d where possible,
but when this cannot be brought about, a written description and
history of the case should enable the capable diagnostician of speech
defects to diagnose the case in a very thorough manner. The result of
this diagnosis should be set down in the form of a report in order that
the parent may have a permanent record of the child's condition and may
be able to take the proper steps for the eradication of the speech
disorder. With this information as to the child's case in hand, parents
should be guided by the advice of Alexander Melville Bell, one of the
greatest speech specialists of his age, who said:

"Stuttering and Hesitation are stages through which the stammerer
generally passes before he reaches the climax of his difficulty, and if
he were brought under treatment before the spasmodic habit became
established, his cure would be much more easy than after the malady has
become rooted in his muscular and nervous system."

Truly may it be said of the stammering child at this period, that
"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads
on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in
shallows and in miseries."

CHAPTER XII

THE SPEECH DISORDERS OF YOUTH

Youth, as we shall define it from the standpoint of the development of
speech disorders, is the period from the age of 12 to the age of 20.
From the twelfth to the twentieth year is a very critical period in the
life of both the boy and the girl who stammers--a period which should
have the watchfulness and care of the parent at every step. This is
known as the period of adolescence and may be said to mark the time of
a new birth, when both mind and body undergo vital changes. New
sensations, many of them intense, arise, and new associations in the
sense sphere are formed.

To the boy or girl passing through this stage of life, it is a period
of new and unknown forces, emotions and feelings. It is a time of
uncertainty. The sure-footed confidence of childhood gives way to the
unsure, hesitating, questioning attitude of a mind filled with new and
strange thoughts and a body animated by new and strange sensations.

These are the symptoms of a fundamental change, the outward
manifestations of the passing from childhood to manhood or womanhood.
This is childhood's equinoctial storm, marking the beginning of the
second season of life's year. In this storm, it is the paramount duty
of the parent to be a