Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-05-30
MAKING THE DUMB SPEAK
Not by Miracle, Rut by Patience
Ingenuity and Practice.

Not by Miracle. Rut by Patience,
Ingenuity and Practice.
New York SUM-
A hundred years ago mos: pers ms, if
asked how the dumb could be made to
speak. would no doubt have answ cred
without hesitation: by miracle" ="
Yet nearly quarter OF a century
earlier, in 1850, a German. Samuel
Heinicke, had started sch ool in Leip-
sic for teaching deaf mutes to talk.
This s,hool is still in existence, and
other schools based on Heinicke's
method, which, of course, has been
greatly improved, ha been founded
In different countries. so that at the
present tine the teaching of the dumb
to speak forms IN important branch of
edu atiCn. Few Q sons who have not
paid s ecial attention to the sui. ..ect
have any idea of this.
On the west siGe OF Lexington avenue
extending from iyty-Seventh to Sixty
eighth street. stands tive-Story brick
building with quaint little cupoIa
over its central division. 1t IS called
the Institution for the Impro;ed In
st-ucti n of Doa Mutes. Within its
walls nearly $50 little tongues. upon
which nature has imposed the burden
OF lence, are da ly taught the ntr;ca-
cies and usefulnt IS of speech. AS a
rule eli ldren are dumb solely because
they are deaf. and therefore unable to
hear and i'm ta.e the vocal sounds ut
tered by those around them. 1t is very
rare that the vocal organs of q deaf mute
are defective. On the other hand, chill
dren under Z years who have learned to
speak perfectly almost always become
mute tEey lose their hearing as they
frequently do by su h causes as measles,
scar ct fever, and cerebro spinal M menin-
gifts. Chi dren born deaf are techn;c-
ally termed congenital deaf mutes, and
those that lecome SO in early childhood
are called semi mu.es. Strange as it
NAV appear. it is generally easier to
teach the form r. than the latter to
talk.
Since tie c lid cannot hear, Ii other
senses must be enlisted as substitute, g
for hearing, and the method of teach
ing him to speak must, therefore. con-
sist in max ng him see and feel the
wol ds spoken to him. How this is
done can best be seen in the primary
class, made up as a rule of children
from 6 to . years old. At present it
consists of about dozen little bows
and girls and is taught W tn much skill.
patience, and good humor by Miss
Keller. These little ones who entered
the in ,titut on perfectly dumb in Sep
tember last are all abe now to utter
simple words TN sentences dis ,inctly,
while one or two can speak al most
fiuently. But another thirg that sur
rri es The visitor quite rs much as
Their sreaking is that the youngest Of
these children can write readily and
lesibly rs we'll as spell correctly any
word he can utter.
The difficulty of teaching the dumb
child to speak is, in reality, not so
great as it may seem to the reader.
Nearly all deaf mutes can utter mar
ticulate sounds resembling somewhat
"Ah," 500" The first step is to teach
them to utter those simple vowel
sounds correctly. as we'll as o. on. e, j,
and the easier of the cousonants, as p,
b. t. l, and c.
"To teach the vowel sou:ds," saws
Mr.. David Greenberrer, the principal
of the institution, "it is generally suffi-
.cient to let the pupil place his hand on
the teachers chest, where he can feel
the vibI alton and let him watch the
shape of the teachers mouth, for, in
order to distinguish between their vari-
cites, the deaf mute dep .nds entirely
on watching the relative post ons of
the lips and the tongue. These organs
are the two principal agents in vowel
modificat on"
The rupils in most cases show o re-
markable aptness to learn. AMI they e1-
I r,ss pc -uliar delight when they first
find out the real object of the
funny puf1s. blows, and Misses, which
they learn to produce, and they labor
cEeerfully to overcome the difficulties
necessarily attending their attempts at
articulation.
The development Of speech sounds
o cupies, according to capacities of in
dividual upils, from three to four, or.
at the utmost, five months. They are
kept in the primary class generally for
one year, then instructed in the Eng
ish language, and tirally carr ed
through higher branches of study The
more ad anred pupils, as a rule enun.
ciate clearly, though they are at to
fall into kind OF lisp. But when
their attention is called to it they
quickly remedy the defect. 1t is not an
uncommon thing to see one of these ad-
vanced pupils talking WITH Lis hand on
his ch; st. Being asked why he holds
his hand ther', he replies that it as.
sists him in modulating his voice.