ion, "Can Stammering be
Outgrown?"

To any one who understands the nature of the difficulty and the
progress it is liable to make, the question is almost as absurd as
asking whether or not the desire to sleep can be outgrown by staying
awake. But aside from its scientific aspect--aside from the absurdity
of the question--let us examine the facts as revealed by actual records
of cases. Let us dispense with all theory on the subject and take
experience gained in a wide range of cases as the correct guide in
finding the answer.

FACTS FROM STATISTICS: An examination of the records of several
thousand cases of stuttering and stammering of all types and in all
stages of development reveals the fact that after passing the age of
six, only one-fifth of one per cent, ever outgrow stammering. This
means that out of every five hundred people who stammer, only one ever
outgrows it. Between the ages of three and six, the indications are
more favorable, the records in these cases showing that slightly less
than one per cent, outgrow the difficulty. That means that one out of
every hundred children affected has a chance, at least, of outgrowing
the difficulty between the ages of three and six, and after that time,
only one chance in five hundred.

Suppose you were handed a rifle, given five hundred cartridges and told
to hit a bull's eye at a hundred yards, 499 times out of 500. Suppose
you were told that if you missed once you would have to suffer the rest
of your life as a stammerer.

Would you take the offer? Certainly not!!!

And yet that is exactly the opportunity that a stammerer over six years
of age has to outgrow his trouble.

Dr. Leonard Keene Hirschberg, the medical writer, whose suggestions
appear daily in a large list of newspapers, has this to say about the
possibility of outgrowing stammering:

"Often when the attention of careless and reckless fatalistic relatives
is attracted to a child's stammering, they labor under the mistaken
illusion that the child 'will outgrow it.' A more harmful doctrine has
never been perpetuated than the one contained in that stock phrase. As
a matter of experience, speech troubles are not 'outgrown.' They become
'ingrown.' If not corrected at first they go from bad to worse. So
firmly rooted and ingrained into the child's habits does stuttering
become that with every hour's growth the chance for a cure becomes
farther and farther removed."

This statement from Dr. Hirschberg is