What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know

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What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know

The Project Gutenberg EBook of What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to
Know, by John Dutton Wright This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know
Author: John Dutton Wright
Release Date: May 23, 2006 [EBook #18439]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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WHAT THE MOTHER OF A DEAF CHILD OUGHT TO KNOW
BY
JOHN DUTTON WRIGHT
FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL OF THE WRIGHT ORAL SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, NEW YORK CITY; COLLABORATOR OF "THE LARYNGO- SCOPE" AND THE "VOLTA REVIEW"; DIRECTOR OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION TO PROMOTE THE TEACHING OF SPEECH TO THE DEAF; AUTHOR OF "EDUCA- TIONAL NEEDS OF THE DEAF," FOR THE GUIDANCE OF PHYSICIANS
[Illustration: Logo]
NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1915, by
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
_All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages_
March, 1915
TO MY WIFE
AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THIS LITTLE BOOK WAS WRITTEN IN ORDER THAT MOTHERS MAY DO ALL IN THEIR POWER FOR THEIR DEAF CHILDREN

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE ix-xix
I. FACING THE FACTS 1
II. HOW SHALL THE MOTHER BEGIN HER PART OF THE WORK? 5
III. HOW SHALL THE MOTHER GET INTO COMMUNICATION WITH HER DEAF CHILD? 13
IV. WHAT ABOUT THE BABY'S SPEECH? 20
V. DEVELOPING THE MENTAL FACULTIES 22
VI. DEVELOPING THE LUNGS 30
VII. THE CULTIVATION OF CREATIVE IMAGINATION 32
VIII. FURTHER TESTS OF HEARING 34
IX. THE DEVELOPMENT OF RESIDUAL HEARING 38
X. DEVELOPING THE POWER OF LIP-READING 43
XI. FORMING CHARACTER 47
XII. CULTIVATING THE SOCIAL INSTINCT 50
XIII. SOMETHING ABOUT SCHOOLS AND METHODS 53
XIV. THE PRESERVATION OF SPEECH. WHEN DEAFNESS RESULTS FROM ACCIDENT OR ILLNESS AFTER INFANCY 58
XV. TEACHING LIP-READING 61
XVI. SCHOOL AGE 63
XVII. ORGANIZED EFFORTS BY PARENTS TO OBTAIN BETTER EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS 65
XVIII. A PERSONAL MATTER FOR EACH PARENT 68
XIX. DAY SCHOOLS 72
XX. THE DEAF CHILD AT FIVE YEARS OF AGE 73
XXI. SCHOOLS FOR THE HEARING AND PRIVATE GOVERNESSES 75
XXII. IMPORTANCE OF THE BEGINNING 80
XXIII. AVOID THE YOUNG AND INEXPERIENCED TEACHER 82
XXIV. ON ENTERING SCHOOL 83
XXV. DURING THE SCHOOL PERIOD 98
XXVI. DURING VACATION 101
XXVII. SOME NOTS 107

PREFACE
The mother of a little deaf child once wrote as follows:
"As a mother of a deaf child, and one whose experience has been unusual only in that it has been more fortunate than that of the average mother so situated, I want to place before you (the teachers of the deaf) a plea for the education of the parents of little deaf children.
"While you are laboring for the education of the deaf, and for their sakes are training teachers to carry on the work, there are, in almost every home that shelters a little deaf child, blunders being made that will retard his development and hinder your work for years to come--blunders that a little timely advice might prevent. We parents are not willfully ignorant, not always stupidly so; but that we are in most cases densely so, there can be no doubt.
"Can you for the moment put yourselves into our place? Suppose you are just the ordinary American parents, perhaps living far from the center of things. You know in a hazy way that there are deaf and blind and other afflicted people--perhaps you have seen some of them.
"Now, into your home comes disease or a sudden awakening to the meaning of existing conditions, and you find that your child is deaf.
"At first your thought is of physicians; they fail you. Advice from friends and advertisements from quacks pour in upon you; still you find no comfort and no help.
"You stop talking to the child. What is the use? He cannot hear you! You pity him--oh, infinitely! And your pity takes the form of indulgence. You love him and you long to understand him; but you cannot interpret him and he feels the change, the helplessness in your attitude toward him. You try one thing after another, floundering desperately in your effort to discover what radical step must be taken to meet this emergency. After a time you seize upon the idea that seems to you the best. Probably it is to wait until he is six or seven and then put him into an institution. But while you wait for school age to arrive, you lose that close touch with the soul of your child which may be established only in these early years, for you have no adequate means of communication with him--no way to win his confidence. Soon the child has passed this stage, and no school can ever give him what you might and would have given