Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SPEECH-HESITATION
E.J.Ellery Thorpe.
prised at the success she has met with, becanse, too, of the
careful study of individual cases upon which she bases her
treatment.
The-whole subject is one of the most peculiar and scien-
E. J. ELLERY THORPE
NEW YORK
EDGAR S. WERNER PUBLISHING & SUPPLY CO.
1900
i
Copyrighit
1898
BY E. J. E. THORPE
TO MY PUPILS,
WHO HAVE FURNISHED THE MEANS BY WHICH
E. J. E. THORPE.
Newton Centre, Mass.
SPEECH-HESITATION
CHAPTER I.
hard before."
"But," I would say, "you have said them to me hun-
dreds of times. Why could you not say them then ?"
"I do not know, but it was impossible to speak them."
was her special work, she had by request taken pupils who
needed instruction in speaking. Her plan was to train the
pupil first upon the least difficult sounds, and when these
were conquered he went on to those that were more dif-
ficult, and was drilled in this way until he had mastered
them all.
are :
Pressing together the thumb and the finger, winking,
the head, etc. These are sold as great secrets. They are
the cause ?" Some physicians said, "We do not know the
was wise. Until the child was able to play with other
children without excitement, she was kept by herself,
and it was a year at least after iher speech was perfect be-
fore she was allowed to enter school. This case was
sufficiently marked to settle the question o/f cause and effect
in regard to nervousness, and all subsequent experience
has strengthened the position. The whole difficulty was
that the grasp of the breath, which should have been in
the throat where the breath must pass, and with force
throw the whole system into disorder.
sufficient to
tion.
pour the water from it; and she could read aloud for
hours and talk with the utmost freedom.
A
boy nine years old dragged his right foot, and the
right hand and arm were useless. His voice was an
aspirate, and his face was a mass of contractions. His
speech was an illustration of extreme hesitation. At
birth he did not breathe perceptibly for an hour. For
some days he made no sound, and it was a month before
he made what could be called a cry. He, too, needed a
sage.
With the exception of the last, all these symptoms were
concentrated in this one boy, and every one was strongly
marked. All that great strength which should have been
gathered in the breathing-muscles centred in the throat,
tongue, lower jaw and wrists. The constant movement
and abnormal energy centred in the jaw and the tongue
caused a profuse flow of saliva. The size of the tongue
was increased by the unusual exercise; the effort in the
cular energy went to the wrists and lower jaw and tongue,
20 SPEECH-HESITA TION.
and the fingers and legs and feet were quite helpless.
The wrists were very strong and abnormally developed.
The eyes were never fixed upon any object, the shoulders
were lifted, and the head was never erect. The responsive
instinct was there, in full force, and when one spoke to
the child all these false centres were roused to full activ-
ity.
stantly the limp feet flew, propelled from the hips. Three
things were noted :
First, he knew what the word "kick"
meant; second, he was not so much paralyzed but that
he could kick ; third, 'he was pleased and delighted to fol-
uses to its full capacity all the energy that nature pro-
child.
The muscles that move the tongue and the jaw in mas-
tication are the same as are used in forming articulations
or consonants. The same stream of breath that forms
the vowel gives expression to the articulations, which may
be called the finish to the vowel-sound.
tion for the voice, in all pulpit and platform oratory, dra-
matic speaking and singing, is but a broadening from the
current melody of the speaking-voice, which depends in
quent influence.
The non-vocalized breath is inspiration and expiration.
With this, life may go on and the breathing be perfect;
the muscles at the sides of the neck, the head may in the
2g SPEECH-HESITA TION.
they are sitting quite still, and the fidgeting with the
leaves of a book while reading, are evidences of an activ-
speaking any word, but the head bent from side to side,
and the contraction had reached the hands. At birth it
get on very well for a time; perhaps will talk for days
without revealing any difficulty, especially if difficult per-
sons and places are avoided. In some such cases, even
the neighbors whom they meet continually detect no weak-
ness. It may be that when the conversation becomes ex-
may come to them. But the mass of cases are much more
intricate. The tendency of the contraction is to communi-
SPEECH-HESITA TION. 33
through the muscles at the neck and the jaw, there may
be times when the rigidity is at the extreme, when the
pearance of convulsions ;
or they may move from side to
four years old could neither walk nor hold up her head:
so great was the misplaced energy.
The mental phase is conspicuous in those cases in
which speech-hesitation is a prominent symptom. It is
a serious complication, but stands in relation to the physi-
cal as effect and not as cause. One is never afraid to do
stant play and interplay of the one with the other, the
mental may in many cases outgrow the physical, but the
straint.
by the contraction; i.
e., that the word is simply subject to
the condition.
one grasps his pen with all the energy that can be
If
sympathy. The boys and even the girls follow him with
taunts, shouting into his ear the words of which he is most
by hearing another
children, hesitate only once, may be-
tion faster than we can by any means correct it, and where
it is the most conscientiously taught, the percentage of
hesitation is the highest.
four years old visited for a few hours one of about her
think not. The truth is that he, like most of the world,
"Why does anyone talk like that ?" said a person to me,
little more than you do; that is all. The result is what
you see." It may be added that the questioner had pain
in the throat with every slight cold.
The early part of my work was a line of experiments
with different methods, with no settled opinion in re-
prised to find his hands open upon the arms of his chair,
and a general relaxation of all the muscles followed.
relapse.
In the first place, the boy did well to keep silence.
gle with the contraction rather than the silence. The con-
traction was very great, and became communicated to the
legs were weak she; lifted her right foot and right hand
and bent her head, her face becoming very red in her
SPEECH-HESITA TION. 55
tion.
epileptic.
CHAPTER IV.
gin at birth, would it not be well for all Who have the
mentally.
In a few cases, a slight movement called "a trick" mav
give relief. But tricks should be used with caution, and
never in serious cases, because one may in this way add
tension to an already overstrained part. In this haphaz-
ard treatment, which gives no definite aim, what helps one
is not likely to relieve another.
The person who cures 'himself is everywhere. Meeting
SPEECH-HESITA TION. 61
sibility.
rectly into his pulpit. When 'he felt the contraction ris-
omit r ;
the Ephraimites used s in the place of sh. Trav- .
elers have stated that the Society Islanders can not pro-
nounce the hard g and k i. e.,
they never lift the back of
;
spect, and is not able to connect the sound with the exact
movement that produces the sound, his speech may be a
they grow older, will see the wrong and be able to cor-
rect it. This usually occurs within the first six years of a
SPEECH-HESITA TION. 69
oratory.
The advice, "Let him be; he will outgrow it," or
tempt to try to place the tongue and lips was a great trial.
Her nervousness was so great that a minute was a long
that she could speak a new word that induced her to aim
;
at words that she could not speak, and then she gained
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