(2) THE FORMATIVE PERIOD The period in a child's speech development dating from the second year and up to the sixth, is called the Formative Period, for the reason that this is the time when the child is busy learning new words, acquiring new habits of speech, co-ordinating and learning properly to associate the flood of ideas which overwhelm the child-mind in this period. The child-vocabulary at this time is but an echo of the vocabulary of the home. The words that have been used most frequently there are most strongly impressed upon the child-mind. The names he has heard, the objects he has seen, the applications of speech-ideas--these alone are now in his mind. This condition is inevitable since the child must learn to speak by imitation--and, since he has had no source of word--pictures other than the home, he must have acquired facility in the use of only those words he has had an opportunity to hear. Former President Wilson, whose faultless diction, remarkable fluency of expression and discriminating choice of words, made him a master speaker and writer, attributed his facility to the training he received in the home of his father, a minister, where the children were constantly encouraged in the use of correct English and in the broadening and enrichment of their store of words. From the form of simple child-speech, made up often of monosyllables or of a few brief and easy sentences, the child must now evolve a more complicated form of thought-expression, with the use of connectives, descriptions and a finer gradation of color than heretofore. This process may be materially aided by the parent by the repetition of the child's own utterances, proving to the child that these are correct, that he is being understood and giving him confidence to venture further out in his attempts at speech amplification. This encouragement of the child-mind in its attempts to speak is so important that it is worth while to give some simple examples of what is meant, in order that the point may be clearly understood. Let us take, first, the example of a mother who, from some cause, allows herself to be of a nervous and irritable disposition. The small child may say, "Mam--ma, I want a tooky." The mother, either through indifference or through habit, says, "You want WHAT?" This, first of all, is like a dash of cold water to the child in his uncertain state of mind as to the correctness of his utterance. The child repeats, "I want a tooky," and in all probability gets the further inquiry, "You want a TOOKY--what's that?" which undermines the child's confidence in himself and in his ability to talk.