An Infantile Stammer (“Baby-Talk”) In A Boy of Twelve Years
- Author:
Clara. Harrison Town.
Resident Psychologist at Friends’ Asylum for the Insane, Frankford.
In April, 1905, a boy of twelve years of age was entered in a special school of Philadelphia and placed in a class for backward boys, of which I was then in charge.
It was my practice to subject each boy, brought for training, to a thorough examination in order to ascertain, if possible, the physical or mental condition which was the primary cause of his backwardness. If I succeeded in discovering this underlying cause of retardation I concentrated all my pedagogical efforts on the task of training the function or functions which showed inadequate development.
This boy had been unable to make normal progress in the regular schools owing primarily to a speech defect. Articulation was so imperfect as to make it quite impossible for me to understand a single word of his conversation. In addition to this defect of oral language, he manifested an equally severe defect of written language?a total inability to spell. His attempts at the writing of words produced a quite unintelligible result. Letters were grouped together in absolutely meaningless fashion, showing a lack of appreciation of the elementary sounds of words and a total deficiency of memory for the sequence of their visual symbols, i. e., written letters. His spelling papers were, in addition, most carelessly prepared; words and letters were crossed out and written over, and there was no attempt at an orderly arrangement of the words on the page.
In no other way did he manifest retardation; he was quick at grasping ideas and noticeably active and alert in the general life of the school. His mother, on whom I called in order to gain some insight into his history, told me that she thought his defective speech was due to prolonged “baby-talk.” In this opinion she claimed that she was upheld by their physician, who informed her that the boy would outgrow his speech defect in time. The mother also told me that her boy had never been allowed to mingle much with the boys of the neighborhood. She prided herself 011 having watched most carefully over him. She had encouraged him in his babyish ways and continued to talk to him in “baby-talk” long after the period when this inadequate mode of speech should have been outgrown. It evidently was one of the many cases where a devoted but unwise mother, through over-indulgence and the desire to keep her child a baby, had almost ruined his chances for a useful and possibly successful career in life.
I therefore considered his defect of articulation to be the result of a persistent infantile habit in no way dependent upon either an anatomical, a physiological or a mental defect. As such it might be corrected, although the fact that it was of such long standing warranted the opinion that the training process would be a most tedious one. Infantilism of speech leads to infantilism in other forms of language, and I attributed to the same cause his inability to associate the elementary sounds of language with the forms of letters, as shown by his deficiency in spelling and reading. As the first step in his training in correct modes of articulation I made an examination to ascertain his exact status, so far as articulatory capacity was concerned, following for the purpose a method recommended by Dr Witrner. The pupil is first tested in the pronunciation of each consonant and vowel sound as nearly as may be in isolation. Then each consonant and vowel sound is given as the initial and final sound of a syllable, as, for instance, b in ba and ab, bo and ob, etc.; the endeavor is made to have the pupil repeat the syllabic combinations of each elementary sound. Then words are taken in which each sound occurs as the initial or final element, for example, b in bird and rob; next the sound is given in the middle of a word, either at the beginning or end of a syllable as b in robin, or in the middle of the syllable as b in daubed or robbed. The last stage of the examination requires the observation and an exact estimation of the accuracy with which the elementary sounds are employed in ordinary discourse. A list of words prepared for the purpose and comprising all the consonant and vowel sounds in the several combinations is used in making the tests. The accuracy of the pupil in general discourse is determined from a close observation of the child’s ordinary conversation while he himself is entirely unconscious of being observed.
The results of the examination are recorded on blanks or test cards prepared for the purpose. On these cards, as may be seen by reference to the tables (which are the blanks filled in) accompanying this report, pages 13 and 18, the letters representing the various elementary sounds are placed in a column at the left of the table; in blank spaces to the right of each letter are entered marks representing the grade of the child’s capacity in the articu12 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. lation of each elementary sound in eacli of tlie several combinations indicated at the head of the vertical columns. Five grades of capacity are employed, ranging from 1 to 5; the highest grade, or 5, indicates a practically perfect articulation of the sound represented by the symbol to which it is attached in the table. If the child is totally unable to produce the sound, the mark 0 is recorded on the card. These cards are not only employed before the articulation exercises begin, to ascertain the child’s status; they are filled in at stated intervals after training in articulation has resulted in some progress, to determine by means of comparison between later and earlier records the exact amount of progress that has been attained.
