those who have been hindered in the development of their normal physical life? In a group of fifty children there will be five or ten who are responsive and lead in all activities; the others are quiet and passive, perhaps are confused by the multitude of companions. It may be some do not hear what is said and grasp imperfectly the topic of discussion, while some speak so imperfectly that they prefer to remain silent. These latter cases, if not at once, are in time liable to the disease of aphasia because the brain and speech organs are not working in unison. Many of these troubles are caused in children by lack of nourishment. Some children are so affected as to be weak in body, indolent and phlegmatic in mind. Sometimes the poorly nourished brain is affected thruout, sometimes only in special centers, as the eye, the ear, or the motor cells. All must work in harmony for perfect expression in speech.

It is difficult for the public to control the child's nourishment, upon which life depends, but we can understand the result that follows the lack of nourishment, and change our methods of instruction to suit the stage of development.

Every individual is born into this world complete in his pattern. Our patterns vary, but all unfold exactly alike as the race advances step by step. The study in science is revealing these steps and leading us into an open path by which we may walk hand in hand with these unfortunate little mates.

In the order of development the higher faculties of the mind are the last to reach perfection. At first we have only sensation, then memory asserts itself, following which comes the development of imagination, comparison, and judgment, giving to the mind reason.

Speech and language are the last of the brain centers to develop and are related to the higher faculties of the mind. Speech and language are not synonymous, for in speech we have simply the word produced by imitation, and in language we have speech in its complicated form— words in sentences. Speech comes early, but language is not expressed until the concepts of the mind are formed. Disease often attacks the brain so as to affect the language, but not the speech, the speech centers remaining in perfect activity. The speech defects may be due to the defect of the auditory-sense organ or the word-hearing center, the wordcomprehending center, or the motor-speech center, or the connecting fibers between these centers. That is, difficulty may exist in the receptive or emissive speech mechanism. One part may be affected without the other center suffering. The child may understand, but not talk. He may talk words thru imitation without comprehending sentences. If the receptive faculties are impaired, there is little hope, but if the emissive speech only is inactive, it requires skill on our part to eliminate the dif ficulty. The undeveloped child, like the infant, begins to express himself in simple words. The infant would say "man," "boy," "bow,"

"Wow."

He does not question where nor what, but names the object. It is a much longer time before the child will be able to say, "papa comes." This requires a higher act of the mind.

The many percepts of the brain form themselves into words. Words then enable the mind to free itself from things, to deal with abstract forms of life and arouse to activity the highest centers of the brain, on whose functions all knowledge of the external world depends. Without this activity the external world remains isolated, the brain only holding. groups of impressions.

The dumb suffer intensely from inability to express their feelings in words. The child has gathered his impressions thru the eye, but he is unable to express his feeling and knowledge, and so is thrown into a violent temper. We find little children's dispositions changing and selfcontrol manifesting itself as they meet the problems of the world thru the higher functions, which express themselves in speech and language.

In the kindergarten we are increasing the perceptive faculties and relating them one to another in order to strengthen the concepts that the child may have the power of language. We cannot strengthen these concepts if there is not the power of expression, and we can not develop language if there is not the power of speech. So to help the silent children we must first find whether the physical organs of the child are such that he may speak correctly. Speech is made by the contact of lips, teeth, tongue, and hard and soft palates, and is formed by the vibrations of air confined in mouth and throat. In all languages the sounds are similar. This must be so, for all mouths and throats are similar; we differ only in our combinations. So in schools where the foreign children are found and the language expression is poor, it is the combination of sounds and words which we must teach, if the organs of the child are perfect. The teaching of songs, if taught properly, helps these little people, and especially the timid child; for they not only acquire by imitation the construction of sentences, but have an opportunity to pronounce words when others are speaking. I have noticed children entering into this exercise when they would not use their voices at any other time. I wonder if we are good models in enunciating words, that the child may imitate us and hear clearly the correct sounds in the word. If the child can see and hear us give the words in a clear, articulate way, it will not be long before he has control of his organ's speech.

During the kindergarten period of the child's life, and a few years following, the child is most active in acquiring language. He is not only adding to his vocabulary, but during this nascent period constructs his own language by which he may communicate with his own special tribe of playmates. We find it natural for the child to struggle for power to express his thoughts, and when the child is not apt in this development, he is retarded in his natural growth.

How do we find the mechanism of speech developing? First with the open sounds, such as ē, ā, ạ, ō, ōō; these in their combinations of long and glide are the fundamental sounds. They are made by animals and are the first sounds formed by the human infant. These sounds may express feeling, but not thought. There must be combinations in tones to form the word, so we have the articulate sounds which are made by the contact of lips, teeth, and tongue. When the speech centers in the brain begin to grow the baby begins to put sounds together, such as "agoo," "ma ma ma," etc. These simple exercises are all in preparation for the formation of the word; the word will come forth when the feeling has aroused the brain centers to action.

All speech, then, is dependent upon the mechanism of the mouth, and the mouth-parts are dependent upon the nourishment of the child. In the foetus the mouth passes thru many changes, from the simple opening to a closed cavity with vibratory tissues. If during the stages of fœtal life the nourishment is not sufficient, the tissues stop growing, and we have the cleft palate and the cleft lip. In the cleft palate the upper mouth parts did not come together to give a sounding board and the cleft lip did not close to produce precision in the sounds uttered. Without this palate the sounds drift off into the upper parts of the head, not giving the lips a chance to articulate them. The soft palate is situated at the back of the mouth and resounds and vibrates with every concussion of air given out by the larynx. Sometimes this tissue is hardened and stiffened by disease, most commonly a catarrhal condition. The voice in this case is hard and metallic. Frequently the catarrh causes the tissues to swell to such an extent that the ears are affected, and in this case the speech will suffer.

