rarely in the night, have, on the contrary, as
is the case with the shrill sounds of pain, scarcely changed their
character, _hae-e_, _hae-ae-ae-[)e]_, _[)e]_. They are strongest in the
bath, during the pouring on of cold water.

The child, when left to himself, keeps up all the time his loud readings
("Lesestudien"). He "reads" in a monotonous way maps, letters,
newspapers, drawings, spreading them out in the direction he likes, and
lies down on them with his face close to them, or holding the sheet with
his hands close to his face, and, as before, utters especially
vowel-sounds.

In the twenty-first month imitative attempts of this kind became more
frequent; but singularly enough the babbling--from the eighty-ninth week
on--became different. Before this time vowels were predominant, now more
_consonants_ are produced. When something is said for the child to
reproduce that presents insuperable difficulties of articulation, then
he moves tongue and lips in a marvelous fashion, and often says
_ptoe-ptoe_, _pt-pt_, and _verlapp_, also _dla-dla_, without meaning, no
matter what was the form of the word pronounced to him. In such practice
there often appears likewise a wilfulness, showing itself in
inarticulate sounds and the shaking of the head, even when it is merely
the repetition of easy like-syllabled words that is desired. Hence, in
the case of new words, it is more difficult than before, or is even
impossible to determine whether the child _will_ not or whether he _can_
not reproduce them. Words of unlike syllables are not repeated at all,
not even "bitte." In place of "danke" are heard _dang-gee_ and
_dank-kee_; the former favorite _dakkn_ is almost never heard. In most
of the attempts at sound imitation, the tendency to the doubling of
syllables is worthy of notice. I say "bi," and the answer is _bibi_;
then I say "te," and the answer is _te-te_. If I say "bi-te," the answer
is likewise _bibi_; a single time only, in spite of daily trial, the
answer was _bi-te_, as if by oversight.

This doubling of syllables, involuntary and surely contrary to the will
of the child, stands in remarkable contrast with the indolence he
commonly shows in reproducing anything said, even when the fault is not
to be charged to teasing, stubbornness, or inability. The child then
finds more gratification in other movements than those of the muscles of
speech. The babbling only, abounding in consonants, yields him great
pleasure, partic