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WHAT THE MOTHER OF A
DEAF CHILD OUGHT TO KNOW
BY
JOHN DUTTON WRIGHT
FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL OF THE WRIGHT ORAL SCHOOL FOR THE
DEAF, NEW YORK CITY; COLLABORATOR OF "THE LARYNGO-
SCOPE" AND THE "VOLTA REVIEW"; DIRECTOR OF THE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION TO PROMOTE THE TEACHING
OF SPEECH TO THE DEAF; AUTHOR OF "EDUCA-
TIONAL NEEDS OF THE DEAF," FOR THE
GUIDANCE OF PHYSICIANS
[Illustration: Logo]
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
_Copyright, 1915, by_
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
_All rights reserved, including that of translation
into foreign languages_
_March, 1915_
TO MY WIFE
AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THIS LITTLE BOOK
WAS WRITTEN IN ORDER THAT MOTHERS
MAY DO ALL IN THEIR POWER FOR
THEIR DEAF CHILDREN
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE ix-xix
I. FACING THE FACTS 1
II. HOW SHALL THE MOTHER BEGIN HER PART OF THE WORK? 5
III. HOW SHALL THE MOTHER GET INTO COMMUNICATION
WITH HER DEAF CHILD? 13
IV. WHAT ABOUT THE BABY'S SPEECH? 20
V. DEVELOPING THE MENTAL FACULTIES 22
VI. DEVELOPING THE LUNGS 30
VII. THE CULTIVATION OF CREATIVE IMAGINATION 32
VIII. FURTHER TESTS OF HEARING 34
IX. THE DEVELOPMENT OF RESIDUAL HEARING 38
X. DEVELOPING THE POWER OF LIP-READING 43
XI. FORMING CHARACTER 47
XII. CULTIVATING THE SOCIAL INSTINCT 50
XIII. SOMETHING ABOUT SCHOOLS AND METHODS 53
XIV. THE PRESERVATION OF SPEECH. WHEN DEAFNESS
RESULTS FROM ACCIDENT OR ILLNESS AFTER INFANCY 58
XV. TEACHING LIP-READING 61
XVI. SCHOOL AGE 63
XVII. ORGANIZED EFFORTS BY PARENTS TO OBTAIN
BETTER EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS 65
XVIII. A PERSONAL MATTER FOR EACH PARENT 68
XIX. DAY SCHOOLS 72
XX. THE DEAF CHILD AT FIVE YEARS OF AGE 73
XXI. SCHOOLS FOR THE HEARING AND PRIVATE GOVERNESSES 75
XXII. IMPORTANCE OF THE BEGINNING 80
XXIII. AVOID THE YOUNG AND INEXPERIENCED TEACHER 82
XXIV. ON ENTERING SCHOOL 83
XXV. DURING THE SCHOOL PERIOD 98
XXVI. DURING VACATION 101
XXVII. SOME NOTS 107
PREFACE
The mother of a little deaf child once wrote as follows:
"As a mother of a deaf child, and one whose experience has been
unusual only in that it has been more fortunate than that of the
average mother so situated, I want to place before you (the
teachers of the deaf) a plea for the education of the parents of
little deaf children.
"While you are laboring for the education of the deaf, and for
their sakes are training teachers to carry on the work, there are,
in almost every home that shelters a little deaf child, blunders
being made that will retard his development and hinder your work
for years to come--blunders that a little timely advice might
prevent. We parents are not willfully ignorant, not always stupidly
so; but that we are in most cases densely so, there can be no
doubt.
"Can you for the moment put yourselves into our place? Suppose you
are just the ordinary American parents, perhaps living far from the
center of things. You know in a hazy way that there are deaf and
blind and other afflicted people--perhaps you have seen some of
them.
"Now, into your home comes disease or a sudden awakening to the
meaning of existing conditions, and you find that _your_ child is
_deaf_.
"At first your thought is of physicians; they fail you. Advice from
friends and advertisements from quacks pour in upon you; still you
find no comfort and no help.
"You stop talking to the child. What is the use? He cannot hear
you! You pity him--oh, infinitely! And your pity takes the form of
indulgence. You love him and you long to understand him; but you
cannot interpret him and he feels the change, the helplessness in
your attitude toward him. You try one thing after another,
floundering desperately in your effort to discover what radical
step must be taken to meet this emergency. After a time you seize
upon the idea that seems to you the best. Probably it is to wait
until he is six or seven and then put him into an institution. But
while you wait for school age to arrive, you lose that close touch
with the soul of your child which may be established only in these
early years, for you have no adequate means of communication with
him--no way to win his confidence. Soon the child has passed this
stage, and no school can ever give him what you might and would
have given had you known how.
"You who are trained teachers of the deaf can hardly realize the
need of advice about matters perfectly obvious to YOU; but the need
exists. May I tell you from my own experience a few of the things
about which you might advise--you, who know!
"In the first place, suggest to parents that they make simple
tests of their children's hearing; and tell them how and why those
who are _partially_ deaf should be helped.
