The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1888-03-17
YOUNG SUFFERERS.
70 PREVENT OR CURE DEFECTIVE
UTTERANCES IN CHILDREN.

1t is altogether useless, nay, even i'll high
degree injurious, to scold, or, worse still,
strike child for a defective utterance or
suffering. 1t is requisite that those who
surround such child should be most gentle
and calm, for everything harsh or abrupt
startles, and nothing is more adapted to pro-
mote suffering than terror and fear.
With grown up persons or with children
between S and II years explanations or
prescribed rules may exercise beneficial
effect: with children below S years this
is altogether useless. Here only the means
that nature prescribes can be applied-that
is, imitation and habit Whatever child Of
such tender age sees or nears it initiates,
and very often with surprising fidelity.
Hence the creation of d.alect which is
spoken by the children just us by the parents.
The persons surrounding the child are every
thing IN its development, and it depends
principally on them how its natural abilities
are developed and what defects make their
appearance, Persons i'll contact with a child
of this age ought not to have defects of any
kind, as, for instance, i'll breathing, in the
production of voice. in speaking and i'll Ian
guage They ought not to speak too rapidly,
too hastily or in detached phrases the child,
| forced by nature to rely on imitation, will
assume all these defects Hence let the fam
| lily be very careful that the child hears only
good speaking.
AS soon as IL mother pcrceives that child
has tine habit of repeating, and quickly re-
peating, syllahes or letters. or, indeed, of in
correctly pronouncing words or syllabes or
letters, she must not let this pass by un-
noticed, or even, perhaps. laugh at the mat
ter in amusement, minicking the incorrectly
spoken words and cxsggeratng the defects;
but she must with the greatest ,.almneSs. and
without startling the child by too sudden in
terruption, slowly and distinctly utter in cor
/ rect manner the wrongly pronounced word,
| syllable or letter, aud cause the little one To
repeat it in like manner. Let the mother
however, be careful not to do this with Il
| forced distinctness Of utterance, for, as the
! child will initiate her, it will now fall into
| the error of afectation, which will increaS,
just as much as any other defect Ii the
mother has failed to understand the child, let
her cause it slowly 20 repeat its words, al
ways, however, without startling it by too
sudden or violent commands, and let her
make it q rule never to comply with the wish
of child which it has not clearly and dis
tinctly uttered. y story is told OF n mother
who cured her child of suffering by forcing
it TO pronounce everything in a long drawn,
almost singing. manner For instance:
"Pl-ea-se Ice ME have an apple" Not
until the child had thus spoken was its wish
complied with Such positive determination
is absolutely indispensable to mothers and
teachers
Though, as l have already said, rules and
laws are of no avail in the case of a child of
/ from 3 toG or years, yet it must be accus
toned to a certain fixed manner Of uttcrance
| thpya oil Al,
take breath before beginning to speak,
whereby it gains air, time and tranquility
4 to speak When person wishes to speak he
must first take breath. This the child usu-
ally fails to do; it begins with half filled,
/ sometimes with nearly empty lttngs, to ex-
( press its thoughts, and hence, uf course. is
/ forced after one or two words 20 take breath
convulsively in order to conti,uic to speak
for instance: 'Ifyou "a pant foi air. want to
! go there etc" This injurious manner of resp-
ration Is very prevalent among vivacious
children of from } to 5 years If this defect
OF speech be not broken, many defects, prn-
/ cipally among them suffering, will cllsue in
| time 1t is, therefore, just at this age that Il
child requires to be treated with the greatest
attention, love and patience, and must not be
| left to itself i'll the development of its speech
A very good means of training u child to
| speak properly, as indeed to concentrate its
wandering thoughts, is to tell i: stories. Let
the mother relate little stories to the child
using only easily understood words short
sentences, which can be comprelended by the
| child, and let her, ere coming to the end of
the tale cause the child to repeat part after
part slowly and distinctly, being careful to
notice every mistake OF the child in breath.
ing and speaking, as well as i'll the language
itself, and to correct every phonetic defect III
n pleasant and gentle manner. not allowing
the slightest nistall" to pass unnoticcd. In
this manner, relating and being related to,
let the story he brought to a close.
ii it is particularly difficult for the child
to utterly correctly certain words. syllablcs
or letters. let the mother repeat these slowly.
'oully and distinctly Though not in a forced
manner until the child can pronounce them
correctly. Let t!.r mother he careful that
the voweiS are always pronounced clearly
that is. with the correct vowel shades and
with the necessary iuiation-and the con-
sonant sound, ai,: laaIle short but decided.
The letters of the alphabet (vowes and con
sonant> require a certain time for their
/ formation and must have certain duration
in speech. The vowel is the carrier of sound:
on it we must tarry when it becomes necee-
saly: upon it we must put every '!"gree of
emphasis, every shade pf accent. for it i, the
expression of our feeling. 1t is the BODY of
the language. The consonant is only the
dress Both must be rightly produced in or
der to obtain the right results and. as {.
beautiful body in an ugly dress loses much
of its beauty. aye, i, often dsig1lrerl. so it is
with syllable ora word the vowcs of which
are falsely or 'lefcrt;vely created. The great
est faults in speaking are to-, great an cx-
penditure of strength and too long dura-
| tion of time in the creation Of the con-
| sonants, and too short Il duration of time
lack Of strength and neglect to give. the
vowel shades in the creation Of the vowels.
1t is very injurious to child inclined To
stntter ii it> queStions-and it puts MANY
are either not answered at all or very jupo-
tiently- The chill! finally becomes lnbucd
with sort of reluctance to ,ut any ones
lions. a'itl,tllaws into itself and forye;s To
| question and consequently to speak at all
Persons whose task it is to be with children
and instruct them must in such cases never
become impatient and irl.tated, and repcl the
/ child in a quick and angry manner but must
| give loving and clear explanation to its
queries. 1t will. perhaps be said that it is
not always possible. for q mother to do this
and Yet thousands ri mothers---lnotneIst truly
worthy OF imitati"n-have done it. and thou
sands VIII do 1t IN time ncotne: for he future.
of child is based the first eight Years of
its life which lie altogether in the mothers
hands. If this part Of child5 !if" from
3 to $ years he allowed to pass with
out proper education i'll the uttrr;ilce of
speech: if the child. who at first shows only
slight traces of suffering. be suffered to de-
veIp;, fuliy into stutte'ri'. then it will have
to undergo the long. tedious cure which re-
ourcs SIX. ten. fifteen months and cve.i moro
time. and which is infinitely Troublesome ard
weari>ome to pupil and teacher. --Oslsar
Gt.tiul;. il Babyhood.
PICTURE OF JAMES W. RILEY.