What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know | Page 2

had you known how.
"You who are trained teachers of the deaf can hardly realize the need of advice about matters perfectly obvious to YOU; but the need exists. May I tell you from my own experience a few of the things about which you might advise--you, who know!
"In the first place, suggest to parents that they make simple tests of their children's hearing; and tell them how and why those who are partially deaf should be helped.
"Then tell them to talk, and talk, and talk, to their little deaf ones--to say everything and say it naturally. And tell them some things in particular that should be said--commands, etc., and certainly 'I love you.' Tell them to speak in whole sentences. Give them an idea of the possibilities of lip-reading.
"Tell them that by the expression of the face they may convey to the deaf child the interest, approval, disapproval, etc., that they would express to a hearing child in the tone of voice.
"Tell them that there is rarely an untrained person who can safely meddle with articulation.
"Tell them that it is not true that all deaf children are bad; that the deaf must learn obedience as others do.
"Tell them the many things which you wish your pupils had learned before they entered school.
"Only this I beg of you--tell them! "LUCILE M. MOORE."
For the sake of presenting the ideas contained in this little book in a somewhat systematic manner it was best to arrange them on the supposition that they would come to the notice of the mothers while their children were yet less than two years of age. In many cases, however, this will not be the case. When, therefore, the child is three, four, or five years old when this falls into the hands of the mother, it would still be well if she carried out the suggestions in the order in which they are here arranged. With the maturity of mind and body that comes with the added years, the child can pass through the earlier stages of the training much more rapidly than can be the case with the baby. Nevertheless, the preliminary steps should not be omitted. A child of four can be carried in six months through the exercises that occupied two years when begun with the child of twelve months, but the older child should not be started with exercises suggested for the years after two.
Mothers of deaf children cannot be expected to be trained teachers of the deaf. It would be useless, and, in fact, often unfortunate, to ask them to attempt to teach articulation to their children. Even for them to teach the children to write would usually be undesirable because the greatest gain from the mother's efforts comes from the early establishment of the speech-reading habit and entire dependence upon it. It is a very great help to have this habit fixed before writing is taught. There is no haste about the child's learning to write. That is easily and quickly accomplished when the proper time comes. The difficult thing to do is, very fortunately, the thing the mother is best fitted to accomplish, namely, to create in the child the ability to interpret speech by means of the eye, and the habit of expecting to get ideas by watching the face of a speaker.
With these ideas in mind there has been careful avoidance in this little book of any suggestion that the mother should be anxious about the speech development of the child before five years of age. If she has the patience and the time to follow the directions given, she will have done her child a very great service; the greatest that lies within her power; and she will have laid the foundation for a more rapid and better development of speech than would have been possible without her preliminary training.
Not every mother will find it possible to carry out all the suggestions offered in this little book, but no one should feel discouraged on that account. It seemed best to offer too many suggestions rather than too few, because these pages may fall into the hands of some mothers whose situation is such that full advantage can be taken of every idea here given. Presence of too much matter in the little book will not destroy its usefulness in cases where only a portion can be applied, whereas the lack of some of the ideas might limit its value in certain instances. No one should give up in despair just because it is not possible to do all that is here suggested. Something, at least, can be found here which it is possible to do that will help very much.
Sometimes, through a false sense of shame, or through ignorance of the possibilities open to a deaf child, mothers