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Of the 29 children attending in December, 1938, 14 showed
a marked improvement; 4 were speaking normally and only
attending for observation, and the remaining 11 were all
making satisfactory progress although in one case progress
was hampered by backwardness.
It is interesting to note the varying lengths of time
required for the successful treatment of stammering. Among
the children attending the llendon Speech Clinic during 1938
were two stammerers: both were boys of about the same age,
but one D.H., had stammered since he was 5 years old while
the other F.D., had stammered for 9 months only, before being
admitted to the Speech Clinic.
D.H., came from a very poor home where he received
little help and though he was admitted to the Speech Clinic
in 1934 it was not until February, 1938, that he began to make
any real progress. At this time he became ambitious to enter
a Technical College and realising that his speech would be a
serious handicap he tackled the difficulty seriously for the first
time with the result that he has passed his examination
successfully and his speech and reading are now normal,
except for a very slight hesitation in moments of excitement.
F.D., whose stammer had been of comparatively short
duration responded to treatment immediately and, after a
little adjustment had been made in his home life made steady
progress. Me was discharged as cured after three months'
treatment.
These two cases illustrate the decisive importance of the
co-operation of the child and of his parents. The essence of
treatment is to teach the child to relax and the necessity of
this will be obvious to anyone who has noticed the state of
tension assumed by the stammerer in his efforts to enunciate.
This relaxation can be taught at the Clinic but must be
practised at home, and where the environmental conditions
are unsuitable or the parents unsympathetic treatment will
almost certainly fail and this is one of the chief reasons why
the results of treatment, good as they are, do not attain an
even higher standard of cure.