rder that the point may be clearly understood. Let us
take, first, the example of a mother who, from some cause, allows
herself to be of a nervous and irritable disposition. The small child
may say, "Mam--ma, I want a tooky." The mother, either through
indifference or through habit, says, "You want WHAT?" This, first of
all, is like a dash of cold water to the child in his uncertain state
of mind as to the correctness of his utterance. The child repeats, "I
want a tooky," and in all probability gets the further inquiry, "You
want a TOOKY--what's that?" which undermines the child's confidence in
himself and in his ability to talk.

On the other hand, the mother who understands the needs of the child
from a speech-forming standpoint will not insist on the child repeating
the word time after time as if it was not understood. She will strive
hard to understand the first time, even though the expression is
imperfect and difficult of interpretation, and her nimble mind having
figured out what it is that the child desires, will say, "Baby wants a
cooky?" Here the child, in his comparatively new occupation of talking,
finds a deal of delight in knowing that his words have been properly
comprehended and feels a new confidence in his ability to express
thoughts--which confidence, by the way, is essential to normal speech
development in the child. It has the further effect of correcting the
tendency of faulty utterance, and in time will result in the complete
eradication of the natural tendency to "baby-talk" which is too often
encouraged and aided by the habit of parents in REPEATING THE
BABY-TALK. In no case, should defective utterances be repeated, no
matter how "cute" the utterance may seem at the time. Many speak
indistinctly throughout their entire life simply because of the habit
of their parents in repeating baby-talk, thus confirming incorrect
images of numerous words.

SPEECH DISORDERS IN THE FORMATIVE PERIOD: The Formative Period may mark
the beginning of a speech disorder and in many instances chronic cases
of stuttering and stammering may be traced to a simple disorder which
first manifested itself in the ages between 2 and 6.

Speech disorders arising in this period may be traced to any one of a
number of causes. In a child of five, for instance, the diagnostician
would look for evidences of an inherited tendency to stammer or
stutter; he would look also for circumstances which would show that the
child had acquir