In this way all abnormal children are given the opportunity to develop, study, acquire a trade and become adapted to social living.

The salaries of teachers at special schools, as well as their retiring pensions, are 25% higher than that of the ordinary teacher. All expenses of special education are born by the state. Nearly all special schools are institutions of the boarding-school type, where children get free schooling and food, as well as clothing, footwear, text-books and study aids.

After leaving school deaf and blind children often go to work at educational-productive enterprises at the Society of the Blind or the Society of the Deaf where they are trained for a better qualification.

The societies for the blind and for the deaf not only help to get jobs but also supply their pupils with technical devices hearing aids, typewriters, tape recorders, etc. free of charge.

In addition blind people are supplied with secretaries or readers, and deaf - with interpreters (from spoken speech into the sign language) when they are needed because of the work they perform or if they continue their studies.

After leaving a special school and thus being equipped for earning a living, young people with physical defects but of normal mental ability may either work or continue their education, either by correspondence or as full time students. In the latter case they receive stipends.

I. TERMS:

unadapted; handicapped; backward; abnormal; defective; deafness; defect; deficiency; handicap; affiction; mental; intellectual; physical; according to; deafness (deaf); blindness (blind); defective hearing; poor eye-sight; speech defects; physical handicaps; mental retardation; mentally retarded; to be caused by illness; to need remedial assistance; treatment (medical); spoken language.

II. WORD COMBINATIONS:

1. to get education

2. to receive special bringing up (training for work)

3. to go to ordinary school (to attend, to study at)

4. to suffer from deficiencies

5. physical (intellectual) defects

6. to be adapted to social living

7. at the expense of

8. free of charge

9. boarding schools

10. employment opportunities

11. to receive remedial assistance

12. to be given the opportunity to work

13. to acquire a trade

14. special welfare institutions

15. methods of compensation and correction of deficiencies

16. to have occupational (vocational) training

17. to care for

18. physically run-down children

19. to compile text-books (visual and study aids)

20. to be given personal instruction

21. to receive stipends

22. to earn for living

23. to give medical treatment

24. to get free schooling, food, clothing

25. to be supplied with technical devices

III. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. What was Mr.Robert interested in?

2. Where do children who cannot go to ordinary school get their education?

3. Why can not they study at general schools?

4. What causes physical and intellectual deficiences?

5. Where do absolute invalids stay?

6. At whose expense do the "unadapted" children receive special education, bringing up and occupational training?

7. Is education payable or free of charge in our country?

8. What facts prove that defective children are object of government care ?

9. What do such children get?

10. How can they become adapted to social living?

11. What do abnormal children get to compensate and correct their deficiencies?

IY. SPEAK ON:

1. The life of unadapted children in the USSR.

2. The help they get to become adapted to social living.

3. The reasons causing deficiencies.

4. The schools handicapped children study at.

***

TEXT

SPECIAL AND AUXILIARY SCHOOLS FOR HANDICAPPED CHILDREN

A reader in Mexico Maria G.FIores wants to know if there are special schools for physically or mentally handicapped children in the Soviet Union.

We sought an answer to her question from Denis Medvedev, Senior Inspector at the Special and Auxiliary Schools Section, Moscow City Public Education Department.

First we asked him to tell us the difference between special and auxiliary schools.

We learnt that the children at special schools and at boarding schools, apart from the fact that they suffer from deafness, blindness, paralysis, scoliosis, nervous disorders, stammering or poor hearing and bad eyesight, are otherwise quite normal.

The same curriculum is taught as at the usual general school and later children may enter secondary technical or higher schools. Each of these schools has its specific features. Considerable attention is paid to teaching deaf children (deafness involves muteness) lip-reading. The finger method is considered outdated and is no longer used at Soviet Schools.

Specialists in speech defects teach stammerers. Children suffering from paralysis have special regimes envisaging medi­cal treatment and rest. Teaching is combined with treatment to avoid any overstrain that could have a bad effect on the children's already weakened health.

Teaching at auxiliary schools is much more complex. The children there are mentally defective. They can cover only a 3 year's syllabus in eight years.

These schools pay maximum attention to teaching children a trade. Boys are trained as carpenters; girls as seamstresses.

When asked about the teachers for both kinds of schools, D.Medvedev explained that some of the Soviet teachers training institutes have faculties of defectology. The USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences has an institute of defectology which elaborates methods of teaching and bringing up handicapped children.

D.Medvedev also explained that modern medical and peda­gogical methods make it possible to determine if a child is unable to study at an ordinary school. He said the problem was very complex both for defectologists and doctors. Forms of mental diseases resulting in deficiency are varied. Some cases are so obvious that a psychoneurologist, who has kept the child under observation from infancy can easily recommend parents to place him in an auxiliary school to avoid unnecessa­ry traumas.

Sometimes when a child is unable to cope with the syllabus and has to stay the 1-st or 2-nd form for several years he may come to hate the school and his studies.

To bring errors down to a minimum each child, before being removed to an auxiliary school, is carefully examined by a com­mission consisting of the headmaster, an inspector from a dist­rict or city public education department, a number of psychia­trists and his teacher.

