Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1886 — Teaching Deaf-Mutes to Read. [ARTICLE]

Teaching Deaf-Mutes to Read.

Instruction is conveyed to deaf-mutes in most instances by the use of sign language, or the manual alphabet.. The foundation maxim of the methods used is “first ideas, then words. ” The mind must be roused to activity, and, as the foundations of knowledge which other children acquire by the aid of hearing are here wanting, progress is, of course, very slow at first. Usually, instruction is begun by the word method, wordß being connected with the objects they represent. For instance, the child is shown some common object, or a picture of an animal, and the printed name of the object or animal is shown him at the same time. He is thus taught to connect names with their objects, and to recognize printed words. When a few words have been learned, sentences are framed, and the child is taught to recognize these as units embodying a complete idea. The printed and the sign alphabets are taught together, and, when these are mastered, instruction in spelling is not difficult. After names of objects, their obvious properties, with numerals and verbs of action, are next taught. The adjectives first brought forward are those of size and color, then prepositions of locality. The simple tenses are exemplified by calling attention to a series of actions. Much use is made of contrast of ideas. A child of ten or twelve years of age, if possessed of ordinary intelligence, can usually, at the end of a year, construct for himself simple sentences about every-day affairs. During the first two or three years textbooks prepared especially for deafmutes are used, alter that any textbooks will serve. —Inter Ocean.