The Discovery Of The Child

.204 THE DISCOVERY OF THE CHILD

Jtais, for example, in the first exercises on the senses, the
Sfeboth card and the rough card having been touched, she
will say: "It is smooth," "It is rough," repeating the word a
,great many times, with various modulations of the voice, but
always with clear vowel tones and with distinct enunciation,
" Smooth, smooth, smooth," and " Rough, rough, rough ".

In the same way, when dealing with heat sensations, she will
say: "It is cold," "It is warm," "It is frozen," "It is tepid,"
"It is burning." Then she will begin to use the generic term
•" heat "; also " more heat," " less heat".

In this way the lesson in nomenclature ought to consist in
• establishing the association of the name with the object or with
the abstract idea which the name itself represents. The object
and the name must appeal to the child's understanding at one and
the same time. It is, however, imperative that no word other than
-the name should be pronounced.

Second Stage: Recognition of the Object Corresponding to the
Name. The mistress ought always to test the success of the lesson
which she has given.

The first test will be that of finding out whether or not the
name has remained associated with the object in the memory of
the child. For that, she will have to allow a requisite time to
•elapse between the lesson and the test, that is, several moments
of silence should intervene between them. Then she will ask the
child, pronouncing slowly and with very clear pronunciation only
the name (or the adjective) which had been taught: " Which one
is smooth? " " Which one is rough? "

The child will point to the object, and the mistress will know
whether or not the association has been established.

This second time is the most important of all and contains
the real lesson, the real mnemonic and associative aid. When the
mistress is satisfied that the child is in touch with her, has under-
stood and is interested, she will repeat over and over again the
-.same questions: ** Whick one is smooth?" and " Which one is
xough?"