What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know Part 3

Between the ages of two and four years all the games and exercises heretofore described can continue to be used, together with others increasingly difficult and complicated, as the child's mind develops and his powers of observation, attention, and memory increase. Take very special care that he learns all the childhood games that other children know and enjoy. Devote yourself more to him in this respect than you would in the case of another child. Encourage the neighbors' children to come and play with him by making it especially pleasant for them. Teach them yourself to play "Hide the Thimble," "Hide and Seek," "Drop the Handkerchief," "Going to Jerusalem," "Old Maid," "Bean Bag." Follow the Leader is an excellent game by which to teach watchfulness and imitation. Cat and Mouse, Hot Potato, Ring on a String, are all games that can be played by groups and cultivate quickness. Ping Pong Football is excellent as a lung developer. That is the choosing of sides and trying to blow a ping pong ball between the goal posts formed by a pair of salt shakers at opposite ends of a table. Or blowing a feather across a sheet by opposing sides. Encourage good, romping, noisy games in which the children naturally laugh and shout. They are the best of voice-developing exercises, and by such means, and his long-distance shouting and calling to his playmates, the little hearing child gains much of his lung and voice power. In all his games, as in all his other activities, take very _special_ pains to talk to him, using the regulation expressions and training him to watch for the "It's your turn," or "Now, Tom," "Ready," "Whose turn is it?" etc., etc.

If the foregoing suggestions have been carefully carried out since he was twelve months old, he will long ago have arrived unconsciously at the knowledge that all things, and all actions, and all feelings, have names, and that the mouth always makes the same sequence of movements for the same thing. In the babbling exercises recommended, he will gradually come to utter many of the vowel and consonant sounds of his native language; especially those that are made by the lips, and by evident positions of the tongue. Those sounds that require hidden positions of the organs, such as the sound of C and K in cat and ark, or G in go and dog, or ng in long, he is unlikely to have stumbled upon.

These can be taught when the proper time comes, but their absence for the present need cause no anxiety. In fact, up to the time when he is three and a half or four years old, the matter of speaking is not one to be much troubled about. If the conception of language has been given him through lip-reading, and some ability to understand the necessary language of his daily life, his future success is a.s.sured.

XIII

SOMETHING ABOUT SCHOOLS AND METHODS

Till the child is at least four years old, the proper place for him is at home, and if he must be sent to one of the large public schools for the deaf it should not be till he is five or even six years of age.

But during these years the mother can gain much knowledge that will help her by visiting as many schools for the deaf as possible. There are about a hundred and fifty such schools in the United States and eight in Canada. They vary in size, in character, and in methods of instruction employed. There are public boarding schools, and public day schools, free to the resident of the state, or city, in which they are located.

There are private boarding and day schools, maintained by charity, or by the tuition fees. Some of each cla.s.s are oral schools; that is, they employ only speech methods of instruction, without any signs or finger spelling. Others are called "Combined" schools; that is, they permit, and in some exercises encourage, the use of finger spelling and gestural signs, while they also give some instruction by the speech method. There are sectarian and non-sectarian schools, both oral and combined.

A very considerable number of schools for the deaf in the United States and Canada still use manual, or silent, methods of instruction, at least in part. But the speech, or oral, method is steadily growing in popularity, and gradually supplanting manual spelling and gestural signs. The time will certainly come when the public will be too intelligent to any longer tolerate the use between teacher and pupil, or between any employee and the pupils, in a school for the deaf, any system of manual communication.

_Every deaf child, no matter if born totally deaf and of a low order of intelligence, can be given as much education by the exclusive use of the speech method as it can by any manual, or silent, method or by a combination of the speech and the silent method._ This is not the mere expression of an opinion, but the statement of a fact; a fact firmly established by actual results in state inst.i.tutions where, unfortunately, the law requires the admission of pupils too poorly equipped intellectually to belong in a school with normally bright children. In addition to acquiring all the education of which his mental endowment makes him capable, he can be taught to speak and to understand when spoken to. The degree of perfection attainable depends upon the ability of the child, the skill of the teaching, and especially upon _the environment_ in which the child pa.s.ses its formative educational years. The probability of the child's acquiring a maximum proficiency in speaking and in understanding others when they speak, is lessened in direct proportion to the extent to which he is permitted to use the silent or manual means of communication. In the so-called "combined"

schools, the _environment_ is largely manual. A visit to the playgrounds, the baseball fields, the shops, dining rooms, and dormitories of "combined" schools will disclose the pupils using silent means of communication, not only between themselves, _but with those in charge of them. They do not think in spoken forms, but in finger spelling and signs_. The powerful influence of environment in those schools is _against_ the acquisition of the speech and lip-reading habit.

