The Speech of a Left-Handed Child
- Author:
Margaret Morse Nice,
Norman, Oklahoma.
This child was the first case of left-handedness that had been known in either her father’s or mother’s family. Until she was two years old she was prevented from using her left hand. As she showed no signs of talking by this time, the attempt to make her right-handed was given up. She is the fourth daughter of a college teacher; her sisters are considerably older than she, there being ten years difference between her age and that of her nearest sister. She was slightly slower than her sisters in learning to walk, taking her first steps at sixteen months. All her sisters learned to talk normally.
She came under my observation in a Montessori Nature Study School from the time she was three years and four months old until she was three years and nine months old, and again a year later. She is decidedly left-handed. She uses her hands well, drawing, cutting, modelling and building with blocks better than the other children of her age.
When she first entered the school, her speech was so imperfect that few people could understand anything she said. Her family had tried to improve her pronunciation but found it hopeless. I gave her no drill in articulation.
At three years and four months, these were specimen sentences. ” ‘E’ ou’ ma ‘a’;” [Get out of my water]. “Me co’ too,” [I (had a) cold too]. “Me ‘do’ ball.” [(Give) me the football]. “Ma’ bl’ ‘chool ‘ou’,” [(I’m going to) make a big school house]. ” ‘Moo’, ‘u’,” [Smooth, rough].
At three years and five months, her speech was much the same. “Ee ma ‘ou’ too,” [See my house too.] Also, “‘ouse” for “house;” “A’ ‘ight,” [All right]. “Me ‘igh ‘ing too,” [(I have a) high thing too]. “‘O’,” [Hole]. “Pa-ine,” [(I want to play with) plasticine]. “‘Ake ‘ome,” [(I want to) take (it) home]. “Me ‘ing,” [(Give) me the ring]. “Bi’ ba’ boa’,” [Big black board]. ” ‘Oo’,” “‘ook,” or “look.” “Ma’ ‘ay no c5’,” [Mamma said (it’s) not cold]. “‘Ick ‘6-day,” [(I was) sick yesterday].
This is like the speech of an eighteen months to two year old child beginning to talk. Final and initial consonants and syllables were omitted, yet not uniformly, for sometimes she said a word correctly which she usually clipped. Her speech was mostly made up of vowels. She did not mispronounce words, she simply omitted them. During these two months I never heard her use a personal pronoun except “me” and “you” and never any form of the verb to be. She would make great speeches to us with all possible animation and lively gestures, but none of us could understand a word. Usually I had to have an idea of what she would be likely to say before I could understand her. Even her own family could not understand her speeches. She was very free in her use of gestures to help her listeners to comprehend.
When she was three years and six months old she suddenly began to improve:?
“Lookie my cake.” “Two Mamma ones, two baby ones.” The improvement was striking at three years and seven months:?
“I want to p’ay p’asticine.” “I got baby tickie [chickie] too.” “I’ll show you.” ” ‘Et me ho’ it.” [Let me hold it.] “Has no name.” “All right.” At three years and eight months her progress was even more marked:? “Not come ‘chool any more days.” “I tell my Mamma two more week.” “I wear no coat today. Too hot today.” “I’m go’ take him out door in my auto’bile.” “You got baby ta’pole [tadpole] too.” “Co’[come] back to me.” “Buy can’y too.” [I bought candy too.] “Me got two.” “Pint me here,” [He pinched me here.] “I want two baby ones.” “Open door pie’.” ” ‘A’ ‘at?,” [What is that?]. Here are a few direct comparisons of words which she repeated after me. Correct English. 3 years, 5 months. 3 years, 9 months. Three; seven. ‘ee’; ‘e’. free; seve’. Six; four. ‘i’; ‘or. fix; four. Five; eight. ‘i’; ‘ei’. fi’, eight. Get out of my water. V ou’ ma ‘a’. Come out ma water. She was improving very rapidly at this time; for instance one, week she said “‘nake” and the next “snake.” Some sounds she was inconsistent in using, as initial “1” and “g”, sometimes saying “‘et” and sometimes “let,” and sometimes changing “g” to “d” and at other times not. Her constant mistakes were “ch” changed to “t”; “j” changed to “d”; “s” omitted before “k” and “t”; “dh” changed to “d” as “fader”, “th” to “f”; and “y” either omitted as ” ‘e-ow’ ” for “yellow” or changed to “w” as “ward” for “yard.”
She still clipped her words rather indiscriminately as “bui’ ” for “build” and “si’ ” for “scissors.” She still made such a jumble of longer words that no one could understand them. For instance “party dress” was incomprehensible in her version until she brought us the object. Her grammar was in a crude state as a glance at the specimen sentences will show. Sometimes she used “I” for the nominative case and sometimes “me”. Her verbs were entirely uninflected and so were most of her nouns. Minor words, such as “a”, “the”, “is”, “was”, etc., were omitted.
Although a very sociable child and enthusiastic about joining in every game, she did not talk much with the other children. Apparently she had learned that adults could understand her better than children. She directed most of her speeches to me and always answered when I spoke to her. At times she paid no attention to what her playmates said, not even when they told her of the death of the beloved bunny.
At four years and six months she talks English well?nearly as well as the average child of her age. She has not mastered “th” or “dh”, saying “frough” for “through”, “yat” for “that” and “eiver” for “either”. “Girl” and “turtle” she calls “gerl” and “tertle”. The final “g” of present participles is omitted. She seems still to have some tendency to shorten words and sentences, by leaving out “is” and “have,” and pronouncing “very” as “ve’y,” “another” as “an’er” and “hasn’t” as “ha’nt.” When she tells a story she is so eager and in such a hurry that it is not easy to understand her.
The interference with this child’s left-handedness until she was two years old seems to have caused such disturbance in her speech center that at the age of three years and five months her language was for the most part unintelligible. Since she was allowed to use her left hand after she was two years old, the disturbing influence lasted very markedly for a year and a half and to a lesser degree for another six months. The improvement which began at three and a half years was not due to training, for she received none. The development was entirely spontaneous after she had seemingly reached the stage when the disturbing influence was overcome. At the age of three and a half the right side of the brain apparently gained the mastery over the left side, and her speech was definitely localized. After this the improvement in her language was remarkably rapid. At four and a half years she talks nearly as well as other children of her age.
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