"Then tell them to talk, and talk, and talk, to their little deaf
ones--to say everything and say it naturally. And tell them some
things in particular that should be said--commands, etc., and
_certainly_ 'I love you.' Tell them to speak in whole sentences.
Give them an idea of the possibilities of lip-reading.
"Tell them that _by the expression of the face_ they may convey to
the deaf child the interest, approval, disapproval, etc., that they
would express to a hearing child in the tone of voice.
"Tell them that there is _rarely_ an untrained person who can
_safely_ meddle with articulation.
"Tell them that it is not true that all deaf children are bad; that
the deaf must learn obedience as others do.
"Tell them the many things which you wish your pupils had learned
before they entered school.
"Only this I beg of you--tell them!
"LUCILE M. MOORE."
For the sake of presenting the ideas contained in this little book in a
somewhat systematic manner it was best to arrange them on the
supposition that they would come to the notice of the mothers while
their children were yet less than two years of age. In many cases,
however, this will not be the case. When, therefore, the child is three,
four, or five years old when this falls into the hands of the mother, it
would still be well if she carried out the suggestions in the order in
which they are here arranged. With the maturity of mind and body that
comes with the added years, the child can pass through the earlier
stages of the training much more rapidly than can be the case with the
baby. Nevertheless, the preliminary steps should not be omitted. A child
of four can be carried in six months through the exercises that occupied
two years when begun with the child of twelve months, but the older
child should not be started with exercises suggested for the years after
two.
Mothers of deaf children cannot be expected to be trained teachers of
the deaf. It would be useless, and, in fact, often unfortunate, to ask
them to attempt to teach articulation to their children. Even for them
to teach the children to write would usually be undesirable because the
greatest gain from the mother's efforts comes from the early
establishment of the speech-reading habit and _entire_ dependence upon
it. It is a very great help to have this habit fixed before writing is
taught. There is no haste about the child's learning to write. That is
easily and quickly accomplished when the proper time comes. The
difficult thing to do is, very fortunately, the thing the mother is best
fitted to accomplish, namely, to create in the child the ability to
interpret speech by means of the eye, and the habit of expecting to get
ideas by watching the face of a speaker.
With these ideas in mind there has been careful avoidance in this
little book of any suggestion that the mother should be anxious about
the speech development of the child before five years of age. If she has
the patience and the time to follow the directions given, she will have
done her child a very great service; the greatest that lies within her
power; and she will have laid the foundation for a more rapid and better
development of speech than would have been possible without her
preliminary training.
Not every mother will find it possible to carry out all the suggestions
offered in this little book, but no one should feel discouraged on that
account. It seemed best to offer too many suggestions rather than too
few, because these pages may fall into the hands of some mothers whose
situation is such that full advantage can be taken of every idea here
given. Presence of too much matter in the little book will not destroy
its usefulness in cases where only a portion can be applied, whereas the
lack of some of the ideas might limit its value in certain instances.
No one should give up in despair just because it is not possible to do
all that is here suggested. Something, at least, can be found here which
it is possible to do that will help very much.
Sometimes, through a false sense of shame, or through ignorance of the
possibilities open to a deaf child, mothers have refused to admit that
their children were deaf, or to allow anything to be done for them,
until very valuable time has been lost. This is unfair to the child, and
very wrong. A mother should have only pity for the deaf child and
eagerness to aid him to overcome his handicap so far as possible. Delay
in frankly facing the facts and in taking all possible measures to
develop the remaining faculties will in the end only increase the
mother's shame and add to it the pangs of remorse.
In a little book written to guide physicians in advising parents of deaf
children, I said:
"The situation of a deaf child differs very much, from an educational
standpoint, from that of the little hearing child. Two hours a day
playing educational games in a kindergarten is as much as is usually
given, or is needful, for the little hearing child up to six or seven
years of age; and his mental development and success in after life will
not be seriously endangered if even that is omitted and he does not
begin to go to school until he is eight or nine. The hearing child of
eight who has never been in school and cannot read or write has,
nevertheless, without conscious effort, mastered the two most important
educational tasks in life. He has learned to speak and has acquired the
greater part of his working vocabulary. In other words, although he has
never been across the threshold of a school, his education is well
advanced for his years and mental development.
"The situation of the uninstructed deaf child of eight is very
different. The task which it has taken the hearing child eight years to
accomplish, the deaf child of eight has not even begun. He cannot speak
a word; he does not even know that there is such a thing as a word. He
is eight years behind his hearing brother, and even if he starts now,
unless some means can be found for aiding him to overtake his brother
educationally, he will be only eight years old in education when he is
sixteen years of age. And when he is sixteen, the psychological period
will have passed for acquiring what he should have learned when he was
eight. The fact that the child is deaf does not exempt him from the
inexorable laws of mental psychology and heredity. In the development of
the human mind there is a certain period when all conditions are
favorable for the acquisition of speech and language. Unnumbered
generations of ancestors acquired speech and language at that stage of
their mental development, and this little deaf descendant's mind obeys
the law of inherited tendencies.