The mother who has faithfully followed the suggestions offered in the foregoing pages will be able to appreciate what she sees on visiting the schools, and will gain much more from such visits than one who is entirely inexperienced in the problem. Every mother should make it her business to visit at least one _purely oral_ school, in order that she may make herself thoroughly intelligent on what may be expected of a deaf child.

Unfortunately, pure oral schools are not as plentiful as "combined"

schools, but it will well repay any parent to make a journey, even across the continent, if necessary, in order to study the workings of some good, purely oral, school. Do not be satisfied with a visit to the nearest "combined" school.

_You owe it to your child_ to make yourself thoroughly intelligent as to the _possibilities_ open to a deaf child. You will not be intelligent till you have personally visited some good _purely oral_ school.

The number, character, location, etc., of the schools are constantly changing. A descriptive list of all schools corrected to date will be gladly supplied by the author to any one requesting it.

XIV

THE PRESERVATION OF SPEECH

WHEN DEAFNESS RESULTS FROM ACCIDENT OR ILLNESS AFTER INFANCY

Up to this point it has been a.s.sumed that deafness occurred before the age of two years, and before the child had begun to speak. In cases where, through accident or illness, impairment of hearing has come after the child has begun to talk, the mother should bend all her efforts upon keeping the speech of her child. The younger the child, the more difficult is the task. Without the greatest vigilance and increasing attention, the speech of a little child who has become deaf will fade rapidly away, until it is lost entirely, and must be artificially recreated when he is old enough to grasp the complicated ideas involved in speech teaching to the deaf. But by persistently encouraging him to talk, and never, even for a day, allowing him to lapse into silence, and _by not accepting careless and faulty utterance, but pretending not to understand till the child speaks distinctly and correctly_, the natural speech, which was his before deafness occurred, can be preserved, and the speech habit thoroughly fixed. If, by good luck, the little one has learned to read even a simple primer before becoming deaf, it will be much easier to prevent a loss of speech. For this reading can be made an excuse for frequently using his speech. But when the child cannot read, the mother must depend entirely upon inducing him to talk to her, refusing to give him anything, or grant his request, till he asks for it in good spoken form; showing him pictures, playing games, frolicking with him; doing everything that a mother's love and ingenuity can suggest, to keep him talking all day long.

The tendency of the child will be to drop, or slur, the final syllables of the words; to leave off the sound of final _ed_; to lose the sharpness of the _s_; to blur the _l_; and sometimes to lose the sound of _k_ and _c_. But, if he has learned to read, by pointing to these letters in the words he has spoken imperfectly, he will correct his own mistake. Prompt and increasing attention to the little fellow's speech during the first year after deafness occurs will usually serve to fix correct habits for life.

XV

TEACHING LIP READING

All that has been said about training the little deaf child to read the lip movements and a.s.sociate them with the names of things and of actions, will apply also to the little boy who has suddenly been made deaf, after speech has been learned. Be careful that he is looking at you always when you speak to him or reply to some question he has asked, but speak just as you would have done before he became deaf. You may have to repeat things to him very often at first, but do not permit any sign of impatience in your face. Do not let him get the idea that it is a hardship to talk to him. Remember that you are changing his manner of understanding speech over to another way, and that his present and future happiness depends very greatly on the thoroughness and promptness with which it is done. In all dealings with a deaf child the mother should remember that the child draws his impressions of the character and the feelings of those about him from the expression of their faces, and many almost unconscious little acts and gestures. Avoid very carefully any appearance of being impatient, or bored, or contemptuous at his failures. Try to understand the difficulties under which he is working to maintain his place in the world. Do not humor his whims, or spoil him by indulgence, yet treat him with the greatest consideration and fairness. Above all, be cheerful and, at least apparently, interested in his doings and sayings.

XVI

SCHOOL AGE

The question of what is "school age" for a deaf child is answered very differently by different people. Most of the state inst.i.tutions for the deaf in the United States, Canada, and Europe will not admit children younger than six years of age. Seven years is still the age of admission in some inst.i.tutions, but the tendency is to lower the age limit. In some schools children of five are admitted, in a few those as young as four, and in two or three small schools babies of two and three are received. Any statement here must, therefore, be taken as only the expression of the author's opinion, resulting from more than twenty-five years of active teaching, combined with wide observation.