If during his stay at an auxiliary school, his teacher there finds that he could return to an ordinary school, the headmaster must inform the local public education authorities at once, no matter what time of the year the decision is made.

When asked if the number of handicapped children has changed over the many years of his activity, D.Medvedev replied that the social changes in the country had greatly reduced the number of schools for blind children, which now mostly cater for those blinded as a result of traumas. The same can be said of schools for children suffering from polio after­effects. Unfortunately, there is much less of a reduction in the number of children with nervous or brain disorders. They were hoping, he said, that science would learn how to influence the progress of pregnancy to exclude pathological development of the embryo. In the majority of cases this was the cause of mental deficiency after birth. So far, however, pedagogics and defectology are concentrating their efforts on alleiviating the suffering of children.

I. TERMS:

special; auxiliary schools; boarding schools; scoliosis; bad eyesight; nervous disorders; poor hearing; stammering; lip-reading; finger method; muteness; curriculum; syllabus; cope with; carpenters; seamstresses; to elaborate methods; weakened health; overstrain; trauma; paralysis; disease.

II. WORD COMBINATIONS:

1. to seek an answer

2. apart from

3. to have one's specific features

4. to pay attention to

5. the finger method

6. to be outdated

7. to be no longer used

8. speech defects (stammering)

9. to have special regime

10. to be combined with

11. to avoid overstrain

12. to have a bad effect on child's health

13. to be much more complex

14. to cover a 3 year's syllabus in 8 years

15. to teach a trade

16. to be trained as carpenters (seamstresses)

17. to elaborate methods of teaching and bringing up handicapped children

18. modern methods

19. to be unable to study

20. forms of mental diseases are varied

21. to result in deficiency

22. from infancy

23. to avoid unnecessary traumas

24. to cope with

25. to bring errors down to a minimum

26. to be removed to

27. to return to ordinary school

28. after-effect

29. children with nervous and brain disorders

III. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. Why cannot some children attend ordinary schools?

2. What type of schools for unadapted children do you know?

3. What children study at special schools?

(What defects do they suffer from?)

4. Are children with physical defects otherwise normal?

5. What specific features do special schools have?

6. What is paid maximum attention to at such schools?

7. Why is teaching combined with medical treatment and rest?

8. Why do we say that teaching is much more complex at auxiliary schools?

9. Can mentally retarded children cope with the syllabus in time?

10. What are boys and girls trained as?

11. What is done to avoid overstrain and unnecessary traumas?

***

TEXT

THE BACKWARD CHILD

The backward child must not be confounded with the abnor­mal child, although when judged by ordinary school standards they may appear to be very similar. There is however this great difference-a backward child probably possesses all the ordinary faculties of mind and body. It is not so much his heredity as his environment that is faulty… In elemen­tary schools the children are classified as "Bright", "Fair", "Dull", "Backward". Place in school cannot be determined by the child's age, nor by his stature. It must depend on the degree of facility or difficulty with which he can do the work appropriate to his age...

There are... a considerable number of children who keep their place in school with difficulty. Owing to poor health or defective environment, they are scarcely up to their age in mental development, and therefore they do not profit to the fullest degree from the instruction given. They are really better off in the standard immediately below that which is officially normal to their age. These are the "Dull Children", and it is with them that the teacher's chief difficulties be­gin.

The Backward children are those who are quite unable to maintain the right standard of their age. They can only manage work which is normal for children two years their junior, and they will probably leave school at the age of fourteen in the fifth instead of the seventh grade.

Such children are liable to be classed as Mental Defectives, but careful investigation will generally show that their powers of mind are normal, and that their backward condition is due to their circumstances rather than to their nature.

It is quite true that in many instances they are born to poor, ignorant and in some way unsatisfactory parents, but even a child who came into the world with the best natural endowments would be terribly handicapped if his environment were such as which is experienced by a large portion or our population... There are many English homes in which the deve­lopment of the children is severely handicapped, owing to con­ditions over which their parents might exercise more control than they actually do - homes that are made ineffectual and even hideous by reason of immorality, drunkenness, gross igno­rance... on the part of their parents.

I. TERMS:

ordinary faculties of mind and body; heredity; environment; appropriate to; owing to; fault; to determine; to depend on; stature; age; unsatisfactory; ignorant; backward condition; immoral; severely handicapped.

II. WORD COMBINATIONS:

1. to be confounded with

2. to possess all the ordinary faculties of mind and body

3. to be faulty

4. to be classified as

5. to be determined by age, stature

6. to depend on the degree of facility (difficulty)

7. to do the work appropriate to one's age

8. to keep the place in school with difficulty

9. defective environment

10. to be up to

11. to manage work

12. powers of mind (faculties, abilities)

13. to be due to (owing to)

14. it is not so much... as

15. to be severely handicapped (terribly)

16. unsatisfactory parents

17. to be born into poor, ignorant family

18. instruction given

19. to be due to the circumstances rather than the nature

20. to have the best natural endowments

III. ASSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. What is the difference between a backward child and an ab­normal child?