"If the speech and language-learning period, from two years of age to
ten, is allowed to pass unimproved, the task of learning them later is
rendered unnecessarily difficult.
"Therefore, in the case of the little deaf child, the years from two to
ten are crucial, and of far greater importance than the same period in
the case of the hearing child."
Even though the child be totally deaf from birth, he can nevertheless be
taught to speak and to understand when others speak to him. He can be
given the same education that he would be capable of mastering if he
could hear. The mother need not be despairing nor heart-broken. A
prompt, brave, and intelligent facing of the situation will result in
making the child one to be proud of and to lean upon.
JOHN D. WRIGHT.
1 Mount Morris Park, West, New York City.
February, 1915.
WHAT THE MOTHER OF A DEAF CHILD OUGHT TO KNOW
(_Mothers are strongly advised to read the Preface_)
I
FACING THE FACTS
While deafness is a serious misfortune, it is neither a sin, nor a
disgrace, to be ashamed of. It is a handicap, to be sure, but one to be
bravely and cheerfully faced, for it does not destroy the chances for
happiness and success. It is cause for neither discouragement nor
despair. It will demand patient devotion and courageous effort to
overcome the disadvantage, but what mother is not willing to show these
in large measure for her child when the future holds assurance of
comfort and usefulness?
The earlier that the facts are known and squarely faced, the better. It
is always wiser in life to prepare for the worst and gratefully accept
the best, than to refuse to acknowledge the possibility of the worst
until it is too late to remedy it, or at least to reduce it to its
lowest terms.
When a mother first suspects that her child's hearing is not perfectly
normal, what should she do? Of course, first of all, the best available
ear specialist should be consulted at once in order to determine whether
the cause can be removed and normal hearing restored. Sometimes,
however, the specialists are uncertain of the outcome, and sometimes
their hopes are not realized. In the meantime, precious days and weeks
are passing in which something could be done for the little one
educationally, without in any way interfering with the medical efforts
at relief. The two things can be, and should be, carried on
simultaneously. If normal hearing is restored no harm has been done by
the educational training; in fact, the development of the child has been
advanced. On the other hand, if the hopes that were entertained are
disappointed, then precious and irrecoverable time has not been lost.
The title presupposes that the mother has already accepted the fact that
her child's hearing is not perfect, and, for the sake of the child, it
is to be hoped that this knowledge came to her very promptly after the
occurrence of the deafness.
One would naturally expect a mother, of her own accord, to carefully
test all the senses of her child by many simple and repeated exercises
during the first few months of its life. The many cases, however, in
which deafness on the part of a child has not been recognized, or at
least not acknowledged, by the mother till the third, fourth, or even
fifth year, show a strange neglect of a highly desirable investigation,
and a natural unwillingness to accept a truth, the possibility of which
must certainly have occurred to her long before.
If she could only realize that she need not feel downcast and
heavy-hearted by reason of her little one's imperfect hearing; if she
could only know that she need not look forward to a life for him
different from that of other children; if she could understand that
training and education can enable him to overcome to an extraordinary
degree the disadvantage of deafness, she would set about the task with
cheerfulness and hope, and if she knew that the sooner she began, the
better it would be for the little one, she would not stubbornly refuse
for so long to acknowledge even the possibility of deafness.
II
HOW SHALL THE MOTHER BEGIN HER PART OF THE WORK?
First of all, something like an inventory should be taken of the
faculties possessed by the child which he can use in working out his
problem. Has he good sight, normal smell, taste, muscular sense, and
memory? To what extent is his hearing impaired? Is there any possibility
of restoring it to normal acuteness, or of improving it, or of
preventing any further impairment?
The completeness with which these questions can be answered depends, to
a considerable extent, on his age and his physical condition. We will
suppose that he is about fifteen months old and in good bodily
condition. If he is older, the same tests would be used to begin with,
though we could at once pass on to more complicated and difficult ones
that cannot as yet be used with the fifteen-months-old baby.
First, with regard to sight. We wish to know if he can distinguish
reasonably small objects at reasonable distances; whether he can see
moderately small things at short distances; whether the angle of his
vision is normal. In other words, whether his range and angle of vision
are sufficient for all ordinary purposes.
If he can recognize his father or mother or brothers and sisters at a
distance of a hundred feet he can see far enough for all practical
purposes. If he readily finds a small object like a pin or a small black
bead when dropped on the floor, his sight is sharp enough at short range
to serve his purposes. If his attention can be attracted by waving a
hand or a little flag or a flower fifty or sixty degrees on either side
of the direction in which he is looking, that is, two-thirds of the way
to the side of his head, his angle of vision is sufficiently wide. If he
can pick out from seven balls of worsted of the seven primary
colors--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet--the ball
that matches another of the same color, he is at least not color-blind
and has a sufficient sense of color for the ordinary purposes of life.
It may be necessary to wait till eighteen months for a satisfactory
color test. Color blindness, when present, is usually most apparent in a
failure to distinguish between red and green, these two widely differing
colors seeming to produce the same impression upon the color-blind eye.
