Chapter 39 39

A child who is trying to learn to speak needs only to say what he can understand, and there is no need to speak words that he cannot speak. He keeps repeating the same syllables. This effort is like practicing clear pronunciation.When he stutters, you don't have to try to figure it out, expecting someone to always listen to him is also tyrannical and not good for a child.You just need to attend to his real needs.Nor should you push him to learn to speak; he will learn to speak when he feels the need.Then, to limit the child's vocabulary, he does not need more words than he can understand, lest he speak all that he does not understand.I think one reason why peasants are usually smarter than townspeople is that they have smaller vocabularies.Just because they have few concepts, they can understand them thoroughly.