Another remarkable observation is the following from the fifteenth
month. It reminds one of the behavior of hypnotized adults. On her
grandmother's birthday the child said some rhymes that she did not
easily remember (there were six short verses, thirty-four words). One
night soon after the birthday festival the little girl said off the
verses, "almost for the first time without any stumbling, in her sleep."
From this we see how much more quickly in regard to articulation and
independent use of words both these girls (the first of whom weighed
only six pounds at birth) learned to speak than did Sigismund's boy, my
own boy, and others.
Darwin observed (_A Biographical Sketch of an Infant_ in "Mind, a
Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy," July, 1877, pp. 285-294)
in a son of his, on the forty-seventh day of his life, a formation of
sounds without meaning. The child took pleasure in it. The sounds soon
became manifold. In the sixth month he uttered the sound _da_ without
any meaning; but in the fifth he probably began to try to imitate
sounds. In the tenth month the imitation of sounds was unmistakable. In
the twelfth he could readily imitate all sorts of actions, such as
shaking his head and saying "Ah." He also understood intonations,
gestures, several words, and short sentences. When exactly seven months
old, the child associated his nurse with her name, so that when it was
called out he would look round for her.
Pages:
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309