The child will be just as likely to choose a red ball to match the green
one in his hand as to select another red ball. But repeated tests should
be made before accepting color blindness as a fact, since sometimes the
brain can be educated to discriminate between red and green even when
the impressions have not the normal degree of difference.
The tests for taste, smell, muscular sense, touch, and memory cannot be
made with much thoroughness or satisfaction till two years of age,
though observation will show a recognition by taste and smell of that
which is agreeable and that which is disagreeable. Accurate tests of
hearing cannot be made till the child is three or four, but it is
possible when he is twelve months old to determine whether the hearing
is normal or is seriously impaired, and it is very desirable that this
should be done.
The expression "seriously impaired," when applied to the hearing of a
little child, must be given an entirely different interpretation than it
would have if used with reference to an adult who had previously had
normal hearing. A degree of impairment that would be unimportant in an
adult is a very serious matter in the case of a child. This is because
the ear is the natural teacher of speech and language. If the sounds of
speech are not clearly heard the imitation of them will always be
imperfect, and the acquisition of language will be impeded. If deafness
is so great that spoken words are not heard at all, then the child will
not learn to speak and to understand when spoken to unless specially
taught. A much slighter degree of deafness will prevent the proper
acquisition of speech and language than would in later life prevent the
comprehension of conversation in a familiar language. As even the child
of fifteen months would benefit from some modifications of the ordinary
treatment of a baby, if his hearing was not normally acute, it is to his
advantage to have the fact of his deafness known at once by those in
charge of him.
It is not as easy as it might seem to the inexperienced to determine
even approximately the situation of a fifteen-months-old baby with
respect to its hearing. Our interest here is, of course, in the tests of
hearing that do not require special apparatus and special training. In
the case of a child less than two years of age we must rely upon merely
attracting his attention by various sounds, judging the effect upon him
by his expression and actions. We cannot, at that age, establish a
system of responses, nor expect him to imitate the sounds he hears.
Sounds should be used for testing that disturb only the air, and are
not sufficiently low and powerful to set in vibration the floor, chair,
or any other object with which he may be in contact. Deaf children
rapidly become abnormally sensitive to vibrations, which are to them
what noises are to us. A rather smooth, not too shrill, whistle is one
excellent sound to use. Not a fluttering whistle like the postman's, nor
a heavy tone like an organ pipe or bass horn. Clapping the hands is a
good initial test of a crude nature; then a moderate whistle, varying
the pitch, for sometimes high sounds are perceived, but not low ones, or
vice versa. Then a bell, such as a small table bell, the telephone,
electric door bell, etc. Lastly, the human voice in various pitches,
volumes, distances, and vowels. Little by little it can be determined
whether the child hears all the sounds, and if not, then which, if any,
he perceives. A totally deaf child may often deceive the investigator by
turning his head at the critical moment, apparently in response to the
sound that was made, while, on the other hand, a child very slightly
deaf, or not deaf at all, may completely ignore the sounds made for the
purpose of attracting his attention. Therefore, it takes time and
repeated tests under varying environments to gradually eliminate
possible errors and coincidences.
It must be remembered that the intensity with which a sound affects the
ear varies inversely as the square of the distance from the ear to the
source of the sound. That is to say, if exactly the same sound is
repeated at half the distance, the intensity with which it reaches the
ear is four times as great as before, and if the distance is quartered,
the intensity is sixteen times as great. In other words, if "ah" is
spoken with a certain loudness eight inches from the child's ear, and
then again with exactly the same pitch and volume only two inches from
his ear, it will be sixteen times as loud to him as it was the first
time.
These simple tests will serve to determine whether the child has, or has
not, a normal acuteness of hearing. They will not serve to determine
with any accuracy the degree of impairment, if it is found that the
hearing is impaired at all. More thorough tests will have to be
postponed till the child is two years old or more. But the moment that
impaired hearing is suspected, the best available ear specialist should
be consulted in order to determine whether the cause can be removed, or
measures taken to prevent a progressive increase in deafness.
The visit to the otologist should be repeated at intervals of not more
than eight or ten months, even where there is no question of treatment,
in order that any change in the physical condition of the organs may be
promptly detected.
III
HOW SHALL THE MOTHER GET INTO COMMUNICATION WITH HER DEAF CHILD?
Let it be assumed that when the child is fifteen months old it is fairly
well established that his hearing is somewhat below normal. Between
fifteen months and two years of age all that is said in this section
will apply equally to the child who is _feared_ to be _totally_ deaf and
to one who is known to possess some sound perception, though not a
normal degree of hearing. For, until he is old enough to respond to more
complete and accurate tests, we must not give up the idea that he may
have a sufficient remnant of hearing to be of great assistance to him in
the acquisition of speech and language, if it is only developed and
trained.
