What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know | Page 9

vibratory sensation between what he now feels and what he previously felt on the musical instruments. The last step in this series of exercises to awaken a recognition of vibratory sensations is to lead him to feel in his own chest and head the vibrations set up by his own voice in shouting and laughing, crying or babbling.
These hints that are so quickly and easily given, require weeks and months of patient, happy effort to carry out. Beware that no one of them is repeated or continued so long at a time as to become a thing dreaded and disliked. Remember that the attention of a little child is like a constantly flitting butterfly that rests for only a moment or two on anything before dancing away to something else.
There are many little games with kindergarten materials that can be used to develop the powers of attention, observation, imitation, and obedience. The laying in simple designs, by watchful imitation of the mother, of colored sticks, colored squares, etc.; the building with colored blocks; stringing of large beads; weaving with wide strips of colored paper simple designs that a mother could invent with the material at hand or could learn from any kindergarten manual. The point that must be firmly, but pleasantly, insisted upon in these exercises is careful and obedient following by the child of the exact order of movement and manner of placing adopted by the mother teacher. The entire value of these exercises for the purpose she wishes to accomplish depends upon accurate observation by the child and _implicit obedience_.
The material outfit prepared and sold by the American exploiters of the Montessori method is admirably adapted to the development of the budding faculties of the child, and the mother who is trying to do all in her power to prepare her little one to benefit to the greatest possible extent from the professional instruction that must come later, will make no mistake in supplying herself with the set of materials, and making herself intelligent on their use by the child.

VI
DEVELOPING THE LUNGS
The tendency of the deaf child is to grow up with less development of lungs and of the imagination than hearing children. In order to overcome this tendency the child must be encouraged and taught to play games and use toys that will exercise the lungs and develop the power of imaginative thought.
In order to expand and strengthen the lungs through the child's play, supply him with the brightly colored paper wind-mills that he can set whirling by blowing lustily; also the rubber balloon toys, even though the torturing squeak of the toys is only heard by those in the vicinity and not by himself. An especially good exercise for the gentle and long-continued control of breath results from the toy blow pipes with conical wire bowls by means of which light, celluloid balls of bright colors are kept suspended in the air, dancing on the column of breath blown softly through the tube. The more steadily the child blows, the more mysteriously the ball remains at a fixed point, whirling rapidly but without any apparent support.
Blowing soap bubbles, especially trying to blow big ones, is very useful as well as interesting.
For physical development in which the lungs come in for their share and the sense of mechanical rhythm is fostered, an excellent exercise is marching in step to the stroke of the drum, proud in Boy Scout uniform. Dancing is a very desirable accomplishment for the deaf child.
Tops and tenpins cultivate dexterity, as do playing ball and rolling hoop.

VII
THE CULTIVATION OF CREATIVE IMAGINATION
This can be greatly helped by early use on the part of the child of colored modeling wax to reproduce objects and animals, and to construct models of imaginary houses, yards, trees, etc. A sand pile, or a large, shallow sand box, perhaps five feet square, with sides six inches high, and completely lined with enamel cloth to make it watertight, is a wonderful implement for constructive play on the part of the child. Whole villages of farms, fields, and forests, ponds and brooks, roads and railroads, can be made here in miniature.
Building blocks of wood or stone; the metal construction toy called "Mechano"; dolls, doll houses, furniture, and equipment, are valuable, but they should be simple, inexpensive and not fragile.
Cut-up picture puzzles, painting books, tracing slates with large and simple designs cultivate observation and ingenuity. Kaleidoscopes and stereoscopes are excellent, but moving pictures are so trying upon the eyes, and the air of the theaters is so bad, that a deaf child whose eyes are his only salvation, and whose health is doubly important, should not even know of their existence till he is seven or eight years old.

VIII
FURTHER TESTS OF HEARING
But, as soon as the mother finds her little child sufficiently mature