rm of speech marked by short, rapid
muscular contractions instead of the smooth and easy action used in
producing normal sounds. Neurotic Lisping is often found to be combined
with stammering or stuttering, which is quite logical, since it is
similar, both as to CAUSE and as to the presence of a MENTAL
DISTURBANCE. In Neurotic Lisping, the muscular movements are less
spasmodic than in cases of stuttering, partaking more of the cramped
sticking movement, common in stammering.
STUTTERING
Stuttering may be generally defined as the repetition--rapid in some
cases, slow in others--of a word or a syllable, before the following
word or syllable can be uttered. Stuttering may take several forms, any
one of which will fall into one of four phases:
(1)--Simple Phase
(2)--Advanced Phase
(3)--Mental Phase
(4)--Compound Phase
Simple stuttering can be said to be a purely physical form of the
difficulty. The Advanced Phase marks the stage of further progress
where the trouble passes from the purely physical state into a
condition that may be known as Mental-Physical. The distinctly Mental
Phase is marked by symptoms indicating a mental cause for the trouble,
the disorder usually having passed into this form from the simple or
advanced stages of the malady. Stuttering may be combined with
stammering in which case the condition represents the Compound Phase of
the trouble.
CHOREATIC STUTTERING: This originates in an attack of Acute Chorea or
St. Vitus Dance, which leaves the sufferer in a condition where
involuntary and spasmodic muscular contractions, especially of the
face, have become an established habit. This breaks up the speech in a
manner somewhat similar to ordinary stuttering. Also known as "Tic
Speech."
SPASTIC SPEECH: This is often the result of infantile cerebral palsy,
the characteristic symptom of the trouble being intense over-exertion,
continued throughout a sentence, the syllables being equal in length
and very laboriously enunciated. In spastic speech, there is present a
noticeable hyper-tonicity of the nerve fibers actuating the muscles
used in speaking as well as marked contractions of the facial muscles.
UNCONSCIOUS STUTTERING: This is a misnomer because there can be no such
thing as unconscious stuttering. It appears that the person afflicted
is not conscious of his difficulty for he insists that he does not
s-s-s-s-tut-tut-tut-ter. Unconscious Stuttering is but a name for the
di
|