Between the ages of twelve months and twenty-four months the child with
perfect hearing makes rapid progress in learning to understand what is
said to him, and by the time he is two years old has usually begun to
speak many words and sentences in a more or less imperfect way. This has
been accomplished principally by the mother's constant talking to her
baby. If she has had the good sense to always speak in simple but
complete sentences, and to avoid the foolish "baby talk" unfortunately
affected by some people in addressing little children, the results of
her daily and hourly talk is the possession by the child of a
considerable vocabulary of words whose meaning he knows, and a less
number that he is able himself to speak in a rather imperfect way.
In what respects should the mother modify her treatment of the baby if
she suspects that his hearing is defective? She should not talk to him
any the less on this account, but, on the contrary, she should talk to
him more. She should, however, speak a little louder, a little nearer to
him, possibly a little more slowly and distinctly, exercising the
greatest caution, however, not to exaggerate speech into unnatural
facial contortions, or to accompany it by gestures. To fall into the
habit of mouthing and gesticulating, making faces and motions, will
defeat entirely the purpose of all efforts to develop an understanding
of speech by the child. Unfortunately, such exaggerated and absurd
speech is a natural and very prevalent fault. To avoid it is absolutely
necessary, but requires constant watchfulness, as there is a strong
temptation to try to make speech-reading easy for the child by opening
the mouth wide and making extraordinary movements of the tongue.
The object aimed at is to lead the child to interpret natural, everyday
speech, and such facial contortions and exaggerations cut him off from
practice in reading natural speech. This point cannot be too strongly
emphasized. Speak naturally and normally _always_ to the deaf child.
Above all, the mother should form the habit of watching his eyes and of
speaking as often as possible when his gaze is fixed upon her face. The
habit on his part of looking at the face of a speaker, and the habit on
his mother's part of observing his gaze and, when it wanders, of pausing
in her talk till he is looking at her again, are two very valuable aids
in the language development of the deaf child. In addition to always
raising her voice a little in speaking to her baby, the mother should
several times a day take him in her lap and sing to him, and talk to him
with her lips not far from his ear. Talk to him just as all mothers do
to their babies (but not with the mangled and distorted words called
"baby talk"), about the pussy, the dog, the bird, his foot, his toes,
his arms and hands and fingers; about his papa, brothers, sisters; about
the flowers, the grass, the trees, and a thousand other things. Say the
good old Mother Goose rhymes of "Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Baker's Man,"
"This little pig went to market," etc., etc. But in all your frolics and
stories and songs, take the greatest care that he shall hear or see, or
better still, _both_ see _and_ hear, what you are saying. Gradually he
can be taught to understand many simple commands and questions just as
hearing babies learn them, by constant repetition at times and under
circumstances when the meaning is obvious. Such as "come," "go," "go to
papa," "come to mamma," "jump," "stop," "kiss mother," "pet pussy,"
"pick up," "put down," "milk," "water," "bread" (the later in life that
he learns the meaning and taste of "candy" the better), "do you want
some bread?" "milk," "water," etc. "Bring my slippers," "bring my
shoes," "put on your hat," "take off your mittens," "wash your hands,"
etc., etc., throughout the whole day.
Very early the mother should learn to consider the direction from which
the light comes, and should be careful to take her position _facing_ the
main source of light which should come from _behind the child_. The eye
can be trained from the very beginning of attention to unconsciously
supplement an imperfect ear in comprehending spoken words. It is even
possible for the eye to perform the entire task of interpreting speech,
and, if the hearing is entirely lacking, the course outlined will result
in training the brain to interpret the movements of speech as seen by
the eye, as it would have been trained by the same procedure to
interpret the sounds of speech had the organ of transmission not been
injured. But the idea must be constantly in the mind of the mother that
her boy needs to _see_ the spoken word at the very moment _when the idea
that it represents is in his mind_, AS OFTEN as he would hear it if his
hearing were perfect.
This one suggestion, if faithfully lived up to from the age of one year
to that of two years, would be almost enough. But there are other things
that the mother can do as the mental development of the baby increases
with each month of life. She should encourage him to babble and gurgle
and murmur, as much as possible, to laugh and crow and make all the
various baby noises that will train and develop his voice. Encourage
noisy, romping, rollicking games as he gets older, that make him shout
and call, for they are the natural and best voice exercises.
IV
WHAT ABOUT THE BABY'S SPEECH?
The hearing baby babbles because he gets some pleasure from the sounds,
and also because he desires to imitate the sounds of speech he hears
around him. _He has his attention called constantly to sound._ The sense
of vibration is not as strong nor as instructive as that of sound, but
if _the attention_ of the child is early _called_ to it, a watchfulness
for vibration _from within himself_ as well as from without, can be
aroused, and a sensitiveness developed that would not have come as
early, if at all, without special, directive effort on the part of the
mother. She can lead her little one to oo-oo, and ee-ee, and mamma, and
bub-bub, etc., by doing these babblings herself while the baby is in her
arms and his tiny hands are wandering over her lips and face and throat.
