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105
years and over. In these classes, which last for three quarters of
in hour, most of the time is used for muscular relaxation. The
children are prepared for this by simple exercises and suggestion of
a feeling of ease, they then lie down on their mats and cushions for
a short period. The rest of the lesson is taken up with conversation
about the relaxing and about the everyday interests of the
children, rhythm exercises, recitation and easy talking games.
The Speech Defect cases are divided into small classes according
to the type and degree of defect. There is one case of cleft
palate speech, and one or two cases of lisp, the other children are
all cases of delayed speech or bad articulation owing to faulty
speech education in the very early stages. Two children suffer
from slight deafness which has retarded their speech. The normal
child should be able to say a number of words before he is two, and
should be able to talk freely by the time he is three years old. Inability
to do this is due either to neglect or to the fact that the
mother encourages the child's baby talk and does not attempt to
teach him to say his words properly. Mothers frequently report
that they can hear what their children say ; it does not seem to
occur to them that it matters whether anyone else can understand
them. It is necessary in most of these cases to re-educate the speech
and teach the children to copy every shape and sound by the mouth.
The children practice breatheing and mouth flexibility exercises,
vowel and consonant sounds, repetition of simple nursery rhymes
and jingles, and singing games. It is extremely tiring to work
the mouth in a way to which it is not used, and an important point
in these lessons is to keep the children interested in a variety of ways
during a short lesson so that they do not realise the physical exertion
and become fatigued. For this reason a certain amount
of apparatus is employed in the form of large cut-out letters which the
children can feel with their fingers and speak the sounds and gradually
build up into words. Picture books are very popular and the
smaller children enjoy describing the pictures and re-telling stories
about them. The older children like drawing and writing and are
very often unconsciouosly learning the correct production of a sound
they are writing by mere repetition. The children are encouraged
to bring drawings or toys they have made at home, and this term
we have been growing some bulbs in order to keep them interested
in coming to the classes and to help them to learn to have confidence
in themselves through their mutual interest and occupations.
As a rule the cases of delayed or baby speech and bad articulation
do not take long to cure. This depends on the general intelligence
of the child. The children who are deaf or are less developed
mentally take a long time to realise the difference between