A Year’s Course in Speech Training
- Author:
Anne H. McAllister, Lecturer in
Speech Training, Jordanhill College, Glasgow. University of London Press, 4/6.
In reviewing this book, one feels that the writer lias not made up her mind whether to deal entirely with speech training, or with speech therapy, with the result that the exercises designed to improve the speech of normal speakers, and exercises for corrective speech work, are given together in a somewhat confused manner.
The photographs and diagrams are excellent and should prove very helpful, particularly to the class teacher, as are also many of the sentences given for articulation, but the majority of the exercises although good in themselves and based on sound principles, lack originality and interest and are not likely to hold the attention of children for long. The breathing exercise known as the ” windmill exercise ” is indeed so out of date that one wonders why it should have been included in a modern book. The number of extracts for practice appear to be excessively great, and some of them are redundant, as many as nine selections being given in some cases to illustrate one sound.
The suggestion that a glass rod should be placed between the teeth to enable the pupil to make the ” S” sound correctly, would seem to be a highly dangerous method of treatment, particularly when applied to children.
To one who knows the high standard of Miss McAllister’s work, her extensive knowledge and wide practical experience, this book is, frankly, a disappointment. K. E. J.
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