2. Why may they appear to be very similar?

3. By what can the child’s place be determined at school?

4. What does a backward child possess?

5. What is faulty for his backwardness?

6. Why do some children keep their place at school with difficulty? (Owing to what?)

7. What are the backward children?

8. When do they leave school?

9. What about the powers of mind of the children who are classified as Mentally Defective?

10. What families do they come from?

11. Has the environment any importance for the development of a child?

12. Why are many children severely handicapped in their mental development?

IY. SPEAK ON:

1. The main difference between the backward children and abnor­mal children.

2. The reasons for the development of children's backwardness.

***

TEXT

THE ABNORMAL CHILD

The subject of the abnormal child is one that is of great importance to every member of the community. It is also one that is generally avoided and ignored. The consideration of physical deformity and abnormality is naturally painful to healthy-minded people, all the same such conditions must be and usually are recognised. They must be adequately dealt with if any remedy or help is possible. The subject of mental abnormality, whether innote or acquired, is even more painful to the general public than is that of physical deformity or accident, and most parents are only anxious to avoid diagnosis and postpone treatment.

The fact that mental defect is innate, and can no more be remedied than can the congenital absence of finger, eye or organ of hearing, is no reason for own refusal to recognise the deficiency. And this all the more because although we cannot supply a missing portion of body or mind, we can so train and educate the rest of the organism that the results of the defect shall be as little burdensome and damaging as possible.

Before entering on any explanation of the different forms and degrees of mental deficiency, it is desirable to make a few points really clear.

First... the words mind and mental are not equivalents to intellect and intellectual.

Mind includes not only the intellect but also the memory, the judgment, affections and the will, and as we shall see a little later, any one of these faculties of the mind may be more or less deficient.

Secondly, mental deficiency and mental unsoundness do not mean the same thing. By mental deficiency we are to understand a mind that was imperfect in one or more of its facul­ties from birth or from an early age...

By mental unsoundness or insanity on the other hand we are to understand the case of mind hitherto complete and healthy which, owing to some accident... becomes deranged.

I. TERMS:

to avoid; deformity; to recignise; the abnormality; innote; acquired; to postpone; remedy; missing portion; damage; a faculty; painful; healthy-minded; accident; general public; intellect; mental unsoundness; deranged; imperfect; incomplete; insanity.

II. WORD COMBINATIONS:

1. to be acquired

2. to be painful for general public

3. to be innote (hereditory)congenital

4. to be remedied

5. healthy-minded people

6. if any help or remedy is possible

7. the subject of mental abnormality

8. to be anxious to avoid diagnosis

9. to compensate for

10. to supply a missing portion of mind or body

11. to postpone treatment

12. to be avoided and ignored by

13. to be of great significance (importance)

14. the same thing

15. to be no reason for

16. to be desirable

17. as a result of accident

18. to be deranged (imperfect, incomplete)

19. as little burdensome as possible

20. to be more or less deficient

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. What subject is important for every member of the community?

2. Why is it generally avoided and ignored?

3. Is mental abnormality innote or acquired?

4. Why is the subject of mental abnormality so painful for healthy-minded people?

5. Why are parents usually anxious to avoid diagnosis and postpone treatment?

6. What makes the result of the defect less burdemsome and damaging?

7. Can we supply a missing portion of mind or body?

8. What does mind include (healthy)?

9. Can mental defect which is innote be remedied?

IY. SPEAK ON:

Compare the backward children and the abnormal children.

***

TEXT

CLASSIFICATION OF MENTAL DEFECTIVES.

by J.Tizard.

In the many ways of classifying mental defectives one of the most useful for psychological and administrative purposes is by severity or grade of the defect.

Three main grades are distinguished, namely, imbecils and feeble-minded persons. Roughly speaking, one can say that idiots are so grossly subnormal in intelligence that they cannot learn to protect themselves from common physical dangers. They do not learn to speak more than a few words at most.

Imbecils learn to avoid common physical dangers, and can usually carry on a simple conversation, but they do not have the wit to learn to read and write as adults they can lead only a sheltered existence.

In imbecils and idiots the damage to the central nervous system is severe.

Idiots and imbecils form the two great classes of what is often called "lower grade" mental defect.

There is a considerable agreement in all countries as to how these two terms shall be used, and because of the gravity of the disabilities from which idiots and imbecils suffer diagnosis is relatively easy in the great majority of cases. Much more uncertainty exists in regard to what are called "high grade" mental defectives, morons or feeble-minded per­sons. Both the terminology and the definition of this category are confusing. In Great Britain the "slow-learning" children are often called feeble-minded.

In America the term feeble-mindedness is a synonym for mental deficiency. And those who are called feeble-minded in England are called morons in the United States,

The term feeble-minded has traditionally been applied to adults who are above imbecile grade in intelligence and attainment, but who are regarded as mentally deficient because of gross social incompetence. So the term feeble-minded is now applied only to socially incompetent persons who are also grossly subnormal in intelligence.

