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SPEECHVI.iO-tf-ccar;United States Public Health Service Takes Up Problem.FINDINGSHOSPITAL-4-cdden-!0-cInvestigations of War Neurosis ThrowMuch Light on Stuttering and Other1 Disorders of Speech—Dr. Blanton Tells American Medical Association Treatment Should Not Be Left to Quacks and Charlatans — Makes Study of School Children.g car isseli. 8-tf-cfullyvpplyigton2-6-pAlong with its other activities for the benefit of ex-service men who wereobliged to have hospital care and treatment following their return £ro; i France, the United States government, through Its public health service, hr-;been studying speech defects and treating the former soldiers afflicted wiilidiagnosis, the futility of sending thesemen for treatment in the so-called ‘stuttering schools’ or by elocutionists or phenologists becomes apparent.‘ Some writers have maintained tlfct; ; the neurasthenic and other trouble1 were caused by the stuttering and not the cause of the stuttering. This we feel to be a fallacy, owing to several factors whiqh I wiU present. Since tb* war stuttering has been studied, tbet fact has be«n brought out that thesame type of temperament was present before the stuttering and th. hereditary factors are virtually the same in those Individuals who stut tercd, but who never experienced war„and in those who stuttered owing tc strain in service, but who saw no ae the service under fire at the front and in those who stuttered previour to service, but relapsed under the strain, and in those who did not stut; ter previous to experience under shell fire and in fighting.“In the comparison of 40 soldiers with 200 school children from one tlt; eighteen years old interesting factr are brought to light. A coraparisoiof the personality showed that 13 pe;N'eviR(HoClHlt;HeIIf YDplaithem. Speech defects developed in a fairly large number as the result o? cent of the children and 0 per ceuthe exigencies of war.of ihe soldiers were classed as showe for2-5-cWhat has been done In work along j Ing no marked variation; 52 per cen this line was explained at the annual j of die children showed marked lnferl►hone!meeting of the American Medical ass clatton by Dr. Smiley Blanton, associate professor of speech hygiene, and associate in neuropsychiatry at the University of Wisconsin Medicalnales j school, and attending specialist at thespeech clinic of the United States public health service. Dr. Blanton’s paper appears In full In The Journal of Un-American Medical Association.The experience gained by those whohave been studying the matter leads them to believe that disorders of speech are due to the lack of ability to adapt emotionally to social situa-ority feelings, showing rhemselvc)-peder.t 6001-tf-csorg!42-K6-C-peither in titnldity or in overcorapen sations by extreme boldness; M pe' cent of the soldiers came in this class 35 per cent of the children and 34 pe1 cei r of the soldiers were markedlymoody, either of the temper, sulky, de prt 'sion or of the hypomanlnc (moder ate mania) types. In addition, 5 pe. cent of the soldiers were apathetic ant. dull; none of the children were slt; classed. Whether this is a true varia tioti or a mistake in classification ir the group of school children woulf pre: ably he demonstrated In a stud}Sitducelt;its s.anv0thisbeenerv fWbackhundtoldreme and 1 than try.rod iameof si ’or I\LL700tions, or to a faulty motor mechanism, of a larger group.’hone6-i-ub borer ericseither hereditary or acquired. Also, that the most worthwhile results ! which are obtained at present arcA study of the variation shown lithe symptoms of stuttering itself i-indicative of its functional etiologynemTJ itt€t winteio-3-p?rsey385nd.5-3-cthose which aim at the underlying lt;f tiie children, 22 were worse atcause and general hygiene and muscle training; and that training aimed at tIre* alleviation of the symptom aloneis pernicious because it obscures theschool than at home; two were worseIn town than In the country, one was worse on vacation, 16 wore given to complete remission in stuttering, onpvel I Go■nusii-hest ;pol iissue and in hysterical cases actually i sfti’ters only in school, one stuttersBumning.“'1I.5-3-p / rlate.5-4-eimilesrentgood1004. i tf-csets” the disorder.Tlte physicians feel that this problem, for so many years left in the hands of quacks and charlatans and untrained people, is most distinctly a medical problem, and that neuropsy chiairie training is necessary for lit diagnosis and treatment of these patients. Dr. Blanton strongly urged thej necessity for training medical students j in the value of speech disorders us »significant symptom.Dr. Blanton began ids paper by calling attention to the fact that at birth the speech area lias not yet been demonstrated in the brain, and therefore the development of speech is not inevitable. An intact auditory apparatus. the presence of intelligence, »nd an intact nervous and muscular system are required for its proper development, plus certain emotional and so- | cial demands and situations under the !stimulus of which it is organized.for!igan-tf-ci!Speech Disorders Form a Key.Speech disorders, then, are early and invaluable symptoms of anomalies ofIntellect and emotional growth as we 1 i as organic difficulties of the nervous system, he says.“I shall not touch on the organic j aphasias, but shall confine the discussion to the four tentative groups,”said Dr. Blanton ; “(1) delayed speech;(2) letter substitution; (3) oral inactivities of the articulatory organs; (4) stuttering, which includes the disorder of stammering. These disorders should be regarded as symptom complexes rather than as disease entities. These typos are rarely simple and dear cut.”The physician defined each of thesev )lt;!!lt; at Polish, one stutters oidy in -peaking to his father, one never stutters while at play, one never stutters with members of Ids own sex, one gets , worse at intervals of thrco or four a days, one is worse after an operation for adenoids and tonsils (undertakento cure the stutter), one stuttered for three weeks only, and so on, with such variations for virtually the entiregroup.Some Lost Their Speech.