These exercises will gradually bring a recognition on the part of the
child of the sensation of vibration that accompanies voice, and they
will give facility, coupled with the normal and natural intonations that
have been acquired when he was not conscious of any effort, that will
prepare him for a better and more fluent speech when the time comes for
more exact articulation training.
But during the first two or three years of the child's life the
principal stress should be placed upon his learning to understand what
is said to him, without bothering much about his speaking himself. In
the case of the hearing child, the understanding of language comes
before he can himself utter it. This must also be the case with the deaf
child, and the period preceding utterance must be longer, by reason of
his handicap, than in the case of a child with normal hearing.
V
DEVELOPING THE MENTAL FACULTIES
By the time he is two years old he has gained maturity and grasp enough
to play many little educational games with his mother and his little
brothers and sisters, or playmates. These games should be calculated to
develop his various faculties, his powers of observation, memory, and
concentration. To develop a faculty is really _to train the brain_. As a
matter of fact, we see and hear and taste and smell and feel with our
brains. The eye of a two-year-old child is practically as perfect an
optical instrument as the eye of a boy of ten, and yet how much more the
older boy seems to see. This is because his brain has been trained to
_interpret_ the impressions that even the baby eyes received but did not
understand. Of course, where the instrument is found to be imperfect we
can assist it by means of additional lenses, or perhaps by some one of
the skillful operations now performed by oculists, and, as the sight is
of such increased importance to a deaf child, the greatest care and
watchfulness should be given to his eyes. Do not let him sleep, or lie,
facing the sun, or any other powerful light, but throughout his life be
careful that all his use of eyesight be under conditions of ample and
well-directed light. Supposing that the simple tests referred to
heretofore have shown that the eyes, as optical instruments, are
sufficiently perfect, our efforts need to be to train the brain to take
cognizance of, and to interpret the impressions transmitted to it by the
eyes. We shall not be able to improve the working of the eye by our
efforts, but we can educate the brain.
Color and form make the earliest appeal to the child's eyes, and we can
use them for our educational play. The duplicate set of worsted balls of
the seven primal colors can be increased to include easily
distinguishable shades. The child can be sent on entertaining voyages
of discovery around the room with a ball of a certain color to find
other objects similar in color in the rugs, books, chairs, dresses,
ties, etc.
A game to develop observation of form can be made by collecting a group
of objects of varying shapes in a pile on the floor or a low table;
mother picks up some one of the objects, directs the attention of the
little one to it, and after he has observed it somewhat she puts it back
in the pile and moves all the objects about till they are well mixed up.
Ask the little fellow then to pick out the object mother held in her
hand a moment before. When he can do this by sight without difficulty,
have him shut his eyes, place an object in his little hands, teach him
to feel it over carefully, take it from him, and, while his eyes are
still closed, place it once more in the pile. Let him then open his eyes
and see if he can indicate the object he had previously held. When he
has mastered this, give the game another turn by asking him to find by
means of touch alone, while the eyes are still closed, the object that
he has been feeling, after it is restored to the pile of other objects.
Still another turn can be given by first letting him see the object,
without touching it, then having him close his eyes, and by touch alone
select it from the pile. A set of wooden forms, such as spheres, cubes,
pyramids, cones, cylinders, and similar, but truncated, forms, can be
obtained at any school supply store. To these can be added common
household objects such as small frames, vases, napkin rings, spoons,
forks, and other similar things, as well as some of the forms included
in a complete set of the Montessori material.
The Montessori weighted forms are excellent for training his muscular
recognition of difference of weight, and an excellent way is to put
various quantities of birdshot into half a dozen exactly similar little
rubber balls that can be purchased at any toy store for two cents
apiece. Then hand the boy one of the weighted balls, and after he has
felt its weight put it back with the other similar-appearing balls and
see if he can again discover it. An outfit for training his tactile
sense can be made in any home by collecting duplicate pieces of cloth
having different textures; such as velvet, rough woolen tweeds or
homespun, silk, satin, cambric, muslin, etc., and pasting one set on
cards. Also by stretching on a wooden frame, strings of varying sizes,
weaves, and twists, and having a bunch of duplicates from which he can
select, by sight and touch alone, the pieces that correspond, each to
each, with those on the frame or on the cards. If there is a guitar, or
mandolin, or zither, or a piano, available, perhaps, by and by, the
mother can teach the child to recognize the difference in the vibratory
sensation perceived by his fingers touching the body of the instrument
when a low note and a high note are struck alternately. She can make a
game of this, too, by later having him close his eyes and place his
fingers in contact with the instrument and then tell her _approximately_
what string or key she struck. The next step, if she can take it, is to
place his little hands upon her chest to feel the lowest notes of her
voice, and upon both the chest and the top of her head to feel the
highest, and endeavoring to get him to recognize the similarity in
vibratory sensation between what he now feels and what he previously
felt on the musical instruments. The last step in this series of
exercises to awaken a recognition of vibratory sensations is to lead him
to feel in his own chest and head the vibrations set up by his own voice
in shouting and laughing, crying or babbling.
