Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 193, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1914 — HOW the DEAF SEE SOUNDS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOW the DEAF SEE SOUNDS

by ROBERT HMOULTON

HEN the annual field games and exercises of the Parker Practise school, Chicago, were taking place a few days ago, a feature that brought unusually long and loud applause from the throng of visitors crowding the school campus was a series of fancy

dances and drills given by several classes of boys and girls ranging in age from six to sixteen years. A close observer might have noticed that as the children went through the varlons graceful evolutions, in perfect time with the playing of a piano, they kejlt their eyes turned as much as their wheelings and swayings would permit in the direction of a young woman, who with alight motions of her hand seemed to be directing them In their movements. The reason for this was not apparent, since those who daqce to music Usually do not need any such form of guidance.

But when inquiries were made it developed the surprising fact that not one of these children could hear- the playing of the piano; that they were, indeed, totally deaf, and depended upon the slight assistance given them by their teacher to go through the different maneuvers with the same precision that would mark the movements of hearing children. Probably this fact alone would have caused the visitor sufficient wonder, but he would have been considerably more astonished a little later if he had chanced to run across a group of the same children laughing and chatting together as merrily and naturally as if they had never known what it *was to be denied the blessed privilege of perfect hearing. Surely the age of miracles must have arrived when the dumb can be made to speak and the deaf to hear with their eyes! But the women who have brought about these seemingly impossible things do not regard them as either miraculous or especially wonderful. They think it is the most natural thing in the world that little deaf children should be taught to speak and to read the speech of others. They tell you, moreover, that the only way in which such children should be instructed is by the modern oral system, and that the ancient method of signs and finger spelling is quite as much a relic of barbarism as the practise of running a ring through the nose to beautify one’s features. This may sound almost unbelievable to those whose only idea-of a deaf person is one who is totally devoid of the power of speech and who must depend upon the sign language to communicate his thoughts to others. Fifty years ago a person would have been looked upon as a dreamer, or worse, if he had insisted that children born deaf could be and should be taught to speak. Even today the general impression prevails that a person who becomes deaf in infancy must necessarily also be dumb during the whole of his , life, and, strangely enough, this lack of power to express one’s self in spoken language is ascribed to some defect in the organs of speech. Both of these conclusions are entirely wrong. It has been demonstrated beyond all doubt that practically every deaf child has perfect organs of speech at birth, and that it is a very rare occurrence when a deaf person remains mute for any other reason save the lack of training which a hearing child receives through its ears. If you should go to the Parker Practise school any fine morning you would probably see on the broad lawn in front of the school various groups of children at play under the watchful eyes of their teachers. But it is not likely that' your attention would be attracted to any particular group because of anything unusual In their manner of addressing their teacher or one another; all are romping, laughing and shouting in the fulnesw'of their childish delight Yet the chances are that some of these children have never in all their years heard the sound of a voice. 1 Entering the school you might go from room to room and not discover for quite a whi’e that there was anything different in the manner of instructing the pupils in one from those in another. In some of them, however, you would find the same little tots, who cannot bear, that joo parted on the lawn. If their eyes happened

to be turned awhy from the visitor upon his entrance, their attention would not be diverted, since their organs of sight have to perform the duty of the useless ears. Should they see the newcomer, however, they will smile an affectionate welcome, then direct their gaze once more to the lips of their tedcher. It is this concentration of gaze which first betrays their physical handicap. All the knowledge they receive must come through the sense of sight, and so their eyes are ever on the alert to catch the smallest movement of their teacher’s lips. The oral-deaf department of the Parker Practise school is under the direction of Miss Mary McCowen, the founder of the McCowen Oral School for Young Deaf Children. For more than thirteen years this school carried on the pioneer work for the deaf in Chicago, and since 1896, when speech classes were organized in the public schools, has supplemented that work by continuing to teach the very young children. There are eight classes, totaling about ninety pupils, under charge of Miss McCowen and her assistants, the children ranging in age from five to sixteen years. The caller probably will be ushered into one of the kindergarten classes. Here he will find ten or a dozen contented little scholars seated In baby chairs about a low table. It is likely they will be counting colored sticks, or making patterns with them, murmuring all the while the names of the figures they are forming. The teacher talks busily and naturally to the children, Just as if they could hear, no other form of communication than spoken language ever being employed. This is necessary in order to so develop the brains of the children that they shall think and express themselves in spoken language as naturally and unconsciously as hearing children. Two not unreasonable questions may be asked by anyone whose notice is called to this workhow and why do these children reproduce the speech they never hear? And second, what does it do for the children when they are grown? Let us watch one of the baby classes. The program suddenly changes '">*i the rH- »the colored sticks and block c .TV . Wning forward, arrests the attention of her nupils, enunciating with perfect articulation some simple word. Instantly the child’s expression crystallizes to reveal pure concentration of thought. All the intelligence of the childish mentality Is focused through the eyes on the teacher's, lips. Then gradually there germinates .in his mind a sense of the mental action that evoked the motibns of her lips and tongue as 6he spoke, and this sense blooms into an imitation of the act, accompanied by the corresponding sound. If this is not correct the teacher repeats the word and illustrates to the child just how it should be made. Usually he gets it more and more perfect each time, and when the lesson is finished he returns to his play, smiling from pure Joy in the intellectual exercise. Only the simplest, worde are given for the child to reproduce at first. These are really not words at all, but mere sounds. When individual sounds are mastered they are then combined to form words. For example < simpo?" the child has learned to make the semd' hf t!:” vowel (ah) and the consonant in.’' The teacher now places : > 'i, C? '■ *'