“Among the soldiers six began to ‘•tutter with service at the front (five of these began with aphonia—loss of -peceh); seven were stutterers who relapsed with service at the front; i.no who had stuttered severely had a complete remission while at the front, until he got up Into Germany and leonnie homesick; six who had stuttered previously relapsed withst rvice In this country (such as a fight o runaway horse and a close shave with an explosion); one relapsed with the draft and one relapsed with intlu-enzn. Many of these men have troubh at the telephone, although they do no-have any trouble If the receiver is closed, but begin to stutter Immediately v hen it is opened, • • *“Another factor which contributes tlt; our belief that there is an underlying weakness of the motor system is the relatively high percentage of stutterers who have been changed from left to right-handedness. Ballard says that the generally conceded percentage of left-lianded people In the population is about 3 per cent. In the 200 school children we found 12.5 per cent who were left-handed, 11.5 per cent of whom were changed for writing; andwers, . . - », . - . . ^ among the soldiers 17.5 per cent, niland told »t length l,ow they ^ „ f„rU \ » 11 L’ I i il Ui/1 C!/fe Fn !• II ^quattene rtem ngs. Henear•isitchere’astlt; vith *d inTh•nd 1\ spihe chey-so th he b rogiTh.uest xth is onidistary.ndia;he 4* thertall.A 7:30.•utonneml vf th olied touve odge n ?irounmd c southme- I were occasioned, so far as is known. . (' Then he continued:5-2-5near5-3-crungnderi -3-cotel,tion.•tice.7-2-c*4:QLa“Much light has been thrown on the problem of stuttering by the study of the war neurosis cases. At Base hospital, No. 117, which was a receiving hospital near the front, probably 50 per cent of the men had some sort of j disturbance of the speech, or a break in the rhythm, or of the type of speech which Roussy and Lhermitte called ‘nigger-boy’ speech, and which we classify as oral inactivity.We have had opportunity of making intensive study of the postwar neurosis cases suffering from speech disorders at the speech clinic of the United States Public Health Service hospital, No. 37, organized at the request of Dr. Lawrence Kolb, director of the hospital, in January, 1020. Fifty-two cases have passed through this clinic. Statistics were gathered from 40 of these gases in which intensive studies have been made.“Before concluding that most of the soldier speech cases were caused b\ ; psychoneurotic mechanisms, a complete ! study of the physical condition wasmade, as well as psychologic te^ts forintelligence and mental imagery.“The patients In the clinic, besides having the benefit of the general staff of the hospital, are given individual j tp.,rtraining by the speech clinic staff.Only* a small part of the treatment deals with the speech per se, hut con corns itself with general muscle training and emotional adjustment.Many Suffering From Hysteria.0 * x % ■■ ^ i ■ a“The sending of these cases to the; neuropsychiatric hospital was justified by the classification and diagnosis of the conditions under which the patients were laboring. Fifty-seven and five-tenths were found to he sufferingfrom hysteria. 5 per cent neurnstbeuic, 30 per cent were cages of anx*1I“There is also the problem of hereditary tendency. There seems to be amarked disposition In the families of these Individuals toward defects of speech—not only of stuttering, hut alsothe other defects. In the families of | 72.5 per cent of these cases there weredefects of speech. In 52 per cent of the families there was stuttering, and in 22 per cent there were both stuttering and other defects. That this Is hot primarily a problem of Imitation or faulty learning Is shown by the fact that many of these patients had never seen the person so affected; for example, the grandparent stuttered, but died before the child was horn, etc. * * *“There is very little relationship he- J tween poor health and the severity of stuttering, hut nn exact and surpris. !ng correlation between social adaptation and the severity of the symptom.“The treatment and re-educntion of stutterers Is in a chaotic condition generally, the work where it includes drill on particular letter position being actually pernicious, and accom-lUishlng results only where the personality of the worker Instills courage or sustains the patient. Treatment Is usually aimed at the symptom itself, and where relief Is given to the underlying temperamental disability Is left untouched.“That results can bo bad with thesa patients when the treatment is di* rected toward general muscle training plus the adjustment of the individual to his environment, we feel to he'*ll * W #- 7 is ‘sho-.vn by the work of Miss l’aulf?\e Cr.mp in (frond Rapids, Mich., whowas able to dismiss 43 per eon: of herA R1UIit GrLoansL7 nitelt;BondsnilAd v»TrDue fDue fpaiDue fFuCash lt;CashT rustCurrerT axesIntere;TotaST ATIj cases as arrested, and of my own V clinicI, G.GreensSubsnlc at United States hospital. No 37, where 30 per cent were arrested, j 17 per cent greatly improved, and 23 v My coiper cent stiii under treatment.i
Newspaper Details
Greensburg Daily News
Greensburg, Indiana, US
Tue, Sep 13, 1921
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
University O.
MI, USA 14 Jun 2019
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