What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to Know | Page 8

develop his various faculties, his powers of observation,
memory, and concentration. To develop a faculty is really to train the
brain. As a matter of fact, we see and hear and taste and smell and feel
with our brains. The eye of a two-year-old child is practically as perfect
an optical instrument as the eye of a boy of ten, and yet how much
more the older boy seems to see. This is because his brain has been
trained to interpret the impressions that even the baby eyes received
but did not understand. Of course, where the instrument is found to be
imperfect we can assist it by means of additional lenses, or perhaps by
some one of the skillful operations now performed by oculists, and, as
the sight is of such increased importance to a deaf child, the greatest
care and watchfulness should be given to his eyes. Do not let him sleep,
or lie, facing the sun, or any other powerful light, but throughout his
life be careful that all his use of eyesight be under conditions of ample
and well-directed light. Supposing that the simple tests referred to
heretofore have shown that the eyes, as optical instruments, are
sufficiently perfect, our efforts need to be to train the brain to take
cognizance of, and to interpret the impressions transmitted to it by the
eyes. We shall not be able to improve the working of the eye by our
efforts, but we can educate the brain.
Color and form make the earliest appeal to the child's eyes, and we can
use them for our educational play. The duplicate set of worsted balls of
the seven primal colors can be increased to include easily

distinguishable shades. The child can be sent on entertaining voyages
of discovery around the room with a ball of a certain color to find other
objects similar in color in the rugs, books, chairs, dresses, ties, etc.
A game to develop observation of form can be made by collecting a
group of objects of varying shapes in a pile on the floor or a low table;
mother picks up some one of the objects, directs the attention of the
little one to it, and after he has observed it somewhat she puts it back in
the pile and moves all the objects about till they are well mixed up. Ask
the little fellow then to pick out the object mother held in her hand a
moment before. When he can do this by sight without difficulty, have
him shut his eyes, place an object in his little hands, teach him to feel it
over carefully, take it from him, and, while his eyes are still closed,
place it once more in the pile. Let him then open his eyes and see if he
can indicate the object he had previously held. When he has mastered
this, give the game another turn by asking him to find by means of
touch alone, while the eyes are still closed, the object that he has been
feeling, after it is restored to the pile of other objects. Still another turn
can be given by first letting him see the object, without touching it,
then having him close his eyes, and by touch alone select it from the
pile. A set of wooden forms, such as spheres, cubes, pyramids, cones,
cylinders, and similar, but truncated, forms, can be obtained at any
school supply store. To these can be added common household objects
such as small frames, vases, napkin rings, spoons, forks, and other
similar things, as well as some of the forms included in a complete set
of the Montessori material.
The Montessori weighted forms are excellent for training his muscular
recognition of difference of weight, and an excellent way is to put
various quantities of birdshot into half a dozen exactly similar little
rubber balls that can be purchased at any toy store for two cents apiece.
Then hand the boy one of the weighted balls, and after he has felt its
weight put it back with the other similar-appearing balls and see if he
can again discover it. An outfit for training his tactile sense can be
made in any home by collecting duplicate pieces of cloth having
different textures; such as velvet, rough woolen tweeds or homespun,
silk, satin, cambric, muslin, etc., and pasting one set on cards. Also by

stretching on a wooden frame, strings of varying sizes, weaves, and
twists, and having a bunch of duplicates from which he can select, by
sight and touch alone, the pieces that correspond, each to each, with
those on the frame or on the cards. If there is a guitar, or mandolin, or
zither, or a piano, available, perhaps, by and by, the mother can teach
the child to