Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-08-02
MAKING THE DUMB SPEAK.
How they are Taughtto Talk as Plainly
as Other People.

l
How they are Taught"to Talk as Plainly
as Other People.
A hundred years ago most persons il
asked how the dumb could be made to
| speak would no doubt have answered with
ont hesitation: BY a miracle p' Yet
nearly a quarter of century earlier, in
| 1850, German Samuel Heinicke, had
started school in Leipsic for teaching deaf
mutes to talk This school is still in ex-
| istence, and other schools based on Helm
| icke's method, which, of course, has been
| greatly improved, have been founded in
| different countries so that at the present
time the teaching OF the dumb to speak
| forms an important branch of education
Few persons who have not paid special at
tention to the subject have any idea of this.
| On the west side of Lexington avenue,
New York, between Sixty-seventh and
| Sixty-eighth streets, stands the Institution
| for the Improved Instruction of Deaf
! Mutes. Within its walls nearly $50 little
| tongues, upon which nature has imposed
| the burden of silence, are daily taught the
intricacies and usefulness of speech. AS a
rule children are dumb solely because they
are deaf, and therefore unable to hear and
| initiate the vocal sounds uttered by those
around them. 1t is very rare that the vocal
organs of a deaf-mute are defective. On
| the other hand children under seven years
who have learned to speak perfectly almost
always become mute if they lose their
| hearing, as they frequently do by such
| causes as measles, scarlet fever and cerebro-
spinal meningitis. Children born deaf are
| technically termed congenital deaf-mutes,
and those that become so in early child
| hood are called semi-mutes. Strange as it
may appear, it is generally easier to teach
the former than the latter to talk.
Since the child cannot hear, his other
senses must be enlisted as substitutes for
hearing and the method of teaching him
| to speak must, therefore, consist in making
him see and feel the words spoken to him.
| How this is done can best be seen in the
primary class, made up, as rule, of chill
| dren from six to nine years old. These
! little ones, who entered the institution per-
| fectly dumb in September last, are all able
to utter simple words and sentences dis
| tinctly, while one or two can speak almost
| huently. But another thing that surprises
| the visitor quite as much as their speaking
is that the youngest of those children can
also write readily and legibly any word he
can utter.
The first step in teaching the dumb child
| to speak is to teach him to utter simple
vowel sounds correctly. To do this the
pupil is directed to place his hand on the
teachers chest, where he can feel the vibra-
ton, and to watch the shape of the teach
ers mouth, for, in order to distinguish
between their varieties, the deaf mute de-
ponds entirely on watching the relative po-
sitions of the lips and the tongue. In
teaching the pupil besides having his at
! tention attracted to the teachers mouth,
which is opened as wide as it can be con-
! sistently with the production of the sound,
| is also made to place one hand on the
| teachers and the other ON his own throat
so as to feel and initiate the peculiar vibra-
ton The vibration of can also be felt
under the angle of the jaw and upon the
crown of the head Another method OF
teaching is to make the pupil feel that
while in sounding the larynx is depressed
in sounding it is raised.
Meditation of the voice is taught from
the very outset. When the pupils voice is
too high and shrill, pressure on the front
of the larynx diminishes the tension of the
vocal cords, and thereby lowers the pitch
Simultaneous pressure on both sides of the
larynx increases the tension of the vocal
cords and elevates the pitch. The nasal
tone is corrected by directing the pupils
attention. through holding the back Of his
hand alternately to his own and the teach
er's mouth and nose, to the fact that in the
proper utterance of the sound the breath
escapes through the mouth, and not through
the nose. If this does not succeed, the
teacher closes the pupils nostrils by press
ing them between the thumb, and fore
finger, and thus forces the breath through
the mouth.
The simplest COnsonantal sounds, and
consequently, the most readily taught, are
I md I rpba .,r1,,il 4. m 10 qxt-ara Of HI
differences in the utterance of them by hay
ing the back of his hand held close to the
teachers mouth, and then he is encouraged
to exercise his own vocal organs until he is
able to emit his breath in the same man
ner. He is assisted in the production Of
the sound by having the fore part of his
tongue pressed downward and little back
ward with paper-folder
AS soon as a pupil has succeeded in utter
ing sound correctly, the letter or com
binaton of letters, representing 1t Is written
on the black board, and he is encouraged tC
repeat the sound, and write the letter him
self so as TO clinch the identification. As
soon as he is able to utter simple vowe
and consonantal sounds, he is taught t.
combine them into easy words, as - toe
" tea, out" EYE" I" cow, which art
Immediately written upon the blackboard
At the same time the meaning Of such
words is explained to the pupil by means
of pictures and objects. Thus he is stimuli
taneouSly taught to utter articulate sounds
to read them from the lips of his teacher
to associate words with their Specification
and to write the letters and words as ht
learns them. The most difficult sound!
for deaf mute to learn are the kissing
sounds of S, oh and j, but these are acquired
like the rest, by patience and practice
The pupils in most cases show remark
able aptness to learn, and they express
peculiar delight when they first find on
the real object of the funny puits, blow
and Kisses, which they learn to produce
and they labor cheeriully to overcome th
difficulties necessarily attending their at
temptS at articulation.
The development of speech-sounds occu
pies, according to the capacities of indi
vidual pupils, from three to four, or, at thu
most, five months. They are kept in tn
primary class generally for one year, thei
instructed in the English language, ant
finally carried through higher branches o
study. The more advanced pupils. as
rule, enunciate clearly, though they ar
apt to fell into a kind of lisp. But whcI
their attention is called to it they quickl,
remedy the defect Ii is not an uncom
mon thing to see one Of these advanced
pupils talking with his hand on his chest
Being asked why he holds his hand there
he replies that it assists him in modulatinI
his voice. Sew York Sun.