The child should be taught to determine the degree of smoothness, size,
shape, quality (of cloth), and many other things of value by touch. You
can give an experienced dry goods clerk a piece of cloth and he can
tell without looking at it what kind it is, and about what grade. This
is entirely a matter of development upon the part of the clerk. When he
began this work he could not tell muslin from long-cloth.
Parents will get a good idea of what is going on in the child's mind,
and the training he is receiving by watching the little fingers work
in all these exercises for the development of the sense of touch. Try
the exercises yourself and see what is required to do them accurately.
In this way you will be better able to help the child. Washing the
hands in tepid water before the exercises of touch will increase
the sensitiveness of the fingers. Have the child touch lightly with
the pads at the ends of the fingers. Increase the difficulty of the
exercises as he progresses.
=Exercise=--Blindfold the child and hand him articles which are
somewhat familiar and have him tell, by feeling, what they are. Have
him describe them. If a knife, what kind of a knife it is. If a box,
what kind of a box it is--about how long? how wide? how high? If
you ask the child to give these estimates in inches after removing
the blindfold have him make the actual measurements. Have the child
describe the article, giving all the details possible, and find any
peculiarities or irregularities by feeling.
=Exercise=--Give the child an article with which he is not familiar and
have him describe it. See how much he can learn by touch alone. Then
let him see if he can learn any more by sound, by knocking the article
against something to determine what it is made of, whether solid or
hollow, etc.
=Exercise=--Give the child, while blindfolded, a book which he has
recently read and see if he can identify it by the size, shape,
thickness, and quality of paper.