These hints that are so quickly and easily given, require weeks and
months of patient, _happy_ effort to carry out. Beware that no one of
them is repeated or continued so long at a time as to become a thing
dreaded and disliked. Remember that the attention of a little child is
like a constantly flitting butterfly that rests for only a moment or two
on anything before dancing away to something else.
There are many little games with kindergarten materials that can be
used to develop the powers of attention, observation, imitation, and
obedience. The laying in simple designs, by watchful imitation of the
mother, of colored sticks, colored squares, etc.; the building with
colored blocks; stringing of _large_ beads; weaving with _wide_ strips
of colored paper simple designs that a mother could invent with the
material at hand or could learn from any kindergarten manual. The point
that must be firmly, but _pleasantly_, insisted upon in these exercises
is careful and obedient following by the child of the exact order of
movement and manner of placing adopted by the mother teacher. The entire
value of these exercises for the purpose she wishes to accomplish
depends upon _accurate observation_ by the child and _implicit
obedience_.
The material outfit prepared and sold by the American exploiters of the
Montessori method is admirably adapted to the development of the budding
faculties of the child, and the mother who is trying to do all in her
power to prepare her little one to benefit to the greatest possible
extent from the professional instruction that must come later, will make
no mistake in supplying herself with the set of materials, and making
herself intelligent on their use by the child.
VI
DEVELOPING THE LUNGS
The tendency of the deaf child is to grow up with less development of
lungs and of the imagination than hearing children. In order to overcome
this tendency the child must be encouraged and _taught_ to play games
and use toys that will exercise the lungs and develop the power of
imaginative thought.
In order to expand and strengthen the lungs through the child's play,
supply him with the brightly colored paper wind-mills that he can set
whirling by blowing lustily; also the rubber balloon toys, even though
the torturing squeak of the toys is only heard by those in the vicinity
and not by himself. An especially good exercise for the gentle and
long-continued control of breath results from the toy blow pipes with
conical wire bowls by means of which light, celluloid balls of bright
colors are kept suspended in the air, dancing on the column of breath
blown softly through the tube. The more steadily the child blows, the
more mysteriously the ball remains at a fixed point, whirling rapidly
but without any apparent support.
Blowing soap bubbles, especially trying to blow big ones, is very useful
as well as interesting.
For physical development in which the lungs come in for their share and
the sense of mechanical rhythm is fostered, an excellent exercise is
marching in step to the stroke of the drum, proud in Boy Scout uniform.
Dancing is a very desirable accomplishment for the deaf child.
Tops and tenpins cultivate dexterity, as do playing ball and rolling
hoop.
VII
THE CULTIVATION OF CREATIVE IMAGINATION
This can be greatly helped by early use on the part of the child of
colored modeling wax to reproduce objects and animals, and to construct
models of imaginary houses, yards, trees, etc. A sand pile, or a large,
shallow sand box, perhaps five feet square, with sides six inches high,
and completely lined with enamel cloth to make it watertight, is a
wonderful implement for constructive play on the part of the child.
Whole villages of farms, fields, and forests, ponds and brooks, roads
and railroads, can be made here in miniature.
Building blocks of wood or stone; the metal construction toy called
"Mechano"; dolls, doll houses, furniture, and equipment, are valuable,
but they should be simple, inexpensive and not fragile.
Cut-up picture puzzles, painting books, tracing slates with large and
simple designs cultivate observation and ingenuity. Kaleidoscopes and
stereoscopes are excellent, but moving pictures are so trying upon the
eyes, and the air of the theaters is so bad, that a deaf child whose
eyes are his only salvation, and whose health is doubly important,
should not even know of their existence till he is seven or eight years
old.
VIII
FURTHER TESTS OF HEARING
But, as soon as the mother finds her little child sufficiently mature to
benefit by the sense training described above, whether it be at twenty
or, as is more likely, at from twenty-four to thirty months, she can
begin to make a more complete and accurate determination of the degree
of his deafness, for now she can establish a system of responses on the
part of the child that will show her when he perceives the sounds she
uses in her tests.
In order to be certain that the little one knows what she wishes of him,
she must begin with some sensation that she is sure he feels. We will
assume that he has as yet no speech, and cannot count, at least does not
know the names of the numbers. Let the mother pat him once on the
shoulder and then cause him to hold up one of his little fingers. Then
pat him twice, and make him hold up two fingers, then three times and
have him put up three fingers. Now return to one pat and one finger,
repeat two pats and the holding up of two of his fingers, and three pats
and three fingers. Go over and over this little game until he has
grasped the idea and will hold up as many fingers as he feels pats.
Simple as the idea seems, it will often take a bright child some time to
realize what you want him to do. But you are _sure_ that he feels the
pats, whereas, if you began at once with sounds, you could not know
whether his failure to respond was because he did not hear, or through
not understanding what you expected of him. He will weary of the
exercise soon, and then mother may as well turn to something else till
he has rested.
