What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know | Page 6

other words, if "ah" is spoken with
a certain loudness eight inches from the child's ear, and then again with
exactly the same pitch and volume only two inches from his ear, it will
be sixteen times as loud to him as it was the first time.
These simple tests will serve to determine whether the child has, or has
not, a normal acuteness of hearing. They will not serve to determine
with any accuracy the degree of impairment, if it is found that the
hearing is impaired at all. More thorough tests will have to be
postponed till the child is two years old or more. But the moment that
impaired hearing is suspected, the best available ear specialist should
be consulted in order to determine whether the cause can be removed,
or measures taken to prevent a progressive increase in deafness.
The visit to the otologist should be repeated at intervals of not more
than eight or ten months, even where there is no question of treatment,
in order that any change in the physical condition of the organs may be
promptly detected.

III
HOW SHALL THE MOTHER GET INTO COMMUNICATION
WITH HER DEAF CHILD?
Let it be assumed that when the child is fifteen months old it is fairly
well established that his hearing is somewhat below normal. Between
fifteen months and two years of age all that is said in this section will
apply equally to the child who is feared to be totally deaf and to one
who is known to possess some sound perception, though not a normal
degree of hearing. For, until he is old enough to respond to more
complete and accurate tests, we must not give up the idea that he may
have a sufficient remnant of hearing to be of great assistance to him in

the acquisition of speech and language, if it is only developed and
trained.
Between the ages of twelve months and twenty-four months the child
with perfect hearing makes rapid progress in learning to understand
what is said to him, and by the time he is two years old has usually
begun to speak many words and sentences in a more or less imperfect
way. This has been accomplished principally by the mother's constant
talking to her baby. If she has had the good sense to always speak in
simple but complete sentences, and to avoid the foolish "baby talk"
unfortunately affected by some people in addressing little children, the
results of her daily and hourly talk is the possession by the child of a
considerable vocabulary of words whose meaning he knows, and a less
number that he is able himself to speak in a rather imperfect way.
In what respects should the mother modify her treatment of the baby if
she suspects that his hearing is defective? She should not talk to him
any the less on this account, but, on the contrary, she should talk to him
more. She should, however, speak a little louder, a little nearer to him,
possibly a little more slowly and distinctly, exercising the greatest
caution, however, not to exaggerate speech into unnatural facial
contortions, or to accompany it by gestures. To fall into the habit of
mouthing and gesticulating, making faces and motions, will defeat
entirely the purpose of all efforts to develop an understanding of speech
by the child. Unfortunately, such exaggerated and absurd speech is a
natural and very prevalent fault. To avoid it is absolutely necessary, but
requires constant watchfulness, as there is a strong temptation to try to
make speech-reading easy for the child by opening the mouth wide and
making extraordinary movements of the tongue.
The object aimed at is to lead the child to interpret natural, everyday
speech, and such facial contortions and exaggerations cut him off from
practice in reading natural speech. This point cannot be too strongly
emphasized. Speak naturally and normally always to the deaf child.
Above all, the mother should form the habit of watching his eyes and of
speaking as often as possible when his gaze is fixed upon her face. The
habit on his part of looking at the face of a speaker, and the habit on his

mother's part of observing his gaze and, when it wanders, of pausing in
her talk till he is looking at her again, are two very valuable aids in the
language development of the deaf child. In addition to always raising
her voice a little in speaking to her baby, the mother should several
times a day take him in her lap and sing to him, and talk to him with
her lips not far from his ear. Talk to him just as all mothers do to their
babies (but not with the mangled and distorted words called "baby