I can best illustrate my pupil’s status when he came to me by reference to the record of his first examination in articulation, the cards for which are dated April G, 1005. The record is contained on two cards (combined into a single table on page 13), one for the twenty-five consonants and one for the twenty vowels and diphthongs, recognized as the articulate elements of the English language. By referring to the first two vertical columns of the table, the column of consonant symbols and the one headed “element,” it will be seen that he was given the grade 5 for the articulation of the sounds of b, t, iv, f, m, n, and ng, a total of but seven elements, when these elements were not combined with other elements to form syllables or words. The grade of 5 means that he could articulate, after me, the respective sound with approximate perfection. The sound of v, sli, ch, and j, four elements, he pronounced, also through imitation, well enough to secure the grade 4. He could not, however, pronounce these sounds voluntarily, as for example, if the written or printed letter were pointed to and he were asked to give its sound. The difficulty here, of course, was in the association of the particular sound and articulatory movements with the visual letter form, rather than in articulation proper. After the articulation of these sounds as separate elements, I tried him with the sounds in combination. With every increase in complexity of combination his articulation grew more imperfect. This may be seen by comparing the grades assigned each of these eleven sounds in the two columns under the heading “syllable” with the grade assigned in the column of “elements.” The sounds sli and ch, which he had imitated well enough in isolation, he completely failed to give when combined with a singlo vowel, even though the sound were the initial one of a syllable. The sounds of b, w, f, j, m, and n were pronounced as the initial AN INFANTILE STAMMER. 13 ARTICULATION RECORD, APRIL 6, 1905 Consonants k 3. t 4. d 5. k 6. g 7. wh-white. 8. w 9. f 10. v 11. th-thin… 12. dh-then.. 13. s 14. z 15. sh-sbe 16. zh-azure.. 17. y 18. h 19. ch-chain.. 20. j 21. m 22. n 23. ng 24. 1 25. r Syllable II Words 5 ;i 4 o : l 0 jl o 1 !j o o i o Middle c o .2 ^ tc zi oy Discourse Mid. of Words c ? 35 “? II - I “So. ?? w & i ?2 O o o”2 0 0 0 - ij 0 0 ? 5 1 3 2 5 0 3 I 0 | 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 II o ! o 2 1 0 0 0 0 or?1 o ? 0 0 0 0 0 ? 41 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o i o ji o j o o 0 0 0 o 0 3 0 3 0 111 o 0 2 5 j 5 o 15 1 0 0 2 I’ 4 I 1 I l 1 || 4 1 1 1 0 3 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 i 0 0 0 1 0,0 0 0 0 0 0:0 o o o o 0 0 o o 0 0 0 0 o o 0 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 0 ? 00 ? ? ? I 0 0 _ ? o o ? ? 0 0 o o 2 0 o 0 0 4 4 0 o 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 o 0:1 o 0 0 5 4 0 o 4 4 2 0 4 3 ? 2 ! 3 ? 1 13 0 0 0 o 0 II 0 I 0 ! 0 0 0 0 0 o 0 o 0 : 0 0 Vowels i a i & i s Syllable 1. i-eve j 5 [| 5 2. i-tin 2 2 3. e-pray 5 5 4. e-pen 3 4 5. a-air 1 | 2 6. a-at | 4 4 7. a-arm 5 j 3 8. a-chant 5 5 9. o-law 5 j 5 10. o-not 5 4 11. o-note 5 I 4 12. o-obey j 5 1 1 13. u-curl .. 3 2 14. u-but 1 1 15. u-rule……. | 5 [j 5 16. u-full 17. ai-I 18. au-out 19. oi-coil…. 20. iu-few. .. 3 4 4 0 Words Middle p o 5 3 5 4 1 ? 4 I 4 3 | 5 5 : 0 5 5 4 I 4 O 4)
REMARKS?The columns under “Discourse” are omitted as it is impossible to estimate exactly the accuracy of vowel pronunciation in general conversation. elements of a syllable ?with the same degree of perfection as they were in isolation, but t and v were pronounced less perfectly. As the final element of a syllable all these eleven sounds are less correctly given, with the exception of j and n. The only element to secure the grade 5, as a final sound in a syllable was n.