Having established this system of response on his part to sensations
perceived, it is not difficult to shift from the number of pats to the
number of times he hears a noise. This once accomplished, tests can be
made with sounds of different kinds, different pitch, and different
volume, varying the distance, the instruments, and the vowel when the
articulate sounds are reached. He can be shown a whistle, then, when it
is blown behind his back, he will hold up as many fingers as the times
it was blown, if he perceives the sound. He can be asked to distinguish
between a whistle, a little bell, and the clapping of the hands. When he
is successful in that, the vowel sounds may be uttered not far from his
ear, but behind him. Begin with "ah" (ä), as this is the most open and
strongest; then try "oh" (o with macron), which is not easily confused
with ä. Then ee (e with macron). If, after a time, a distance and a
degree of loudness are found that enable him to recognize these sounds
with unfailing accuracy, or at least 90 per cent. of the time, then
other sounds can be added, such as aw (a with diaresis below), (a with
breve) (as in hat), (i with macron) (as in ice), oo (as in cool), ow (as
in owl). Using these sounds at different pitches, and with different
intensities and distances, a sufficiently accurate estimate can be
formed of the degree of his hearing power so far as his present needs
are concerned.
IX
THE DEVELOPMENT OF RESIDUAL HEARING
If any ability to perceive sounds is found, every effort should be made
to lead the child to use it, and as the most essential use of hearing is
in the comprehension of spoken language, the principal effort should be
made along that line.
Take three objects, the names of which are short, with the principal
vowels quite easily distinguished. A little toy street car, a cap, and a
toy sheep, would do nicely to begin with, as the three words, "car,"
"cap," and "sheep," are not easily confused. Place two of the objects
before him, the car and the sheep, and speak the name of one of them,
"car," we will say, loudly and distinctly close to his ear, but in such
a way that he cannot see your mouth. Then show him the car. Repeat it
with "sheep" and show him the sheep. Repeat "car," and take his little
hand, put it on the car. Then "sheep," and make him put his hand on the
sheep. Continue this process until he will indicate to you the object
you name. When he makes only occasional mistakes with two objects, add
the cap. When he can get the right one about 90 per cent. of the time,
then take three new words, returning occasionally to the first three.
Very soon his own name and those of others, with photographs to enable
him to indicate which, will prove of interest to him. When he has
successfully learned to distinguish a few single words, a beginning can
be made on short sentences. Commands that he can execute are convenient.
"Shut your eyes," "Open your mouth," "Clap your hands," can follow drill
on the three words, "eyes," "mouth," "hands." "Open the window," "Shut
the window," "Open the book," "Shut the book," "Open the door," etc.
"Stand up," "Sit down." When this beginning has been made, the road is
open to the gradual increase in a hearing vocabulary, but do not
attempt so much at once as to confuse and discourage the child.
The suggestions already made should be studiously followed throughout
his whole childhood. If his hearing is not too seriously impaired, he
will begin to attempt to imitate spoken sounds by the time he is
twenty-four to thirty months old. But his ability to imitate sounds is
not an accurate measure of his ability to hear. He may perceive the
sounds much better than he is able to reproduce them. Distinct utterance
comes slowly to the child with normal hearing, and still more slowly and
imperfectly to the child whose hearing is not good. But the continued
effort to make him hear _words and sentences_ is a very valuable
exercise for him and should be faithfully continued till he is old
enough to respond to the tests of hearing as outlined and it has been
definitely proved that he cannot possibly tell whether ä, or (o with
macron) or (e with macron) is said, no matter how loud or how near the
ear the sound is uttered.
The question will naturally arise as to whether the child's hearing of
speech can be aided by an electric or mechanical device. When it is
possible to make the child perceive the sound of the vowels with the
unaided voice uttered very near the ear, I believe it to be better, at
first, not to interpose any artificial device. But I have found that
sometimes, in cases where the sound perception was not at first
sufficient to enable the child to distinguish even the most dissimilar
vowel sounds, although uttered loudly close to the ear, I could awaken
the attention of the child to sound, and stimulate the dormant power by
the use of an Acousticon. After a few months I have been able to
dispense with the instrument and use only the unaided voice at close
range. Later, when some vocabulary has been acquired through these
auricular exercises, it is often desirable to return to the Acousticon
and teach the child to use it, in _order to extend the distance at which
sounds can be heard_. By the use of the Acousticon, it then becomes
possible to communicate by means of the ear without speaking at such
short range. It is not easy, however, to induce a child to use an
Acousticon at all times, whereas an adult will take the time and trouble
necessary to become accustomed to the instrument, and will put up with
the slight inconveniences inseparable from its use.
X
DEVELOPING THE POWER OF LIP READING
In this effort to develop the hearing, however, the necessity must not
be forgotten of also training the brain to associate ideas with what the
eye sees on the lips when words are spoken. In the case of the very
slightly deaf child, this visual training is not quite so important as
the auricular training, but when there is much deafness it is the more
important of the two. The comprehension of much language can be given to
the little deaf child by constantly talking just as any mother does to
her hearing baby, only being always careful to take a position facing
the main source of light, which should come _from behind the child_.