and so substituting undesirable behavior reactions for correct speech. The cause of these different speech defects is seldom understood by parent until it is fully explained by speech specialist. Grandparents and parents feel sure that heredity, diseased tonsils, teeth, or tongue-tie are responsible. Recent studies reveal fact that only Io per cent of speech defects are organic and that 90o per cent are functional, that is they are symptoms of an underlying emotional difficulty. Speech is not inherited but develops in response to a definite need. It is our way of getting along with people-adjustment to environment-and any break in rhythm of speech indicates a maladjustment or inability to meet situations in an easy, natural way. Speech is a very sensitive mechanism and emotional.disturbances are frequently cause of speech defect. The causes, numerous and varied, may best be illustrated with a few case studies.