In most feeble-minded persons the damage in the central nervous system is either severe or is non-existent, and the main defects, which are behavioral, are in many cases due more to environmental factors imparting the efficiency of a vulnerable organism, than to physiological causes in them­selves.

Mental deficiency is to be distinguished from mental illness.

a) mentally ill patients are

1) those who need medical and social services in the com­munity or in hospital and who are not at present subject to compulsory powers (they are many) and

2) those who are at present subject to compulsory admission to hospital or community care, in certain circumstances, as "persons of unsound mind" (they are few)

b) psychopathic patients are patients with psychopathic perso­nality, are those who may be called feeble-minded psychopaths.

I. TERMS:

mental defectives; severity of the defect (grade); subnormal; imbecils; idiots; morons; feeble-minded; adults; damage; central nervous system; severe; "lower grade"; "high grade"; gravity of the disabilities; suffer from; in regard to; "slow-learning"; to be applied to; to be above imbecile grade; intelligence; gross social incompetence; non-existent; behavioral; due to; environmental factors; vulnerable organism; mental illness; medical and social services; subject to; compulsory powers

(admissions).

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. To what condition is the term of "mental deficiency" applied?

2. By what is mental deficiency characterised?

3. What is mental deficiency to be distinguished from?

4. What grades of mental deficiency are distinguished?

5. What are imbecils, morons, idiots?

6. What is the difference between mental deficiency and mental illness?

7. What patients are mentally ill and what do they need?

8. What do imbecils learn to avoid?

9. What about idiots?

III. SPEAK ON:

Classification of mental defectives.

***

TEXT

CLASSES FOR MENTALLY RETARDED

Special classes for mentally retarded have become a gene­rally accepted solution to this problem. In a special class, enrollments are usually limited to about half the size of the regular grades. The teachers are specially prepared to teach retarded children.

The retarded child finds himself in an environment where the curriculum is adapted to his readiness level and to realistic preparation for his future.

Here he can experience the satisfaction of his schieve­ments and progress. He is with others who are moving along at about the same rate; in brief, he is in a school atmosphere conductive to successful learning.

He is usually with the other children on the playground, at lunch, and in his own neighborhood. But he also has the security of belonging to a class, and of being with a teacher, who understands him and who has the time and knows how to teach him. So many schools have adopted special classes as an effec­tive solution to the problem of extreme individual differences in learning needs.

I. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. Why are there classes for mentally retarded children?

2. Why can not they attend ordinary school?

3. So the teachers who teach retarded children get special education?

4. What can you say about the curriculum of such special classes?

5. Is it adapted to a child's readiness level?

6. What can a child experience in a special class? Can it experience the satisfaction of his achievements and progress?

7. What atmosphere at school helps a child to have successful learning?

8. Why are special classes an effective solution to the prob­lem of extreme individual differences in learning needs?

9. What security has a retarded child in a special class?

10. Why is a special class usually limited to half a size of the regular grade?

II. SPEAK ON:

The classes for the mentally retarded and their specific features.

***

TEXT

CAUSES OF MENTAL RETARDATION

The causes of mental retardation are varied but are usually divided into two major groups: primary and secondary. The former group includes hereditary or congenital factors which cause mental retardation, and the latter includes post­natal conditions which affect mental development.

Another variation of this classification accepts the dif­ferentiation in terms of cause, classifying mental deficiency as endogenous and exogenous types. The endogenous type are children who are mentally deficient as a result of familiar factors while the exogenous type are children who have sus­tained brain injuries from any cause.

Much doubt has been thrown upon the inheritance of amentis. In general, it may be said that so far as biological inheritance can limit behavioral achievement, we may conclude that mental retardation may be inherited. However, studies of mentally retarded children, particularly of the degree of those in the special training classes, have shown that they are found about as frequently in families of high intellectual ability as in those of lower intellectual ability.

Congenital causes of mental retardation include nutritio­nal deficiences, accidents, abnormal physiological conditions, and the infections during pregnancy.

Secondary amentia is postnatally acquired and may be grouped into three etiological classes: that which is due to an infec­tious disease, and those which are endocrino-pathic in nature,

Doll, Edgar A.

Definition of Mental Deficieiicy, Training School Bulletin, 1941

I. WORD COMBINATIONS:

1. to be varied

2. the former (latter) group

3. to affect mental development

4. to accept the differentiation in terms of cause

5. endogenous (exogenous) types

6. brain injury

7. the inheritance of amentia

8. biological inheritance

9. to limit behavioral achievement

10. families of high (low) intellectual ability

11. congenital causes of mental retardation

12. nutritional deficiencies

13. abnormal psycological conditions

14. infections during pregnancy

15. to be postnatally acquired

16. to be grouped into

17. to be endocrino-pathic in nature

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. Into what two major groups are the causes of mental retar­dation divided?