By referring to the columns under the heading “words,” it is possible to obtain the rating for each consonantal sound at the beginning of a word, in the middle of a word (either at the beginning or end of a syllable or in the middle of a syllable) and at the end of a word. The words chosen as test words were the simplest ones I could find containing the various sound combinations.
Nevertheless the record of his efforts at their articulation showed a marked reduction in capability over the barely more simple combinations of these elements in syllables. The only sounds given a grade 5 as initial sounds were b, w, and f; as finals the highest grade secured was 4 given for the articulation of n, whereas the grade 3 was given for ng, 2 for ch and j, and 1 for p, b, and t. All but these seven final consonants could not be pronounced at all. It will be observed that even in the column of elements, where the sound is to be given uncombined with other sounds, that 0 predominates as the grade attained; thus he was entirely unable to imitate the sound of p, d, lc, wh, th, dli, s, z, zh, y, I, and r. Those he had evidently never attempted to articulate. When his training began?and the training in articulation really begins through the testing which is necessary to fill out the record card?it was found that the boy had to be taught how to place his lips, tongue, and teeth in order to pronounce most of the elementary sounds of what could be called only by courtesy his “mother tongue.” In the several columns under the heading “discourse” are entered the grades assigned for the articulation of sounds as these were given in ordinary conversation. It was, of course, difficult to observe and estimate the value of the articulation of most of these sounds. It required prolonged observation. It appeared that the only consonant sounds which he employed perfectly in ordinary conversation were b and f as initial sounds. In the same position t, w, and n were assigned the grade 4, and d was marked 3. As final sounds, no consonant is assigned the grade 5; n is marked 4; ng 3. In the middle of words, the highest grade assigned was 2 for n. Four other sounds, p, Tc, j, and m, we re marked 1 in at least one position. No consonant sounds other than these eleven were ever heard in his ordinary conversation.
In pronouncing a word his habit was to make an attempt to give the principal vowel sound, leaving out most of the consoAN INFANTILE STAMMER. 15 nants and slurring tlie few that he employed to represent the real sounds of the word. Thus “seven” was ewy; “bear,” “there” and “pair” were all ai(r) (without the r) ; “sight” was I; “do” was oo; v and-r were always w; p was usually b; and h was t. Final consonants with the exception of n and ng were always omitted. The vowel card presents a better record. He was able to imitate with varying success all vowel and diphthong sounds in isolation, securing the grade of 5 for i (as in eve), e (prey), a (arm), a (chant), o (law), o (not), o (note), o (obey), u (rule), ai (aisle), and oi (coin). lie experienced greatest difficulty with a (air), u (but), u (full), and au (out). As with the consonants, his difficulty was greatly increased by even the simplest combinations. Although i (eve), e (prey), and u (rule) were pronounced perfectly in all combinations, the other sounds were more and more slurred and confused one with another as the combinations increased in complexity. It was impossible to make an accurate estimate of the pronunciation of the vowels in ordinary con versa? tion; for that reason no entries were made on the record card for vowels under the heading “discourse,” and these columns have been omitted from the table.
After two months training, the boy was able to articulate clearly every sound in isolation. There was, however, little or no improvement, as yet, in pronunciation when the elementary sounds were combined to form syllables and words. It was necessary to make each combination the subject of special drill, and when, after days, or perhaps weeks, of effort, the approximately correct articulation was at length accomplished, its production was a veritable triumph. He would succeed in producing correctly a consonant sound in all the required positions when combined with one vowel sound and yet fail utterly to produce it when syllables or words were substituted in which it was combined with other vowel sounds. I, therefore, found it necessary, for the drill in each consonant and digraph, to draw up lists of short words containing that element first as initial and then as final sound in combination with each vowel and diphthong, omitting only those combinations of which I failed to find examples. For the purpose of training the pupil to put to practical use the correct articulation of each element as it was acquired, I supplemented the word drill on each consonant by drill in reading one or more short sentences containing words in which the element occurred as initial, middle and final sound. After the boy had succeeded fairly well with a consonant as presented in the word and sentence drill, I passed on to the next, but reviewed each day all the sentences in which he had previously been trained and also any special combinations which were still imperfectly produced. I endeavored in this way to fix firmly in mind the newly acquired mode of articulation, and to counteract the strong tendency to return to the habitual and, therefore, easier mode of articulation. As spelling lessons, I assigned the words of the practice sentences, in the sounds of which he had been thoroughly drilled, and with the appearance of which he had necessarily grown familiar, as the sentence in written form was kept constantly before him during his articulation drill. Great improvement in spelling was at once manifest. His memory images of words had, in all probability, always been far too hazy to serve as models from which to copy; now they were more definite and clear and he was able to transfer them to paper. With accuracy of thought had come accuracy of execution.
