Part 25 (1/2)
SECOND PERIOD: EXERCISES TENDING TO ESTABLISH THE VISUAL-MUSCULAR IMAGE OF THE ALPHABETICAL SIGNS, AND TO ESTABLISH THE MUSCULAR MEMORY OF THE MOVEMENTS NECESSARY TO WRITING
_Didactic Material._ Cards upon which the single letters of the alphabet are mounted in sandpaper; larger cards containing groups of the same letters.
The cards upon which the sandpaper letters are mounted are adapted in size and shape to each letter. The vowels are in light-coloured sandpaper and are mounted upon dark cards, the consonants and the groups of letters are in black sandpaper mounted upon white cards. The grouping is so arranged as to call attention to contrasted, or a.n.a.logous forms.
The letters are cut in clear script form, the shaded parts being made broader. We have chosen to reproduce the vertical script in use in the elementary schools.
_Exercises._ In teaching the letters of the alphabet, we begin with the _vowels_ and proceed to the consonants, p.r.o.nouncing the _sound_, not the name. In the case of the consonants, we immediately unite the sound with one of the vowel sounds, repeating the syllable according to the usual phonetic method.
The teaching proceeds according to the three periods already ill.u.s.trated.
_First._ a.s.sociation of the visual and muscular-tactile sensation with the letter sound.
The directress presents to the child two of the cards upon which vowels are mounted (or two of the consonants, as the case may be). Let us suppose that we present the letters i and o, saying, ”This is i! This is o!” As soon as we have given the sound of a letter, we have the child trace it, taking care to show him _how_ to trace it, and if necessary guiding the index finger of his right hand over the sandpaper letter _in the sense of writing_.
”_Knowing how to trace_” will consist in _knowing the direction_ in which a given graphic sign must be followed.
The child learns quickly, and his finger, already expert in the tactile exercise, _is led_, by the slight roughness of the fine sandpaper, over the exact track of the letter. _He may then repeat indefinitely_ the movements necessary to produce the letters of the alphabet, without the fear of the mistakes of which a child writing with a pencil for the first time is so conscious. If he deviates, the smoothness of the card immediately warns him of his error.
The children, as soon as they have become at all expert in this tracing of the letters, take great pleasure in repeating it _with closed eyes_, letting the sandpaper lead them in following the form which they do not see. Thus the perception will be established by the direct muscular-tactile sensation of the letter. In other words, it is no longer the visual image of the letter, but the _tactile sensation_, which guides the hand of the child in these movements, which thus become fixed in the muscular memory.
There develop, contemporaneously, three sensations when the directress _shows the letter_ to the child and has him trace it; the visual sensation, the tactile sensation, and the muscular sensation. In this way the _image of the graphic sign_ is fixed _in a much shorter s.p.a.ce of time_ than when it was, according to ordinary methods, acquired only through the visual image. It will be found that the _muscular memory_ is in the young child the most tenacious and, at the same time, the most ready. Indeed, he sometimes recognises the letters by touching them, when he cannot do so by looking at them. These images are, besides all this, contemporaneously a.s.sociated with the alphabetical sound.
_Second._ Perception. _The child should know how to compare and to recognise the figures, when he hears the sounds corresponding to them._
The directress asks the child, for example, ”Give me o!--Give me i!” If the child does not recognise the letters by looking at them, she invites him to trace them, but if he still does not recognise them, the lesson is ended, and may be resumed another day. I have already spoken of the necessity of _not revealing_ the error, and of not insisting in the teaching when the child does not respond readily.
_Third._ Language. _Allowing the letters to lie for some instants upon the table, the directress asks the child, ”What is this?” and he should respond, o, i._
In teaching the consonants, the directress p.r.o.nounces only the _sound_, and as soon as she has done so unites with it a vowel, p.r.o.nouncing the syllable thus formed and alternating this little exercise by the use of different vowels. She must always be careful to emphasize the sound of the consonant, repeating it by itself, as, for example, _m_, _m_, _m_, _ma_, _me_, _mi_, _m_, _m_. When the child _repeats_ the sound he isolates it, and then accompanies it with the vowel.
