Source of the first word:  The first spoken word of the child usually finds its source in some name or word repeatedly spoken in the child’s presence.  It is not usual that this first word is marked by a defective utterance and if such should be the case, then it is safe to say that this faulty utterance can be traced back to the imitation of some member of the family, or some child who has been permitted to talk to the child in his pre-speaking period.  There is little to be gained by tracing the first word back, for no very profound conclusion can safely be registered with such a basis, for no matter what the word be and no matter whether it be correctly or imperfectly enunciated, it is the result of imitation.

There may be two exceptions to this, however, one being the case of a child with a physical defect in the organs of speech and the other that of a child who has inherited from the parents a predisposition to stammer or stutter.  These exceptions, however, are so rare as to hardly require consideration.  In the first (that of a physical defect) it is hardly probable that an organic defect would manifest itself in the form of stuttering or stammering, but rather in some other form of defective utterance.  In the case of the inherited predisposition to stutter or stammer, there is always the question which has contributed more largely to the defective utterance—­the inherited predisposition or the association with others who speak in a faulty manner.

Advice to parents:  It is very essential that from the very beginning of the period of the recording of suggestion, the child is shown the correct and customary utterance with 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 CHILDHEN

(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.