TALKS ON HEALTH

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 April 1932, Page 10

TALKS ON HEALTH

[BY A FAMILY DOCTOR.]

STUTTERING (pHILDREN

I cannot allow you to go on watchfog y’our little son stutter in his speech while you tajke no steps to cure him, Haye not you and I solemnly grasped; eacjr-ot&er by the hand, gazed in each other’s cleep blue eyes, and sworn a powerful: bath that we will not permit preventable'flefects to continue on the earth? Have you already forgotten, King Edward said: “If preventable, why not prevented?” Here iS"ybur 'chance; you might take the .trouble to.'teach the little boy to overcome foS detect. Indeed, I am very’vexe'cl.'xith you. You brought the poor little “chap into the world much against? his will, and you seem quite indifferent to the fact that when he is grown 7 up he will lose his job solejy because he; cannot talk to the customers properly. Stuttering grows worse with tfoip if it is hot cured. Its cure* is* especially a job of parents. School teachers, with forty children in thfeir class, cannot spend a couple of houre a day teaching one child how to; speak. You have had the child under your care ever since he was born,’ and it is. quite certain lie never when- he was a baby" There are three things necessary in teaching a child to controFtrts speech —the first is patience, the second is patience, and the third is patience. Noticq which words he sfumplesJ oyer. Suppose he always when' he says “sister.” Then you, make him stand up, take a deep, breath, and then quickly say “sister.” He may fail at first but you and’ he must persevere. SLOVENLY SPEECH Then you must teach fiim e . asy pieces of‘poetry. The reason for that is that the child, when the poem is learnt;’knows’what he Is going to say, and-can 'bring all the parts of the mechanism of speech into play. If he has to think what words come next he will probably stutter. And look here and hearken to what I say! You yourself are most cfireless ' in your speech. Your words, are slovenly, and most of them have' either their heads’or tails 'chopped off. It is more important than you imagine; many a man has been chosen for a job because he speaks nicely. TEACH THE CHILD SONGS Well, the next thing is to teach the child songs. Sometimes a child who has a defect in the speaking voice can sing quite correctly and pronounce the words clearly too. Besides,- all children should be "taught singing whether they stutter or not. Now again! Open the child’s mouth and look at his teeth; perhaps they are displaced. There may be an eye-tooth growing in the wrong position, the roof of the mouth may be too high. Be very sure that nothing is left undone that might help him. " Take him to the dentist; it is better to be on the safe side. I do not think you can be expected to know if the child has enlarged 'tonsils oi’ adenoids at the back of the throat and nose,, put you chip at any rate, notice if the child can breathe freely through the nose or whether he is constantly stuffy, as though he, always has a cold, STUTTERING IS CURABLE Remember, he is only seven years old, he cannot look after himself if you neglect him. Ask the doctor if his nose is in any way deformed, or affected; when you have a cold in your nose you can not talk properly, so make sure that the poor boy has no growth' that could be removed. Never let him grow up to be a man and then blarne yed for not taking a little more care of him. You must devote two hours a day, if necessary, to teaching him. It is very unkind to expose him to the ridicule of the other’ boys because he cannot speak properly. A BROKEN LEG It is sometimes possible to walk on a broken leg. When a bone is broken the two broken surfaces-' are rough and sharp and jagged." If these two jagged ends of bone' are jammed tightly together they'might Stick together quite firmly ;' f The fracture is then said to be impacted. Say a man falls over on his thigh-bone very heavily; the force of twelve or thirteen stone coming ground forces the broken bits together: he has pain, but the broken bone may be able to support his weight. You have learnt in your first aid classes that one of the signs of fracture is “crepitus.” That means that when you gently move the bone to and fro at the broken spot you feel the two broken ends grating together. You cannot get that grating in the case of an, impacted fracture, so you may lie deceived, A CHANGE OF §$£ES ■ Illness often follows carelessness in simfile matters. Now thaVfiamp, muddy streets are the 1 orqLpr qf/fhe day, you will oblige me by keeping a pair of dry boots or shdes at the office and changing: when you arrive. This apwith extra force to young ladies —typists, governesses, clerks, and others—because they wear such thin boots and shoes. If they would just adopt the simple and sensible plan of taking a pair of dry stockings with them and changing their shoes, many a cold would be prevented. I am afraid they won’t do it; it is too sensible. However, you all know as well as I do that the attack of pneumonia that Uncle Tom had last winter was solely' due to his sitting in his office with wet feet.