2. What are they?

3. What does the second group include?

4. What affects mental development?

5. What is the other classification in terms of cause?

6. What are the children of endogenous type? (exogenous)

7. Can mental retardation be inherited?

8. What can you say about the inheritance of amentia?

9. Into what three groups can secondary amentia, which is post- natally acquired, be grouped?

10. What does the term "mentally-retarded" mean?

***

TEXT

DEGREE OF RETARDATION

Mental retardation is a very complex problem, and many of these complexities make a difference in how the retarded child is educated. There are many degrees of retardation, including the levels so low that school provisions in the ordinary sense would scarcely possible. Mental retardation has many causes, and is often found in combination with other disabilities, all of which may make substantial differences in how a child may be best taught. The key to progress, therefore, lies in conti­nued study of the problem.

For the educational purposes, the mentally retarded are now being classified into three groups:

1. the upper range or moderately retarded, most of whom can acquire sufficient academic skills for many practical purposes and who often become independently useful and self-supporting citizens.

2. the middle range or severely retarded, who may be able to learn practical skills, and can be quite efficient in an understan­ding and protective environment.

3. the lower range or castodial group, who can learn only the most basic self-help skills, and who must have someone to look after them and their lives, either at home or in residential facility.

I. TERMS:

moderately retarded; mentally retarded; severely retarded; custodial group; practical skills; self-supporting; to acquire skills; protective environment; to look after; a residential facility; disability; for practical purposes; independently useful; to be quite efficient in something.

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. What are the degrees of mental retardation?

2. Into how many groups for educational purposes are the men­tally retarded classified?

3. What is the difference between the upper range, the middle and the lower ranges?

4. What can the children of custodial group learn?

5. Can the children of the middle range (moderately retarded) become independently useful? Who can be self-supporting citizens?

6. Are those of custodial group able to learn many practical skills?

7. Why should they be looked after?

***

TEXT

THE RETARDED CHILD LEARNS BEST BY SPECIAL METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

Educators are generally agreed that the most characteris­tic educational disability of the retarded is difficulty in learning. The difficulty shows up in many different ways. Retarded children are older than other children before they learn those things which they will be able to learn. While growth is slow for a number of years they are able to master more and more difficult skills, especially if they are placed is a good learning situation. But there are some things they will never be able to master.

He will not reach the average level in learning no matter how long one waits.

When a retarded child appears to have difficulty in memo­rizing, it is often because the materials being presented are too difficult for him to understand, or his interest has not been aroused. Mechanical repetition or rote learning, without interest or motivation seems to be ineffective with the retar­ded. Reading and other subjects using symbols seem to be espe­cially difficult for most of the mentally retarded. This means that the teacher most frequently uses special teaching methods.

The methods of instruction for mentally defectives are based on the fact that they can learn something every year but slower than other children. Such children need additional coaching as well as remedial help in specific subjects. The mentally retarded child differs from the normal in that he learns more slowly, needs more repetition of material, needs a great variety of presentations (approaches). It is recommen­ded to introduce few new words at a time and to repeat more after the child has acquired sight vocabulary.The instruction of mental defectives must be oral, visual and at the same time correlated with the child's interests. Such children must make use of illustrated elementary readers and story books with a very limited vocabulary in clear print and well-illustrated.

However oral expression is the chief aim of language instruction. The speaking vocabulary should increase gradually and the child should learn to express complete thoughts before he learns to read sentences. Written language grows out of the use of oral language. The pupil must be able to say first the things which he wishes to write. Yet, if carefully guided, retarded children read for pleasure.

I. TERMS:

show up; master; memorise; rote learning; additional coaching; remedial help; variety of presentation; sight vocabulary; illustrated elementary reader; written language; speaking vocabulary.

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. What is the most characteristic educational disability of the retarded?

2. When are retarded children able to master more and more difficult skills?

3. Why has a retarded child difficulty in memorizing the mate­rial?

4. Is mechanical repetition or rote learning, without interest or motivation effective with the retarded?

5. What is the most difficult for the mentally retarded?

6. What teaching methods are often used by the teachers?

7. Why do retarded children need additional coaching as well as remedial help?

8. In what is the mentally retarded child different from the normal?

9. What should the instruction of mental defectives be? (oral or in writing)

10. What books should be used at school for mentally retarded?

***

TEXT

SPEECH DEFECTS

A speech defect may be defined as any acoustic variation from an accepted speech standard.

Speech defects are the most prevalent of all the handicaps of childhood. These defects are most numerous in the primary grades and decrease steadily in the siniour grades. Boys have speech defects much more frequently than girls.

There is a following percentage of speech defects: 13% of all speech defects are articulatory, 22% stuttering, 4% dis­orders of voice and only a small fraction of 1% can be classi­fied as disorders of language.

There are two theories to explain the occurence of speech defects. One is based upon pathology, the other is based upon psychology.

Defects in the organs of speech may give rise to defective articulation, Such defects include harelip with the cleft palate, misshapen jaws or seriously malformed teeth.

Most of these defects can be corrected by the proper ortho­dontal work or by surgery. Cases of defective articulation can be caused by too short a frenum (the membrane by which the tongue is attached to the lower jaws), such cases are said to be "tongue-tied".

The production of speech is neuromuscular process. It de­pends on motor skills and the childs ability to hear is very important for children to learn to speak by hearing the others.

