What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know | Page 3

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 have refused to admit that
their children were deaf, or to allow anything to be done for them, until
very valuable time has been lost. This is unfair to the child, and very
wrong. A mother should have only pity for the deaf child and eagerness

to aid him to overcome his handicap so far as possible. Delay in frankly
facing the facts and in taking all possible measures to develop the
remaining faculties will in the end only increase the mother's shame
and add to it the pangs of remorse.
In a little book written to guide physicians in advising parents of deaf
children, I said:
"The situation of a deaf child differs very much, from an educational
standpoint, from that of the little hearing child. Two hours a day
playing educational games in a kindergarten is as much as is usually
given, or is needful, for the little hearing child up to six or seven years
of age; and his mental development and success in after life will not be
seriously endangered if even that is omitted and he does not begin to go
to school until he is eight or nine. The hearing child of eight who has
never been in school and cannot read or write has, nevertheless, without
conscious effort, mastered the two most important educational tasks in
life. He has learned to speak and has acquired the greater part of his
working vocabulary. In other words, although he has never been across
the threshold of a school, his education is well advanced for his years
and mental development.
"The situation of the uninstructed deaf child of eight is very different.
The task which it has taken the hearing child eight years to accomplish,
the deaf child of eight has not even begun. He cannot speak a word; he
does not even know that there is such a thing as a word. He is eight
years behind his hearing brother, and even if he starts now, unless some
means can be found for aiding him to overtake his brother
educationally, he will be only eight years old in education when he is
sixteen years of age. And when he is sixteen, the psychological period
will have passed for acquiring what he should have learned when he
was eight. The fact that the child is deaf does not exempt him from the
inexorable laws of mental psychology and heredity. In the development
of the human mind there is a certain period when all conditions are
favorable for the acquisition of speech and language. Unnumbered
generations of ancestors acquired speech and language at that stage of
their mental development, and this little deaf descendant's mind obeys

the law of inherited tendencies.
"If the speech and language-learning period, from two years of age to
ten, is allowed to pass unimproved, the task of learning them later is
rendered unnecessarily difficult.
"Therefore, in the case of the little deaf child, the years from two to ten
are crucial, and of far greater importance than the same period in the
case of the hearing child."
Even though the child be totally deaf from birth, he can nevertheless be
taught to speak and to understand when others speak to him. He can be
given the same education that he would be capable of mastering if he
could hear. The mother need not be despairing nor heart-broken. A
prompt, brave, and intelligent facing of the situation will result in
making the child one to be proud of and to lean upon.
JOHN D. WRIGHT.
1 Mount Morris Park, West, New York City. February, 1915.

WHAT THE MOTHER OF A DEAF CHILD OUGHT TO KNOW
(Mothers are strongly advised to read the Preface)

I
FACING THE FACTS
While deafness is a serious misfortune, it is neither a sin, nor a disgrace,
to be ashamed of. It is a handicap, to be sure, but one to be bravely and
cheerfully faced, for it does not destroy the chances for happiness and
success. It is cause for neither discouragement nor despair. It will
demand patient devotion and courageous effort to overcome the
disadvantage, but what mother is not willing to show these in large
measure for her child when the future holds assurance of comfort and

usefulness?
The earlier that the facts are known and squarely faced, the better. It is
always wiser in life