.

Case No. 48.336--This is a case that represents a very common type of
Combined Stammering and Stuttering, and a type that is not so quickly
cured as might be imagined. This was a young man of 18, who not only
stammered but stuttered. His speech disorder, however, was further
complicated by a bad habit of prefixing a totally foreign word or sound
to the word or sound which he found it difficult to pronounce. "B" was
one of his hard sounds and in speaking the sentence: "We expect to
leave Baltimore," he would say: "We expect to leave
ah--ah--ah--Baltimore."

The fear of failure which caused him to acquire this habit of speaking,
led his friends often to think that his mind wandered, although as a
matter of fact, he was a very bright young fellow, without a single
indication of Thought Lapse.

I diagnosed his case as Combined Stammering and Stuttering, and
explained to him that he represented a type of stammering that might be
called the "Prefix Stammerer" because of their habit of prefixing every
hard sound with an easy word or an easy sound, even to the extent of
losing the sense of the sentence--so great is the "Prefix Stammerer's"
fear of failure.

He placed himself for treatment, and although his trouble was
complicated by this prefixing habit, seven weeks put him in good shape.
He forgot his fear of failure, found every word an easy word and every
sound an easy sound. He learned to talk fluently again and returned to
his home, both physically and mentally improved.

Case No. 98.656--This was the case of a rather arrogant young man from
a good family, who was too proud to admit that he was a stammerer.
Rather it should be said, he was too foolish to admit it. He was
well-educated and with the store of words at his command, succeeded for
some years in concealing the fact that he stammered. This he
accomplished by the substitution of words. That is, words beginning
with those letters that he could not utter were not used. If his
sentence included such a word, he quickly substituted another word of
somewhat similar meaning, but beginning with a letter that he could
pronounce correctly. This substitution of words was so well done that
for some time it was scarcely noticeable to the average listener. Often
he found himself incorrectly understood, because of his inability to
use the right word in the right place, but nevertheless he was
successful in concealing his speech defect from many of his friends.

This ca