Wichita eagle., 1888-02-11
YOUNG SUFFERERS.
70 PREVENT OR CURE DEFECTIVE
UTTERANCES IN CHILDREN.
Sensible Advice from Competent Au-
neutrality-suspicious. of Early, Correc-
ton - Proper Respiration - Value Of
yowels and Consonants.

OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES of Early Correc-
| ton = Proper Respiration - Value Of
vowels and Consonants.
| 1t is altogether useless, nay, even in high
| degree injurious, to scoid, or, worse still.
strike q child for defective utterance or
suffering. It is requisite that those who
| surround such a 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 and IL years explanations or
| prescribed rules may exercise a beneficial
| effect with children below years this
| is altogether useless Here only the means
that nature prescribes can be applied-that
is, imitation and habit Whatever a child Of
such tender age sees OF nears it initiates,
and very often with surprising fidelity.
| Hence the creation of a d.alect which is
| spoken by the children just as 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 in contact with child
Of this age ought not to have defects of any
kind, as for instance, in breathing, in the
production Of voice. in speaking and in Ian
| guage. They ought not to speak too rapidly,
| too hastily OF 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 a mother perceives that child
has the habit of repeating, and quickly re.
peating, syllables or letters, or, indeed of in.
| correctly pronouncing words or syllables or
| letters, she must not let this pass by un-
noticed, or even, perhaps, laugh at the mat
ter in amusement, mimicking the incorrectly
spoken words and exaggerating the defects;
but she must with the greatest calmness, 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, and cause the little one to
repeat it in like manner. Let the mother,
however, be careful not to do this with a
forced distinctness of utterance, for, as the
child will initiate her, it will now fall into
the error of affectation, which will increase
just much as any other defect If the
mother has failed to understand the child, let
her cause it slowly co repeat its words, al
ways, however, without startling it by too
make it rule never to comply with the wish
of child which it has not clearly and dis
tinctly uttered. A story is told of 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 Lee me have an apple" Not
until the child had thus spoken was its wish
| complied with. Such positive determination
&c ohcc,l fa1x .pl. L. -
teachers.
Though, as 1 have already said, rules and
laws are Of no avail in the case of child of
from to 6 OF years, yet it must be accus-
toned to certain fixed manner of utterance.
Above all, it must be accustomed always to
take breath before beginning to speak
whereby it gains air, time and tranquility
to speak. When a person wishes to speak he
must first take breath. This the child usu-
ally fails to do; it begins with half filed
sometimes with nearly empty lungs, to ex-
press its thoughts, and hence, of course, is
forced after one or two words to take breath
convulsively in order to continue to speak
for instance: IF you IA pant for air. want to
go there, etc" This injurious manner of respi-
ration is very prevalent among vivacious
children of from 3 to 5 years. If this defect
of speech be not broken, many defects, prin-
cipally among them suffering, will ensue in
time 1t is, therefore, just at this age that a
child requires to be treated with the greatest
attention, love and patience, and must not be
left to itself in the development of its speech.
A very good means of training a child to
speak properly, as indeed to concentrate its
wandering thoughts, is to tell it stories. Let
the mother relate little stories to the child,
using only easily understood words, short
sentences, which can be comprehended 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 in the language
itself, and to correct every phonetic defect in
pleasant and gentle manner not allowing
the slightest mistake to pass unnoticed In
this manner, relating aud being related to,
let the story be brought to a close
If it is particularly difficult for the child
to utterly correctly certain words, syllables
or letters, let the mother repeat these slowly,
'oudly and distinctly Though not in forced
mannerl until the child can pronounce them
correctly. Let the mother be careful that
the vowels are always pronounced clearly
that is with the correct vowel shades and
with the necessary duration-and the con-
sonant sounds are made short but decided
The letters of the alphabet (vowels and con-
sonantS require a certain time for their
formation anC must have certain duration
in speech The vowel is the carrier of sound;
on it we must tarry when it becomes neces-
sary; upon it we must put every degree of
emphasis, every shade Of accent. for it is 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. az {,
beautiful body in an ugly dress loses much
of its beauty, aye, is often distigured, so it is
with SYLLABLE or a word the vowels of which
are falsely or effectively created. The great
est faults in speaking are too great an ex-
penditure of strength and too long dura-
ton of time in the creation of the con-
soaants. and too short a duration of time
lack of strength and neglect TO give the
vowel shades in the creation of the vowels.
1t is very injurious to a child inclined to
stutter if its ouestions-and it puts many
are either not answered at all OF very impa
tiently The child finally becomes imbled
with sort of reluctance to put any ques-
tons withdraws into itself and forgets to
question and consequently 70 speak at all
Persons whose task it is TO b-s with children
and instruct them must in s1ch cases never
become impatient and irritated, and repel the
child in quick and angry manner but must
give loving and clear explanation TO Its
queries. 1t viii, perhaps, be said that it is
not always possible for a mother to do this.
and vet thousands of mothers-mothers truly
worthy Of imitation--have done it, and thou
sands viii do it in time to come: for the future
Of q child is based on the first eight years OF
its life, which lie altogether in the mothers