These children may be devided into two groups: the aphasics and other children. Aphasia is a disturbance in ability to handle language symbol due to brain lesion and it is defined as a communication disorder.

Aphasia is also known by many other names, literally means loss of speech, but now it has come to include

1) alexia or difficulty with reading symbols;

2) agraphia or difficulty with writing symbols;

3) apraxia or motor disturbance;

4) visual-verbal agnosia - loss of recognition of written letters and words;

5) auditory-verbal agnosis - impaired ability to recognise spoken words;

6) dysarthria group includes children with defective articulation when due to a lesion of central or peripheral nervous system, it includes all motor disturbances of speech (motor defects of speech).

Aphasia is sometimes associated with deafness, especially where the deafness is due to a brain lesion. Aphasic children are found in a class for deaf children, since the method of instruction such children in motor-speech patterns and language comprehention are essentially the same as those used with the deaf.

I. TERMS AND WORD COMBINATIONS:

speech defects; acoustic variation; accepted speech standard; handicaps; primary grades; sinior grades; to decrease steadily; percentage of speech defects; stuttering; disorders of voice; disorders of language; organs of speech; to give rise to something; the occurrence of speech defects;

pathology; psychology; harelip; cleft palate; mishapen jaws; malformed teeth; to correct defects; orthodontal work; surgery; defective articulation; to cause something; short frenum; a tongue; aphasics; aphasia; disturbance; alexia; agraphia; apraxia; visual-verbal agnisia; auditory-verbal agnosia - impaired ability to...; dysarthria; defective articulation; deafness; production of speech.

II. ANSWER THE QUESTIONS:

1. How can a speech defect be defined?

2. What is the percentage of speech defects?

3. What theories explain the occurrence of speech defects?

4. What defects in organs of speech may cause defective articulation?

5. Can these defects be corrected? How?

6. What kind of process is the production of speech?

7. What does it depend on?

8. What is aphasia?

9. What subgroups of disturbances does aphasia include?

10. What is aphasia associated with?

III. SPEAK ON:

1. The problem of speech defects.

2. How defects in organs of speech and defective articulation are related to each other.

3. Aphasia and its forms.

***

TEXT

SPEECH HANDICAPPED SCHOOL CHILDREN

It is quite clear that anything which makes education more rewarding for speech defective pupils must necessarily benefit all other school children as well. The kind of education that is best for the speech handicapped child involves an educational philosophy, a general school policy, a type of teaching, and a kind teacher that combine to make for very effective education in a broad sense.

Speech training for all children, including speech correc­tion for many who need it, is fully as essential to sound present-day education as training in the three R's.

More than half of all the states have laws which recognize the special needs of speech defective school children. Speech correction teachers are employed in a very considerable number of school systems, and the rapidly growing demand for speech correctionists far exceeds the available supply. In fact, the demand cannot possibly be fully met for many years to come.

Even if it were met completely, however, many problems would remain. The reason for this is simply that speech correction is a job that requires teamwork. The classroom teacher and the school administrator are just as essential to the success of a speech correction program as is the speech clinician. In fact, until an adequate supply of speech clinicians can be made available, the 5 to 10 per cent of school children who have speech defects must necessarily be dealt with largely by regular staff in most schools.

What is a speech defect. A straightforward general answer to the question: What is a speech defect? is that a child's speech is defective when most listeners pay as much attention or more, to how he speaks as to what he says.

What are the different types of speech defects? The following varieties of speech defects are considered:

1. Defects of articulation.

2. Defects of voice.

3. Stuttering.

4. Retarded speech development.

5. Speech defects associated with cleft palate and cerebral palsy.

6. Speech defects associated with impaired hearing.

This is a practical classification which is commonly used and which depends chiefly on non-professional terminology.

Defects of articulation take three main forms.

1. Omission of sounds: a speech sound may be more or less habitually omitted, as in saying "pay" for "play", or "shovuh" for "shovel".

2. Distortion of sounds: a particular speech sound may be slighted, articulated too lightly to be heard clearly; a sound may be over-articulated, as in the case of a "whistling" s ; a sound may be "mushed", as in the case of an s that sounds much but not quite like a sh .

3. Sound substitution: as in wun for run (substitution of w for r), or thither for sister (substitution of th for a).

A child with an articulary defect may make one or more of these types of error. He may make the errors he does only in articulating one particular sound, or two or more sounds may be affected. One sound may be affected more than another. The same sound may be misarticulated more consistently when it occurs at the beginning of a word, in the middle of a word, or at the end. A sound that is produced correctly in one word may be misarticulated in others.

Defects of voice are mainly classified in terms of the primary attributes of voice. These are pitch, loudness and quality. Pitch can be too high, too low, or monotonous. The voice may be too loud, too weak, or monotonous with respect to loud­ness. The chief quality defects are nasality, hoarseness, harshness, and breathiness. Chronic voice defects are not very common among school children. The so-called change of voice occasions some difficulty, of course, at roughly the Junior high school level and beyond. Many of the voice difficulties in children are associated with the common cold, laryngitis, or enlarged adenoids.