It would appear that, where home conditions are not bad, either physically or morally, the proper place for the little deaf child till he is nearly, or quite, five, is with his mother. Very much can be done for the little one before he is five to prepare him for the instruction which should be given at that age, but it is possible for the mother to do what is necessary, and even the simplest home conditions are preferable for very little children to the inst.i.tutional environment. It is impossible, in a school of from one hundred to five hundred pupils, to create a real home environment, such as the very little child should have. It is really a pity that the child of five should have to be placed in the inst.i.tutional environment as it at present exists. If the legislative bodies of our states, and the gentlemen who manage the schools, could only be induced to adopt the cottage plan of housing in small units, the disadvantages of inst.i.tutional life would be enormously reduced.

XVII

ORGANIZED EFFORTS BY PARENTS TO OBTAIN BETTER EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS

It should be possible for every taxpayer in every state who has a deaf child and who has not the means or the wish to place that child in a private school, to have the child educated in a free public school as completely by the speech method as his hearing children are educated by that method. He should not be compelled to send his child out of the state or else subject him to the influence of signs and finger spelling, with the probability that he will leave school a deaf mute.

Unfortunately, in many states, this is not possible at present. But if the parents of deaf children would organize themselves into "Parents'

a.s.sociations" and send representatives to the governors and legislative committees; and arrange for demonstrations by orally educated deaf children from pure oral schools; and carry on an active campaign of enlightenment and of agitation, the present state of affairs would soon cease to exist.

I wish to make an urgent plea for the energetic efforts of all parents of deaf children to improve the speech-teaching conditions in their respective localities. At present, very far from all that is possible is being done to give deaf children a ready command of spoken English, and a working ability to understand when spoken to. The persons who have the most at stake in this matter, and who should be most active and persistent in demanding from the school authorities and legislatures better facilities for the acquisition of speech by deaf children, are the parents of those children. In each locality these parents should organize into "Parents' a.s.sociations." These local a.s.sociations should, in turn, be connected by a statewide organization composed of representatives from each local a.s.sociation. These state organizations could then be combined by representation in a national organization of all the parents of deaf children in the United States. Such complete organization once effected, the reasonable demands made in the interests of better results in speech teaching would quickly be complied with by the respective schools and the legislatures or boards of directors that control them. The a.s.sociations could induce their local papers to aid in a campaign to educate public opinion by printing facts concerning what is done elsewhere. If all parents of deaf children only knew what might be accomplished, and were so organized as to permit them to present their wishes forcibly to those able to change conditions, the deaf child would quickly come into his own.

XVIII

A PERSONAL MATTER FOR EACH PARENT

Let some parent in each locality make it his or her business to get the names and addresses of all other parents of deaf children in the vicinity. Induce them to come together some evening and choose a chairman and an executive committee of three. Let these four people make a point of studying the education of the deaf as conducted in the most advanced communities. Let the executive committees of the several local a.s.sociations get together once or twice a year for a sort of state convention of parents. Let them invite leading educators to address them, and let them appoint committees to visit schools in other states where different methods are employed. If such a movement was once started there would be found plenty of subject-matter for discussion, and plenty of opportunities to work for a betterment of conditions. The author of this little book would be glad to give any aid in his power to such a movement, and to place the results of his twenty-five years of experience at the disposal of any parent, or parents' organization.

The first efforts should be directed to inducing, or compelling, the so-called "Combined Schools" for the deaf throughout the United States to wholly segregate at least a small oral department from the manually taught pupils. The orally taught pupils should never come in contact during their school life, either in the shops, dining rooms, playgrounds, or schoolrooms, with those pupils with whom finger spelling and signs are employed. All employees, whether superintendents, teachers, supervisors, teachers of trades, or servants, who have to do with the orally taught pupils should be _compelled_ to use only speech and lip reading (and writing, if absolutely necessary) under penalty of dismissal for failing to do so. Only by means of such segregation, and the enforcement of speech as a universal medium of communication, can the appropriations for oral work be made really productive of good results in what are now called "Combined Schools." This can be done on a small scale at the beginning, with the little entering beginners. Then if all beginners are put into this oral department it will gradually grow at the expense of the manual department, until, after a period of eight or ten years, the entire school will have become oral.

This is the only method of procedure by which satisfactory results in speech teaching for practical purposes can be obtained in return for the generous appropriations that the states make. It has been fully demonstrated by actual operation in the state of Pennsylvania, where the largest school for the deaf in the world has in this manner been changed from a "Combined School" to a pure oral school.

_All_ the deaf children in the State of Ma.s.sachusetts are now taught wholly by the oral method. If that polyglot and heterogeneous population can be so treated, there is no state in the Union where the same could not be done if there were the desire and the ambition to do it.

In many states deaf children have been, either by definite statement, or by tacit understanding, exempted from the enforcement of the compulsory education law. This is all wrong. They need the protection of that excellent law even more than the hearing child, and if the law for compulsory education does not, in fact, apply to them, it should at once be amended to do so.