By June, 1906, he was able to read all of the practico sentences with a fair degree of fluency. Some of the sounds were exaggerated and others not quite clear, but all the words were quite intelligible. He was also able to write from dictation nearly all the words contained in the sentences. Spelling was still very difficult for him and he learned new words only with great effort and time, but he made an intelligent attempt and finally succeeded. It was also evident by this date that the articulation training had developed in the boy a power of still more far-reaching value than the increased control over oral and written language. Inseparably bound up with articulation training is a most intensive training of the attention. The boy had been compelled to pay undivided attention to the proper placing of his lips, tongue and teeth in order to produce the sounds at all; he had also been compelled to attend strictly to the sounds that he heard, when such articulated movements of the organs of speech were made, in order that he might recognize from the sound of a word what particular movements of articulation he was expected to make. The daily twenty minutes of articulation drill had performed for this boy the most important office of elementary education; it had developed in him the power of concentration of attention and thought. It had, through forcing him to concentrate 011 certain sensations, not only developed in him control of the articulatory movements, but it had also taught him the method by which to gain control of all bodily movements.
This increased mental and muscular control was very manifest in the appearance of his spelling papers. Instead of carelessly written sheets crowded with erasures and unfinished’ attempts at words, tlie papers wore now neatly arranged and the words carefully written. ? On June 16, 1006, I again examined liim as at first, using the same test words. I present on page 18 a copy of this articulation record. On the consonant card, the grade 5 was assigned for all sounds and combinations except th (thin), occurring in the middle of a word, for which 3 was given, and t, dh, ch, and j occurring in the middle of a syllable of a word, which were marked t 4, dh 0, cli 3, and j 3. On the vowel card, the grade 5 was given for all sounds except initial oi, which was marked 4, and oi as a middle sound of a word, which was marked 3. The remarkable progress that he had made in a year and two months, about twelve months of actual training, may be seen by comparing the results of this test with those obtained in the test of April, 1905, presented in the table on page 13. There was, however, no improvement to be observed in his general discourse; therefore this column is omitted from the table on page 18. In spite of the long continued drill, crowned with a fair measure of success, the boy was practically little better off than before. He, as yet, had not made the slightest attempt to apply his newly acquired ability in conversation. His speech was quite as unintelligible as it had been one year earlier. I have not had charge of the class since this test was made in June, 190G, and the lessons in articulation have been discontinued. On February 26, 1907, however, I visited the school and again examined the boy, using the same test words as before. The results are presented on the right half of the table on page 18. I found that very little had been lost in the way of acquired control. Ho had relapsed into some of his old habits and forgotten the association of certain sounds with the corresponding letters, but hearing the sound given correctly several times was enough to set him right again. I feel confident that the ground lost would soon be recovered if the lessons were resumed. In order to test his present ability to write the words which he had formerly been able to write from dictation, I dictated thirty-three words from the practice sentences. Sixteen of these he spelled correctly. Of the seventeen misspelled, five were omitted entirely, five showed that the sound of the word conveyed to him no idea of its written form, and a more or less intelligent attempt was made to write the remaining seven.
