The Mental Development of a Child (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ... such syllables occurred about the forty-second week. Many of these were parts of words from the conversation of his elders which did not relate personally to the child. It was not uncommon, especially when he first began to speak, for him to confuse words sounding somewhat alike. This I have spoken of under Language and have there shown how it affected the acquirement of the correct pronunciation. If, however, he knew what the pronunciation should be, yet failed to achieve it, he was quick to detect the mistake and always paused to correct himself. The perception of differences in spoken words no doubt depended somewhat upon the movements and positions taken by the mouth-parts in framing the sounds; he was, however, often able in the second year to detect by the ear alone individual differences in the pronunciation of other persons. Regarding his interpretation of sounds, enough has been said in the discussion of recognition to show that well nigh all the sounds perceived came to be so associated with experiences involving other than auditory sensations, that the instantaneous reference of a sound heard to one of these experiences was inevitable. All early meanings attached to sounds were naturally of a personal nature, and the first sounds interpreted were those associated with the comfort or discomfort of the child himself. When his intelligence had moved beyond the stage of purely personal reference, and he had begun to be interested in things for themselves, a new and wider circle of interpretations was formed (close of the first year). Then it was that the child, while rightly recognizing sounds, fell into errors of interpretation. Such errors became more numerous with the passage of time. His accurate memory for past experiences led him...