Samuel Dowse Robbins

1887-1968

Samuel Dowse Robbins was the director of the Boston School of Stuttering, begun in 1914. In 1916 his school merged with Boston Stammering Institute, a school begun in 1867 by a Canadian, T. B. J. L. Grady. Many years later, in 1940 Robbins merged once again, this time with the Troy School. Robbins’ renamed the new organization the Institute for Speech Correction.

During World War I, Robbins worked in the laboratory at Harvard begun by Hugo Munsterberg. Robbins’ research on stuttering was supervised by Munsterberg’s successor in the laboratory, Herbert Sydney Langfeld. Robbins studied the relationship of shock to “stammering” (stuttering). As he describes it:

The first thing I did was a systemographic (phonetic) study of shock and stammering. I felt from my own case that stammering was closely akin to fright. When I became frightened of a speech situation, I would stammer. When perfectly calm, I wouldn’t stammer. So I wanted to compare a number of normal speakers furnished by the laboratory there, with stutterers furnished by the Institute for Speech Correction and see how the stutterer differed in their speaking from the normal speakers and how the reactions to fright compared with those for stuttering (Robbins, interviewed by Pronovost, 1965, p. 3).

Robbins also believed that stuttering was related to what he called “congenital visual aphasia.”

Perhaps you know I have congenital visual aphasia myself. All my life I’ve been unable to form at will any visual image. So I have always been interested in impaired visual imaginary, and I’ve worked all my life researching at the Child Guidance clinics for some kind of a test that could tell whether a young child, even a preschool child, was ear-minded primarily, or eye-minded or multi-minded. I felt if we could determine the child’s mindedness and set the therapy to that, we could benefit the child more quickly. If he was ear-minded, stimulate the ear. If he’s eye-minded, have him lip read and look at diagrams of mouth (unclear) and things like that. If he’s multi-minded, use the Stinchfield-Young motor kinesthetic method of placement of the lip, tongue, and jaw for them until he learns the position. I never got to first base in making people see the light on that subject (Robbins interviewed by Pronovost, 1965, p. 28-29).

In the 1920s Robbins was also the speech director of a clinic located in the Neurology Department at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He served in that capacity for 20 years, sharing his time between that unit, his own practice, and Emerson College, Boston, where he held a half-time appointment.

In 1935, Robbins started a Speech Pathology Program at Emerson College in Boston. He directed the speech program and trained students at Emerson. His speech program at Emerson was funded by the Department of Mental Health of the State of Massachusetts. (photos of Robbins’ work at Emerson can be found on an Emerson College web page

Robbins was very active in the national organization American Society for the Study of Disorders of Speech--the mother organization of what is now The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. He served as its vice president from 1929 to 1930, as secretary from 1931 to 1940,and as its president from 1941-1942.

Writings of Samuel Robbins, Arranged in Chronological Order.

Boston Stammerers’ Institute. (1916). The course of private lessons for the correction of stammering offered by the Boston Stammerers’ Institute. Boston, Smithsonian Press.

Robbins, S. D. (1919a). Comparative shock and stammering. American Journal of Physiology, 48, 285-233.

Robbins, S. D. (1919b). A plethysmographic study of shock and stammering. American Journal of Physiology, 18, 285-330.

Robbins, S. D. (1920a). A new objective test for verbal imagery type. With a note on the verbal imagery of stammerers and normal speakers. Psychological Review, 27, 38-49.

Robbins, S. D. (1920b). A plethysmographic study of shock and stammering in a trephined stammerer. American Journal of Physiology, 52, 168-181.

Robbins, S. D. (1921a). How to stop stammering. Boston Stammerers Institute.

Robbins, S. D. (1921b). The real cause of stammering; and a logical treatment. Medical Record, 99, 235-236.

Robbins, S. D. (1925). Naming disorders of speech. Science, 74, 515.

Robbins, S. D. (1926). Stammering and its treatment. Boston, MA: Boston Stammerers' Institute.

Robbins, S. D. (1927). Stammering and its treatment. Providence, RI: Rhode Island Society for Mental Hygiene.

