the best method of its
accomplishment. The child should not be subjected to constant
repetitions of phonetic defects, imperfect utterance or speech
disorders of any sort. The child who hears none but perfect speech is
not liable to speak imperfectly, or at least not so liable as the child
who hears wrong methods of talking in use at all times, for this last
cannot escape the effects of his environment.

CHAPTER X

DEFECTIVE SPEECH IN CHILDREN

(2) THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

The period in a child's speech development dating from the second year
and up to the sixth, is called the Formative Period, for the reason
that this is the time when the child is busy learning new words,
acquiring new habits of speech, co-ordinating and learning properly to
associate the flood of ideas which overwhelm the child-mind in this
period.

The child-vocabulary at this time is but an echo of the vocabulary of
the home. The words that have been used most frequently there are most
strongly impressed upon the child-mind. The names he has heard, the
objects he has seen, the applications of speech-ideas--these alone are
now in his mind. This condition is inevitable since the child must
learn to speak by imitation--and, since he has had no source of
word--pictures other than the home, he must have acquired facility in
the use of only those words he has had an opportunity to hear.

Former President Wilson, whose faultless diction, remarkable fluency of
expression and discriminating choice of words, made him a master
speaker and writer, attributed his facility to the training he received
in the home of his father, a minister, where the children were
constantly encouraged in the use of correct English and in the
broadening and enrichment of their store of words.

From the form of simple child-speech, made up often of monosyllables or
of a few brief and easy sentences, the child must now evolve a more
complicated form of thought-expression, with the use of connectives,
descriptions and a finer gradation of color than heretofore.

This process may be materially aided by the parent by the repetition of
the child's own utterances, proving to the child that these are
correct, that he is being understood and giving him confidence to
venture further out in his attempts at speech amplification. This
encouragement of the child-mind in its attempts to speak is so
important that it is worth while to give some simple examples of what
is meant, in o