This spelling test revealed several peculiarities in the boy’s associative memory for words, which are of some psychological interest. The words “table” and “tube” had been associated to18 TEE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. ARTICULATION RECORD Consonants and Vowels June 16, 1906 Syllable 1. p 5 5 2. b 5 5 5 5 3. t j 5 5 5 5 4. d | 5 5 5 5 Words Middle W 0) ? 03 taoS G ^ <DrO 5 I 5 5 5 4 ! 5 5 5:5 5. k j 5 5 5 5 5 5,5 6. g 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 7. wh-white.. 5 1 5 ? 5 5 8. w 5 9. f i 5 10. v 5 11. th-thin…. j 5 | 5 12. dh-then?i 5 5 13. s ! 5 14. z 5 15. sh-she 1 5 16. zh-azure… 5 17. y ! 5 18. h …. 5 19. ch-chain… 5 20. j ; 5 21. m I 5 22. n j 5 23. ng I 5 24. I | 5 25. r I 5 5?55 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 ? 5?5 5 I- 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 - 5 ? 5 j 5 5 5 ! 5 5 5 5 3 3 5 0 5 5 5 ‘ 5 5 5 5 I ? 5 ? 5 ? 5 . 3 5 I 3 5 ( 5 5 5 5 ! 5 5 ! 5 5 5 February 26,1907. 1. i-eve 5 5 5 5 2. i-tin I 5 5 5 5 3. e-prey 5 5 5 4. e-pen 5 5 5 5. a-air 5 5 5 6. a-at 5 5 5 7. a-arm. 8. a-chant… 9. o-law 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 10. o-not I 5 5 5 11. o-note 12. o-obe I: 13. u-curl 14. u-but.. 15. u-rule. 16. u-full.. 17. ai-I… 18. au-out 19. oi-coil. 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 ‘ 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 20. iu-few j 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 ? 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 I 5 0 5 5 5 5 5 ? 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 2 5 5 5 5 ? 5 ? 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 5 4?4 ? 5 ? 5 5 5 ? 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 4 5 2 2 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 gether in the sentence, “The tube is on the table,” which I had formerly used in drilling him in the sound of initial t. I dictated the word tube”; he wrote “tuble.” I then asked for the word table, which he wrote correctly. I followed this by a second request for “tube,” and this time he wrote, first, “tubl,” and finally, as the result of a second attempt, “tube.” “Tube” and “table” had become confused in his memory. There was no clear distinction between the visual memory images of the two words. The auditory images of the two words were also confused in his memory, the sound of the word “tube” had become associated with the written form “tube” and also with the written form “table,” which he had learned to recognize at about the same time. His discrimination of sound is evidently not yet keen enough to enable him to determine which written form (tube, or table, or a mixed form) should be used to represent the spoken word, and there is nothing to determine his choice but the chance association of words in his past experience. The sounds of the words in the sentence, “The tube is on the table” and the written symbols representing these words have become closely associated in his memory, as the result of being repeatedly experienced together, and this associative connection is much more definite than the association of the discrete sounds with the individual written words, notwithstanding the fact that he was drilled long on the separate words before the sentence was attempted. The explanation is found in the fact that he has only lately begun to form definite associations between sounds and written symbols, while the association of experiences coexisting in time and place has been a lifelong habit with him.
His great dependence upon such chance contiguity associations is also indicated by the fact that when I dictated “rain,” he wrote “water,” a word which he had in all probability learned in connection with a lesson on “rain”; and also by the fact that when I dictated a word that failed to call up in his memory its written form, he wrote down a succession of symbols that bore no relation whatever to the sound of the word; thus, “found was started with k, and roof with I.
The results, as a whole, indicate that it is quite within the range of possibility to train this boy to the point where his speech defect will entirely disappear; but also that it is quite impossible to do so under the existing conditions. The maximum time that could be devoted in the special school to his articulation training is twenty minutes daily, five days of the week; the rest of the time his old habits hold full sway, and grow steadily stronger with practice. Even in school, at times other than the period devoted to him, the teacher cannot take the time of the class to insist on careful pronunciation. If, however, I could have this boy under constant supervision for some extended period of time and were thus enabled to check every tendency to revert to the infantile mode of speech by making all his pleasures and needs depend upon an earnest effort to make his speech intelligible, I feel that his defect could be overcome and he could continue his life without this heavy handicap.
This case is one of those for the training of which constant supervision is required. They can never be dealt with successfully by the public school system until we have parental schools? schools in which children may be given temporary home care as well as instruction, schools in which children, whose home life and general environment are such as to nullify all the efforts of the day school, may live long enough to form mental and moral habits that may change the whole tenor of their lives.
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