What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know

What the Mother of a Deaf Child
Ought to Know

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Ought to
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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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OF A DEAF CHILD ***

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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