In the order of development the higher faculties of the mind are the last to grow. 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 only 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 word-comprehending center, 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 difficulty. 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 or who, but names the object. 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 self-control 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 to one 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 cannot develop language if there is not the power of speech. So to help the silent children we must first find whether the mechánism of the child is 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. They must be, 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. The mechanism of the child is correct. The teaching of songs, if taught properly, helps these little people, as well as the timid child, for they not only acquire 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 any other time. I wonder whether we are good models in enunciating words, so 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 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 he 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 ēã a ō ōō; these in their combinations of long and glide are the fundamental sounds. They are made by animals and first by the human infant. For example, listen to its crying. These sounds may express feeling, but not thought. There must be the contact in tone 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 prepa

ration 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 fatal life, the nourishment is not sufficient, the tissues stop growing and we have a cleft palate and a 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, cause 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 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 some one 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 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. We fre

quently 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 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 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 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 who are simply led by their leaders, but the class who 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.

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

I would 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, and when a child is found retarded or detained in life, it is not cast out because our curriculum does not fit it, but 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. She has 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.

THE NEED FOR ENGLISH STUDY BY KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS.

MISS MARY C. MAY, DIRECTOR KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH.*

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HE kindergarten claims the child under six years of age, because it is the time of greatest plasticity, the easiest in which to make impressions. Habits are forming and opinions being molded, many of them for life. Brain centers are rapidly setting up connections, making it possible for it to act as a whole, and tending to establish that automatic action which makes for progress and intellectual growth. Our responsibilities are in direct relation to the plasticity and rapidity of growth of this period. The imitative instinct is at floodtide, and our language, manners, mannerisms, and opinions are copied and quoted as final authority. If the pattern be set good, so much the better; but if not, it makes small difference. with the result.

President Eliot says that "the power to understand rightly and use critically the mother-tongue is the flower of all education." Very few reach this perfection, but are we as teachers endeavoring to approach it, even afar off? And what can be required of us?

First of all, the teacher should be able to speak correctly, both in the matters of grammar and pronunciation. She cannot allow herself the luxury of slang, vulgarisms, or colloquialisms, and her words must be chosen with elegance, simplicity, precision, and strength. She should cultivate a richness of vocabulary that will assist in a wealth of ideas, for a poverty-stricken vocabulary is indicative of a barrenness of thought. She must be able to judge of values in their relationships, and to select the vital and fundamental, and discard the trivial and transitory. She should be trained in an ability to select from her experiences and knowledge those that bear upon a given point, that her work may be most effective. She must cultivate the power of using comparison and simile, that her fund of illustration and explanation may be enriched, and have a keen ear for inaccuracies, and study the best ways of correcting them. With this must go a trained liter

*Read before N. E. A.