with each month of life. She should encourage him to babble and gurgle
and murmur, as much as possible, to laugh and crow and make all the
various baby noises that will train and develop his voice. Encourage
noisy, romping, rollicking games as he gets older, that make him shout
and call, for they are the natural and best voice exercises.




IV

WHAT ABOUT THE BABY'S SPEECH?


The hearing baby babbles because he gets some pleasure from the sounds,
and also because he desires to imitate the sounds of speech he hears
around him. _He has his attention called constantly to sound._ The sense
of vibration is not as strong nor as instructive as that of sound, but
if _the attention_ of the child is early _called_ to it, a watchfulness
for vibration _from within himself_ as well as from without, can be
aroused, and a sensitiveness developed that would not have come as
early, if at all, without special, directive effort on the part of the
mother. She can lead her little one to oo-oo, and ee-ee, and mamma, and
bub-bub, etc., by doing these babblings herself while the baby is in her
arms and his tiny hands are wandering over her lips and face and throat.
These exercises will gradually bring a recognition on the part of the
child of the sensation of vibration that accompanies voice, and they
will give facility, coupled with the normal and natural intonations that
have been acquired when he was not conscious of any effort, that will
prepare him for a better and more fluent speech when the time comes for