Stuttering, which affects approximately six to ten out of every thousand school children, is from many points of view the most challenging of all speech defects, not only to the speech correctionist but also to the classroom teacher. It is not to be defined glibly. While it is a disturbance in the rhythm or fluency of speech, consisting of pauses or hesitancies, repeated or prolonged sounds, and extraneous sounds, it is definitely much more than these surface manifestations. The stutterer feels both tense and apprehensive. His problem is at bottom a psychological one. This is to say that when a child stutters to his mother, his teacher, or to a playmate, he is responding to this other person hesitantly, with some conflict as to whether to respond or not, or whether to respond in one way or another, and with a degree and kind of tension that expresses some measure of fear and insecurity with respect to how the other person will react.

Retarded speech development is best understood with refe­rence to the various aspects of speech in which development can be seen. Most normal children begin to say words, for example, at about the age of twelve to fifteen months; a child who has not begun to speak in simple words by the age of two or three years needs special attention. Age norms of this kind should not be interpreted strictly; we are not interested in the average child, but in the majority of children. There are not only wide differencies among children, but also great variations in the conditions or environments by which children are affected. A sufficiently abnormal environment can retard the speech de­velopment of a definitely normal child.

Speech defects associated with cleft palate and cerebral palsy are to be described in terms of imperfections in voice, articulation, and fluency or rate. In cases of cleft palate the structures normally form the roof of the mouth have failed to join properly. As a result, air passes freely between the oral and nasal chambers. This means that the speech tends to be nasalized, It means also that difficulty is experienced in building up breath pressure for the stop-plosive sounds (p,b, t,d,k and g); the effect to produce these sounds may be called a "nasal snort". Other sounds, too, can be affected, of course. Cerebral palsy is a general term which covers a variety of conditions caused by damage to certain areas in the brain. The most common forma are the spastic, the athetotic, and the ataxic. The incidence of cerebral palsy has never been determined pre­cisely; we are quite sure, however, that at least 400000 persons in the United States are affected by this condition. Speech is influenced in about 70 per cent of cases by cerebral palsy.

Speech defects associated with impaired hearing are re­vealed chiefly in certain distortions of articulations and voice. The hard of hearing child cannot hear the speech of others well enough to imitate accurately the finer qualities of voice and speech, particularly with respect to the articulation of certain sounds. Moreover, such a child cannot always hear his own voice sufficiently well to know that he is making particular errors or that he is not controlling his vocal inflections normally. The degree to which speech is affected depends generally upon the degree to which hearing is impaired.

I. TERMS AND WORD COMBINATIONS:

speech handicapped children; speech defective pupils; speech training; speech correction; speech correction teachers; speech correctionists; speech clinicians; speech deficits; defective speech; speech difficulty; mental subnormality; defects of articulation; defects of voice; stuttering; retarded speech development; cerebral palsy; impaired hearing; hard of hearing

children; the three R's; to articulate; articulation; to omit; omission; to distort; distortion.

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. What is required for teaching speech handicapped children?

2. Is speech training required only for speech handicapped children? Why?

3. Is the amount of speech correction teachers sufficient at present?

4. In what way and under what conditions must speech correction be carried out?

5. What distracts the listener's attention when listening to a speech defective child?

6. What speech drawbacks are sometimes confused with speech defects?

7. What are different types of speech defects?

III. SPEAK ON:

1. Different types of defects of articulation.

2. Different types of voice defects.

3. Psychological aspects of stuttering.

4. What aggravates the problem of retarded speech development.

5. Anatomical and physiological aspects of speech defects associated with cleft palate and cerebral palsy.

6. Impaired hearing.

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SPEECH AND READING DISABILITIES

The relationship of the speech and reading difficulties may lie in a delayed muscular maturation when the children have left handedness.

Since these children need practice with the common everyday words, they must have experience with interesting, familiar and frequently repeated vocabulary. The teacher provides such experiences with language through story telling.

Children with facial cleft require special care and training.

In the speech of the child with a palatal cleft all sounds pass directly into nasal cavity. Therefore, all the vowel sounds are nasalized and most of the consonants have nasal character.

Control of breath and the prevention or reduction of leakage of breath into the nasal cavities are the primary goals.

This may be accomplished through blowing exercises: blowing of a feather or a candle flame.

Careful ear training and voice training often reduce the excessive nasality. The correctionist must help the child to increase the mobility of his tongue and lips.

The correctionist first teaches the sounds that are easiest for the child. For example, "h" is usually fairly easy to teach. Then later he introduces "k","g","s","z". These four sounds are difficult for the children with a cleft palate.

I. TERMS AND WORD COMBINATIONS:

delayed muscular maturation; facial cleft; palatal cleft; nasal cavity; vowel sounds; to nasalize; nasal; consonants; nasality; correctionist; mobility; tongue; to blow.

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. What may cause speech and reading difficulties?

