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 safe and ever-present pilot through the sea that to the captain of this craft is as uncharted as the route to the Indies in Columbus' day. The revolution now taking place in both the mental and bodily processes results hi a lack of stability--an "unsettledness" that manifests itself in restlessness, nervousness, self-consciousness or morbidness, taking perhaps the form of a persistent melancholia or desire to be alone. At this time in the life of the boy or girl, the possibilities for stuttering or stammering to secure a firm hold on their muscular and nervous system are very great. Next to the age of second dentition, children at the age of puberty are most susceptible to stammering or stuttering. During adolescence, the annual rate of growth in height, weight and strength is increased and often doubled or more. The power of the diseases peculiar to childhood abates and the liability to the far more numerous diseases of maturity begins, so that with the liability to both it is not strange that this period is marked at the same time by increased morbidity. The significant fact about stuttering in children as far as it relates to the period of adolescence, is that this stage marks the most pronounced susceptibility to the malady as well as the time during which it may most quickly pass into the chronic stage. Examinations show that the largest percentage of stutterers among boys was at the ages of eight, thirteen and sixteen, while the largest percentage among girls was at the ages of seven, twelve and sixteen--the earlier age of severity in girls being explained by the fact that the girl reaches a given state of maturity more quickly than a boy.