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 order 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 mo-ther, 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.