re of them.

The first and one of the most common causes is Mimicry, or, as it is
probably more often called, Imitation. Mimicry or Imitation is almost
wholly confined to children. After reaching the age of discretion, the
adult is usually of sufficient intelligence to refrain from mimicking
or imitating a person who stutters or stammers.

The average small boy, however, (or girl, for that matter) seems to
find delight in mocking and imitating a playmate who stutters or
stammers, and so keen is this delight that he persists in this practice
day after day until (as its own punishment) the practice of mockery or
mimicry brings upon the boy himself the affliction in which he found
his fun.

It may be noted, however, that Imitation is not always conscious, but
often unconscious. The small child begins to imitate the stuttering
companion without knowing that he engages in imitation. This practice,
notwithstanding the fact that it is unconscious, soon develops into
stuttering, without any cause being assignable by the parent until
investigation develops that unconscious and even unnoticed imitation is
the basic cause of the defective utterance.

It has been definitely determined that stuttering may be communicable
through contagious impressions, especially among children of tender age
whose minds are subject to the slightest impressions.

For this reason, it is not advisable for parents to allow children to
play with others who stutter or stammer, nor is it charitable to allow
a child who stutters or stammers to play with other children who are
not so afflicted.

So far-reaching are the effects of Imitation or Mimicry that in certain
cases, children have been known to contract stuttering from associating
with a deaf-mute whose expressions were made chiefly in the form of
grunts and inarticulate sounds.

FRIGHT OR SEVERE NERVE SHOCK: Another common cause of stammering is
fright or nervous shock, which may have been brought about in countless
ways. One boy who came to me some time ago stated that he had swallowed
a nail when about six years of age and that this was the cause of his
stammering. The logical conclusion in a case like this would be that
the nail had injured the vocal organs, but an examination proved that
there was no organic defect and that the stammering was caused, not by
injury directly to the vocal organs but by the nervous shock occasioned
by swallowing the nail.

Another case was that of a stammere