Robbins, S. D. (1928). The prevention of stammering: Some suggestions. Journal of Expression, 2, 232-234.

Robbins, S. D. (1931). Breath control in stammering. New England Journal of Medicine, 205, 146-149.

Robbins, S. D., & Stinchfield, S. (1931). Dictionary of speech terminology. American Speech Correction Association.

Robbins, S. D. (1932a). The contribution of suggestion and of distraction to the treatment of stammering. Proceedings of the American Speech Correction Association, 2, 103-110.

Robbins, S. D. (1932b). Distraction in stuttering. Proceedings of the American Speech Correction Association, 2, 103-110.

Robbins, S. D. (1934). The role of rhythm in the correction of stammering. Proceedings of the American Speech Correction Association, 4, 39-51.

Robbins, S. D. (1935a). The relations between short auditory memory span disability and disorders of speech. Laryngoscope, 45, 545-553.

Robbins, S. D. (1935b). The role of rhythm in the correction of stammering. Quarterly J. of Speech, 21, 331-343.

Robbins, S. D. (1936a). Relative attention paid to vowels and consonants by stammerers and normal speakers. Proceedings of the American Speech Correction Association, 6, 7-23.

Robbins, S. D. (1936b). Stammering and its treatment. Boston, MA: Stammerers Institute.

Robbins, S. D. (1937a). The cause of reading disabilities and their remedy. Journal of Speech Disorders, 2, 77-83.

Robbins, S. D. (1937b). What causes stammering. Emerson Quarterly, 17, 11.

Robbins, S. D., & Robbins, R. S. (1937c). Correction of speech defects of early childhood. Boston: Expression Co.

Robbins, S. D. (1939a). Re-education of aphasics. Paper presented at the American Speech Correction Association, Annual Meeting, Cleveland, Ohio.

Robbins, S. (1939b). Examination and re-education of aphasics. Journal of Speech Disorders, 4, 15-24.

Robbins, S. D. (1940). Dysarthria and its treatment. Journal of Speech Disorders, 2, 113-120.

Robbins, S. D. (1942). The importance of sensory training in speech therapy. Journal of Speech Disorders, 7 (2), 183-188.

Robbins, S. D., & Seymour, R. (1947). Better speech sound discrimination. Magnolia: Expression Co.

Robbins, S. (1947). Principles of nomenclature and of classification of speech and voice disorders.  Journal of Speech Disorders, 12, 17-22.

Robbins, S. D. (1948a). Dyslalia. In E. Froeschels (Ed.), Twentieth century speech and voice correction (pp. 118-141). NY: Philosophical Library.

Robbins, S. D., & Robbins, R. S. (1948b). Robbins Speech Sound Discrimination and Verbal Imagery Type Tests. Magnolia, Massachusetts: Expression Company.

Robbins, S. D. (1960). Correspondence on stuttering (editorial page). New England Journal of Medicine, 263, 101.

Robbins, S. D. (1964). 1000 stutterers: A personal report of clinical experiences and research recommendations for therapy. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 29, 178-186.

Robbins, S. D. (1965). Relation between insecurity and onset of stuttering. Cerebral Palsy Review, 26, 7-14.

Robbins, S. D. (1965). Author supplement (description of history of publication of the dictionary. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 30, 292-293.

Robbins, S. D. (Ed.). (1972). Who's who in Belmont; biographical and autobiographical sketches of residents of Belmont, Massachusetts. Belmont, MA.

Robbins, S. D., & Sies, L. F., et al. (1972). Samuel D. Robbins' autobiographical reminiscences. ASHA, 14, 395-398.

Writings about Samuel Dowse Robbins

Schwartz, Ralph (1965) Review of Robbins' Dictionary of speech pathology (2nd edition). Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 30, 291-292.

Schwimmer, A.E. and Sies, L. F. (1972) Samuel Dowse Robbins’ account of the origin of speech therapy in America. Journal of Communication Disorders, 5 373-383.

Interview of Samuel Robbins by Wilbert Pronovost December 14, 1965. ASHA Archives. Washington, D. C.

Poetry

Robbins, Samuel Dowse, Father take my hand.