It is not necessary to teach all the vowels before pa.s.sing to the consonants, and as soon as the child knows one consonant he may begin to compose words. Questions of this sort, however, are left to the judgment of the educator.
I do not find it practical _to follow a special rule_ in the teaching of the consonants. Often the curiosity of the child concerning a letter leads us to teach that desired consonant; a name p.r.o.nounced may awaken in him a desire to know what consonants are necessary to compose it, and this _will_, or _willingness_, of the pupil is a much more _efficacious_ means than any rule concerning the _progression_ of the letters.
When the child p.r.o.nounces _the sounds_ of the consonants, he experiences an evident pleasure. It is a great novelty for him, this series of sounds, so varied and yet so distinct, _presenting_ such enigmatic signs as the letters of the alphabet. There is mystery about all this, which provokes most decided interest. One day I was on the terrace while the children were having their free games; I had with me a little boy of two years and a half left with me, for a moment, by his mother. Scattered about upon a number of chairs, were the alphabets which we use in the school. These had become mixed, and I was putting the letters back into their respective compartments. Having finished my work, I placed the boxes upon two of the little chairs near me. The little boy watched me.
Finally, he drew near to the box, and took one of the letters in his hand. It chanced to be an f. At that moment the children, who were running in single file, pa.s.sed us, and, seeing the letter, called out in chorus the corresponding sound and pa.s.sed on. The child paid no attention to them, but put back the f and took up an r. The children running by again, looked at him laughing, and then began to cry out ”r, r, r! r, r, r!” Little by little the baby understood that, when he took a letter in hand, the children, who were pa.s.sing, cried out a sound.
This amused him so much that I wished to observe how long he would persist in this game without becoming tired. He kept it up for _three-quarters of an hour_! The children had become interested in the child, and grouped themselves about him, p.r.o.nouncing the sounds in chorus, and laughing at his pleased surprise. At last, after he had several times held up f, and had received from his public the same sound, he took the letter again, showing it to me, and saying, ”f, f, f!” He had learned this from out the great confusion of sounds which he had heard; the long letter which had first arrested the attention of the running children, had made a great impression upon him.
It is not necessary to show how the separate p.r.o.nunciation of the alphabetical sounds _reveals_ the condition of the child's speech.
Defects, which are almost all related to the _incomplete_ development of the language itself, manifest themselves, and the directress may take note of them one by one. In this way she will be possessed of a record of the child's progress, which will help her in her individual teaching, and will reveal much concerning the development of the language in this particular child.
In the matter of _correcting linguistic defects_, we will find it helpful to follow the physiological rules relating to the child's development, and to modify the difficulties in the presentation of our lesson. When, however, the child's speech is sufficiently developed, and when he _p.r.o.nounces all the sounds_, it does not matter which of the letters we select in our lessons.
Many of the defects which have become permanent in adults are due to _functional errors in the development_ of the language during the period of infancy. If, for the attention which we pay to the correction of linguistic defects in children in the upper grades, we would subst.i.tute _a direction of the development of the language_ while the child is still young, our results would be much more practical and valuable. In fact, many of the defects in p.r.o.nunciation arise from the use of a _dialect_, and these it is almost impossible to correct after the period of childhood. They may, however, be most easily removed through the use of educational methods especially adapted to the perfecting of the language in little children.
We do not speak here of actual linguistic _defects_ related to anatomical or physiological weaknesses, or to pathological facts which alter the function of the nervous system. I speak at present only of those irregularities which are due to a repet.i.tion of incorrect sounds, or to the imitation of imperfect p.r.o.nunciation. Such defects may show themselves in the p.r.o.nunciation of any one of the consonant sounds, and I can conceive of no more practical means for a methodical correction of speech defects than this exercise in p.r.o.nunciation, which is a necessary part in learning the graphic language through my method. But such important questions deserve a chapter to themselves.
Turning directly to the method used in teaching writing, I may call attention to the fact that it is contained in the two periods already described. Such exercises have made it possible for the child to learn, and to fix, the muscular mechanism necessary to the proper holding of the pen, and to the making of the graphic signs. If he has exercised himself for a sufficiently long time in these exercises, he will be _potentially_ ready to write all the letters of the alphabet and all of the simple syllables, without ever having taken chalk or pencil in his hand.