What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to KnowWright, John Dutton
Science
What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know
Wright, John Dutton
Deaf children
All that has been said about training the little deaf child to read the
lip movements and associate 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 institutions 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 institutions, 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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