the child’s hand upon her throat, and the child, all eagerness,/ prepares to imitate her. First she begins with the sound of “a” and, while still uttering it, gently closes her lips, but without interrupting the sound. This action causes the sound of “m” to follow “a” and the result Is the word “arm.” When the little scholar is made to understand to what the word applies he is usually so delighted that he needs no urging to repeat it over and over until he has it just right. Sometimes the positions may be excellent, but the sounding weak. The teacher will then direct the child to use his voice. The meaning of this direction and the way of obeying it are taught in the very beginning of the work by holding the child’s hand upon the teacher’s throat and chest while she makes utterance of a sound. His hand is then applied to his own throat .and chest until he has produced similar vibrations. All the while, of course, he is watching his teacher's lips, and the direction is repeated until he has learned its meaning. The power to distinguish differences of vibration by touch is a very important thing, for it is the child’s chief guide in modifying his own voice later —in raising it if it is too’ deep, or lowering it if it is too shrill. Exercises bearing upon this are conducted with musical instru ments such as the guitar and piano, and ther ' applied to the vibrations as felt in the chest, head and throat. The teacher first strikes a low note and the child, watching, feels the vibration Then she strikes a high note and calls his atten tion to the difference. Next she places his hand upon her throat while she sings low and high notes alternately, and in time Jte acquires the ability to recognize the difference in tone by touch. v • * The making of aspirant sound*, requiring the forcible exhalation of breath, such ns “p,” is explained by using a feather or lighted candle. The expulsion of breath blows the feather away or causes the flame of the candle to flicker. The difference between “p” and “b.” which have the same visible motions, but not the same sound, is illustrated in a similar manner. In the case of “p” we simply close the lips, compress the air in the mouth and then allow it to esqape in a little voiceless puff. But with “b,” while the lips are closed and opened in exactly the same way, the voice is brought into use and thU lessens the force of the breath as it leaves the mouth. Guttural sounds like “k” and “g.” belvg formed at the back of the tongue, are difflcuTc to acquire, but the use of the mirror is of particular assistance in teaching the child the correct positions for the sounds of these letters. Speech-reading, which is the ability to understand spoken language by watching the speech iftovements on the speaker’s face, goes side by side with the teaching of speech. From the first Vur the child is taught to watch 'his teacher’s lips and to attach a meanly to all their .movements, and he learns to interpret spoken language with his eyes as the hearing child does with his ears, without knowing the how or why of it. The second question—that as to what speech does for ‘the deaf children when they are grown up—is not difficult to moet. In the first place, if puts them.on a more equal footing with hearing children both in their social and business life. Very few hearing people care to take the trouble to learn the sign language, or finger spelling, Ju?t for tho purpose of conversing with one or two persons, and a system of written communication is always slow anti laborious. For this reason the deaf child who cannot speak is always at a great disadvantage when attempting to mingle with his more fortunate brothers. He must con fine his activities largely to that sphere in which his peculiar form of communication Is under stood, and this sohere is exceedingly small, com-ns-'‘timely spcakln*. But with speech at his com mind Jr *uds a t s ournnd s"epjms r.f usefulness rad endeavor, rs which he formerly knew noth ing, opened to him.