References
- McKibben , Stella . 1943 . “The Spastic Situation” . Journal of Speech Disorders , June
- Editor's Note: A woman of sixty, the author has been afflicted since birth with a spastic condition that an observer might describe as such utterly disorganized motor behavior as to render her helpless. Various orthopedic aids have enabled her to walk if assisted by another person, and when seated in a chair or in her tricycle, she can perform a number of simple tasks. Her speech consists mostly of monosyllabic sounds that her friends can understand with considerable success. Control over her tongue is so imperfect that she has never been able to eat unassisted. When past fifty she invented a plunger device that enabled her to type well enough so that she completed her high school education and went on to three years of college. She teaches and lectures with her typewriter, and has written articles for the Journal of Speech Disorders, Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, Diseases of the Nervous System, and The Crippled Child. The story of her life will soon appear in book form. Jeanette Anderson has aided the author in preparing the final draft of this article. The Journal is publishing it in the belief that it effectively restates an old point for all teachers as well as for teachers and workers in speech correction.