2. What kind of vocabulary should be used for exercises with children suffering from speech and reading disabilities?

3. In what way is this practice carried out?

4. What is the peculiarity of speech of children with a palatal cleft?

5. Why are all vowel sounds nasalized with these children?

6. What are the primary goals of a speech correctionist when having speech exercises with children with palatal cleft?

7. What can reduce nasality?

8. What sounds does a speech correctionist begin with?

9. What sounds does he pass on to later?

III. SPEAK ON:

1. Ways of experiences with language.

2. Peculiarities of speech with children suffering from palatal cleft.

3. Different ways to prevent or reduce nasality.

4. Stages in teaching the sounds.

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WHAT IS SPEECH CORRECTION

A speech correctionist examines and diagnouses or evaluates the speech, voice and language behaviour of children and adults who experience difficulty with these functions, and provides remedial instruction and counceling for them according to their respective needs. In the United States most such correc­tion work is carried in the elementary and secondary schools.

It is also done in hospitals, of course, and clinics. There are also private speech clinics. Today most of the larger univer­sities and colleges and many of the smaller ones maintain speech clinics. These university clinics not only provide student and community speech correction servicies but are also important as professional training and research centres.

A practical distinction is commonly made between the scien­tific study of speech disorders, which is known as speech pathology, and corrective work with persons who have speech difficulties or disorders which is known variously as speech correction, speech rehabilitation, speech improvement and speech reeducation.

Speech pathology and speech correction together constitute a professional field which has developed rapidly, particularly since World War I. As a profession it has drawn for its special needs from a wide variety of fields, such as the medi­cal sciencies - particularly anatomy, physiology and neutrology education, and child welfare and psycology, to build upon a base made up chiefly of phonetics and speech science and the psycology of personal adjustment.

I. TERMS AND WORD COMBINATIONS:

to correct; speech correction; a speech correctionist; to examine; to diagnose; remedial instruction; speech clinics; speech correction; speech disorders; speech pathology; speech difficulties; speech improvement; to improve; speech reedu­cation; personal adjustment; speech rehabilitation.

I. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. What work is carried out by a speech correctionist?

2. In what institution is speech correction implemented?

3. What branches of science are involved in speech correction?

III. SPEAK ON:

1. The work of a speech correctionist.

2. Practical distinction between scientific study and corrective work.

3. Correlation of different branches of science.

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CASES OF DELAYED SPEECH

Among the frequent causes of prolonged speech delay is mental deficiency.

The child severely retarded may never learn to speak. Less severely retarded children may learn to speak with a limited vocabulary of single words or short phrases. Children born with brain damage or who have acquired damage to the brain before an age at which speech usually begins to develop are frequently retarded in their speech onset.

Often, even after these children begin to speak, articu­lation, voice, vocabulary development are impaired. So called regional deafness of which high-frequency deafness may serve as an example, can produce distortion of speech.

Delayed speech is a disorder of language rather than speech. The problem of delayed speech, however, is more than that of a severe articulation defect.

A relatively infrequent cause of delayed speech is the shift of handedness insisted upon by many parents of left handed children. Studies show that the part of the brain which con­trols speech is also that which is responsible for the controle of the preferred hand. Most of the children show a spontaneous acquisition of speech as soon as they show a preference for one hand.

It is often wise to ask a child to vocalize as he uses his hand in such activities as writing or ball tossing. The child should be trained in large activities first, and then in those which Involve the use of specialized movement.

I. TERMS AND WORD COMBINATIONS:

to delay; delayed speech; speech delay; mental deficiency; retarded children; brain damage; to impair; distortion of speech; articulation defect; handedness; left handedness; a left handed child.

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. What may cause speech delay?

2. To what extent can speech of retarded children be limited?

3. What speech troubles can arise due to brain damage?

4. In what way do handedness and speech development correlate?

5. Should parents insist on their child's right-handedness?

6. What phase of speech development does the child's preference for one hand indicate?

III. SPEAK ON:

1. Causes of prolonged speech delay.

2. Shift of handedness and development of normal speech.

3. Gestures as a stimulant for speech development.

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DEVELOPMENT OF NORMAL SPEECH

Speech habits are not instinctive; they are acquired. One evidence of the truth of this principle is the fact that children develop the particular language used in their home environment, irrespective of nationality background. Thus, if a child born of parents who speak French is brought up in an English-speaking home, he will speak English. Another evidence is the fact that children who are totally deaf from birth do not learn to speak because they do not hear. The so-called "deaf and dumb" are only deaf. This principle is significant for the teacher. Frequently a child lisps because his mother and older brother or a sister does. Children learn that standard of speech which is spoken at home.

This does not mean, of course, that speech habits cannot

be modified at school. Speech develops more slowly in boys than in girls. Boys begin to speak about the 15-th month, girls about the 14-th, because it takes a boy some months longer than a girl to acquire the sound of speech. Similarly, speech defects are more prevalent in boys than in girls.

I. TERMS AND WORD COMBINATIONS:

speech habits; instinctive; to acquire; environment; deaf; dumb; to lisp; standard of speech.

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. Are speech habits instinctive or acquired?

2. In what way does home environment influence speech develop­ment?

3. What is the difference in boys' and girls' speech develop­ment?

III. SPEAK ON:

1. Home environment and speech development.

2. Why are girls more successful in acquisition of speech habits?

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