Corrective Teaching for Defects of Speech in Backward and Mentally Defective Children

In my opinion the greatest influence towards securing more perfect speech in our schools is the more perfect speech of teachers. It is well, therefore, for everyone who is interested in this subject to examine his or her own speech? to detect and correct any imperfections that may be present. We are all apt to form careless, slipshod habits when we talk, to catch local inflexion of voice or the local stressing of a word. Our speech is so largely a matter of imitation that it is not easy to avoid imitating the provincialisms of the district in which we live or work. I would suggest, therefore, that if we are to improve the quality of the speech in a school as a whole and also to correct individual peculiarities and defects we must first of all ensure that the speech the children hear in school shall be as perfect as possible. This presupposes that teachers realising the danger of their own tendency in common with all mankind " to catch " provincialisms will quite simply and definitely give ear to their own speech. The swiftest and