WHAT DIAGNOSIS SHOULD SHOW: First of all, of course, the diagnosis should identify and label your trouble. It should tell what form of speech defect is revealed by the symptoms; it should tell the cause of the trouble; the stage it is now in; should indicate whether or not there is any organic defect; should give information as to the possibilities of outgrowing the trouble; and, most important of all, should state whether or not the disorder is in a curable stage. When it is remembered that nearly a dozen more or less common speech disorders can be named, almost in one breath, and that some of these disorders may pass through four or five successive stages, it will be seen that an expert diagnosis and report is almost a necessity to the stammerer or stutterer who would have reliable and authoritative information about his speech disorder. The stammerer or stutterer who voluntarily remains in the dark, who is satisfied with gross ignorance of his trouble, is surely not on the road to freedom of speech. The most able man cannot decide correctly without the facts. To decide in the absence of information is guesswork--and guesswork is a poor method of deciding what to do--in the case of the stammerer as in every other case. Therefore, it behooves the stammerer to become enlightened to as great an extent as possible, to banish ignorance of his trouble and replace it with facts and sound knowledge. CHAPTER VI THE SECRET OF CURING STUTTERING AND STAMMERING If the reader has followed this work carefully up to this point, he is now informed on the causes of stuttering and stammering, on their characteristic tendencies and their peculiarities. We are now ready to ask, "What are the correct methods for the cure of stuttering and stammering?" and to answer that question authoritatively. As to the successful mode of procedure in determining the proper methods for the cure of stuttering and stammering, I know of no suggestion better than that offered by Alexander Melville Bell, who says: "The rational, as it is experimentally the successful method of procedure, is first to study the standard of correct articulation (NOT the varieties of imperfect utterance) and then not to go from one extreme to another, but at every step to compare the defective with the perfect mode of speech and so infallibly to ascertain the amount, the kind and the source of the error." We have already done that: We have located the cause of the trouble. We not only know that stammering is caused by a lack of co-ordination between the brain and the muscles of speech, but we know the things which may bring about the lack of co-ordination. Now, how to cure? Simply remove the cause. Re-establish normal co-ordination between the brain and the muscles of speech. Restore normal brain control over the speech organs. Make these organs respond freely, naturally and promptly to the brain messages.