The use of the voice with the speech organs in this condition causes weariness; and if the disease attacks the child in the nascent period, it is apt to check his desire to use the voice, and the child acquires a habit of remaining quiet and passive in thought and inattentive to the world about him. All action begets action; so all expression begets thought. It has been my experience that most talkative children are the most active mentally, keen, and definite in imagination. They lead in our kindergartens and often take up unduly the attention and time of the teacher. She becomes absorbed in the active brain and does not see the passive little mind, drifting along waiting for someone to help lift the burden of imperfect development. If the brain centers do not express themselves during the nascent period, they shrink away like an unused muscle.

Catarrhal diseases must be treated by a physician, but this trouble, not like the cleft palate, can be helped by us. Use of these parts helps to exercise them and prevents a diseased condition from developing. Exercising the tissues with head, chest, and throat tones keeps them

We

in action and flushed with blood. Catarrh may affect the ear to such an extent that the child becomes deaf. He may not hear an ordinary conversation, but would hear music, or one word repeated several times. frequently have children in our care for weeks without knowing of this defect. They become attentive with the eye, and so deceive us, but are only grasping part of the thought in the work presented. These children must be taught as we would teach a deaf-mute. They should watch our mouths, feel the placement of tone whether in the head, throat, or in the expulsion of air from the lips. As these children learn to speak they will hear better. One function helps the other. We hear a new word frequently after our attention has been called to it. It is customary to place near the teacher the active child who is already quick, but who holds the place thru the teacher's inability to extend her controlling influence. The deaf and timid children should be near her. They need the stimulus which comes from close proximity to the teacher's mind. The deaf need to see her speak, and the timid one would gain confidence if he could speak without the others hearing; and, once let him gain assurance, he will never retire to his shell where progress of the soul is deadened. We have no life if we have no expression; and a lack of expression in early life results in a morbid mind in maturity. My attention has been called to these quiet and defective children in our schools, and it seems to me our methods do not always reach them. If this environment which we are to give the children develops and liberates the soul, we must not let two-thirds of the children in our care suffer for want of help.

The modern education claims to develop the individual; our society calls for the individual force. We no longer recognize the class which is simply led by its leaders; but individuals each of whom stand for an idea. If this is the aim, then the abnormal child who is just below the normal standard-the deficient child who is deaf or slow from lack of nourishment or disease, and yet too young to attend a state school, too young to leave mother for more than a few hours-belongs in our kindergartens, and we must extend our knowledge to meet this undeveloped class.

In Denver we have taken them into our kindergartens this year, and the addition of these weaker members has developed a beautiful spirit of helpfulness among the children. They have felt the care, and not only have sympathized, but have turned into little teachers, as well as pupils.

I should like to make an appeal to teachers to devote more time to the study of the natural order of growth, that we may understand all stages of brain development. When a child is found retarded or detained in life, we should see that it is not cast out because our curriculum does not fit it, but that it is brought into an atmosphere which will help it to find its point of contact. If we do not bring help, how can the primary teacher work

with the child? She must work for a grade, and must class the children. They have not the opportunity that we have in the kindergartens for individual help, and so the little child is cast out during his impressionable years to seek his own environment, let it be what it will — for good, or bad, as the case may be.

HOW FROEBEL PLANNED TO FOSTER THE CHILD'S POWERS IN LANGUAGE

MRS. ALICE H. PUTNAM, SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO FROEBEL ASSOCIATION TRAINING SCHOOL

Today, when the educational psychologist is abroad in the land, one treads on dangerous ground in standing for any method which does not rest on a principle which is inherent in the conditions of the being to be educated. Without some knowledge of the aims and possibilities of development in any given method, we cannot judge correctly of its value. Therefore, to decide on the worth of Froebel's idea in this case, we must look at the language situation of a young child.

The little baby begins his operations in oral language by means of sensations, for, if sounds are to be intelligently made, says Tracy, they must first be heard. The child makes his first utterances, whether of pain or pleasure, simply because he cannot help it. Whence comes this desire and power? I do not know, save that it is from within-probably from heredity, for we know that the "child is the fruit of the past, as well as the seed-corn of the future."

Preyer, Perez, Taine, Sully, and many others have shown something of the processes in the growth of a child's language. It is enough for our discussion today to say that the power to hear and to make sounds comes very early, and that before the baby has ended the first year of his life, he makes sounds that are intelligible and gives back those which others make.

Here again we are thrown back to the question of aim or purpose in this particular plan of development. Froebel says:

The function of the educator in any subject consists, above all, in helping everybody to observe his own life, and to act it out according to its being and its demands. In such a life the personality is purified and viewed in the mirror of the experiences of others, as in the natural life of man and mankind, in the mirror of nature, of history, and of revelation.

To be quite sure that this idea spoken long ago holds good in our day and generation, we place side by side with it Professor Small's statement in the "Demands of Sociology on Pedagogy." He says:

The end of all education is, first, the completion of the individual, and second, which is implied in the first, the adaptation of the individual to such co-operation with the society in which his lot is cast that he works with the society in perfecting its own type, in creating conditions more favorable to the development of a more perfect individual.