UNGRADED DECEMBER, 1917 Entered as second-class matter March 28, 1916, at the Post Office at Concord, N. H., Signed articles are not to be understood as expressing the views of the editors or publishers VOL. III No. 3 A STUDY OF THE SPEECH DEFECTS OF NINETYONE UNGRADED CLASS CHILDREN ELIZABETH A. Walsh ASSISTANT INSPECTOR OF UNGRADED CLASSES, NEW YORK CITY Ever since attention has been given to the care and training of mentally defective children, it has been generally known that speech defects are common among them. Tredgold says that it is probably present to some extent in fully three-quarters of all cases. Lapage says, "Defects of speech are common and important among the feeble-minded." That speech defects are not confined to the feeble-minded is shown by the following studies: Westergard in Denmark made a study of 34,000 normal children and found 2.2 per cent with speech defects; .617 per cent being stutterers. Rouma in Belgium made a study of 14,235 children and found 11.5 per cent with defects of speech, 1.4 per cent stutterers. Conradi collected statistics in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Louisville, Albany, Springfield, and Kansas City. He reports 2.46 per cent as having defective speech, .87 per cent of whom stuttered.* If Conradi's findings hold true for the whole United States, our school population contains some half million school children with speech defects, about 200,000 of whom are stutterers and the remainder lispers. Miss Morrison, in her study of 218 first grade children, reported in the Psychological Clinic, October, 1915, found 12.8 per cent to have marked defects of articulation. She excluded "th" sounds, which 49 per cent did not give correctly because it is one of the latest sounds to be mastered by children, and secondly because about one-third of the children came from homes in which a foreign language that does not contain this sound is spoken. In the present study, the children of five ungraded classes, 91 children in all, were tested. These classes were chosen because the teachers have had considerable training in speech work and because nearly all the children could read. An attempt was made to answer the following questions: 1. How many of the children have defective speech? 2. What is the nature of these defects? *Journal of Eudcational Psychology, 1912, 3. What are possible causes of the defects? 4. What are some of the methods of treatment and training which have helped or are helping to cure the speech defects? METHOD OF TESTING FOR SPEECH DEFECTS Words. A list of words was chosen containing the consonants used as initial, medial and final sounds. These words were names of objects, colors, numerals, etc., familiar to the child and usually to be found in any school room, or easily procured. All but two of the words could be illustrated by objects or by pictures mounted on cards. Either the object itself, or the picture, or a question in regard to them called forth a response from the child in which the sound to be tested had to be used. A set of cards in accordance with the above scheme, one card for each consonant, was prepared. The consonant to be tested was indicated at the top of the card. Beneath it was written the words containing the consonant in its three positions, i. e., at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a word. Alternative words are given in case one was not known to the child. The drawings and colors chosen were very definite in character. The purpose of the cards is to avoid imitation in order that the child's habitual articulation may be noted, and also to make it something of a game which tends to put the child at his ease and to prevent self conscious "What is this?" "A pin." "What am I writing on?" "Paper. "What is this (holding up a cap)?" "A cap." Memory gems, etc.-The pronunciation of the consonant was noted in the three positions in memory gems and the like where the child had been drilled on the correct sounds in certain words. Much of the speech difficulty in mentally defective children is probably due to defective memory and association. They seem unable to retain in memory the correct sound. Reading. The sound in the three positions was noted when the child read. Conversation. The child's use of the sound in the three positions in conversation was noted. These charts show very definitely the speech defects a particular child has and in which position or positions the error is made. Each child can thus be helped as his needs indicate. The use of the charts in this study discovered to the teachers of children tested several speech defects which they had not been aware of before the test was made. In determining how many of the ninety-one children had defective speech, no error was counted more than once. That is, if a child made a sound of "1" incorrectly in the three different positions it was counted as one error only. All sounds with which children had trouble in any of the ways indicated above were recorded on individual charts made for the purpose. A copy of the chart showing both sides appears at the end of this article. The sounds were classified as follows: 1. Those made with the lips-m, p, b, wh, w. 2. Those made with the lips and teeth-f, v. 3. Those made with the tongue and teeth-th and th. 4. Those made with the rim (or tip) of the tongue-n, l, t, d, r, s, z. 5. Those made with the blade of the tongue-sh, zh, y. 6. Those made at the back of the mouth-ng, k, g. 7. ch, j. 8. h aspirate. On these charts are also indicated some of the physical and mental conditions which might help to get at the cause of the defects in speech as follows: Total number of children with speech defects. II. Nature of the speech defects noted. Number of speech defects. The speech defects were divided into three main classes: 1. Lispers.-Those who were unable to pronounce certain sounds, who omitted certain sounds, who substituted one sound for another, who transposed sounds or slurred over certain sounds. The negligent lispers speak incorrectly through mental carelessness, or through incorrect perception of sounds according to Scripture; the organic lispers speak incorrectly because of defective speech organs; the neurotic lispers, because of excessive nervousness. Stutter 2. Stutterers.-Those who stick on certain sounds and words. ing is characterized by fear, embarrassment, faulty tone, and rapidity in speech. The consonant is produced repeatedly; the child being unable to produce the vowel. Most authorities regard stuttering as psychic in its origin. The fear of the stutterer may be compared to "stage-fright.” 3. Lack of intelligible speech. The following is a tabulation of the defects noted in the children of this study: Lispers: Negligent lispers.. Organic lispers.. Neurotic lispers. . Stutterers (two of these are also lispers). Total. Two of the stutterers are also lispers.. Final total... III. Probable causes of the speech defects noted. Thorndike says that the chief defects in the feeble-minded are: slowness in forming habits of any sort, lack of control of attention and, most impor |