Smyrna times., 1892-02-03
TEACHING THE DEAF TO SPEAK.

The Volta Bureau at Washington
has prepared souvenir of the first
summer meeting of the American As
sociatiOn to promote the Teaching of
Speech to the Deaf. The book deals
wholly with the case of Helen Adams
Kellar, the wonderful child who at the
age of eleven years has learned to speak
and to write, although she is blind and
deaf
This child's progress was the subject
of an essay at the last meeting of the
association by Sarah Fuller, principal
of the Horace Mann School for the
deaf, of Boston. The child was pos
sessed of all the faculties and senses of
healthy child, so far as was known,
until upon recovery from serious ILL
ness at the age of eighteen months she
was found to have lost her hearing and
sight. In 1887 she was placed under
the instruction of Miss A. NJ. Sullivan,
who had been educated at the Perkins
Institution for the Blind in Boston.
Under this instruction Helen devel-
oped with astonishing rapidity the
genius which has since commanded
the admiration Of t.ose interested in
instructing the deaf.
In 1888 Helen paid visit to the
Horace Mann school. The interest
that she then manifested in the chill
dreu aud IN the course of instruction
suggested - Miss Fuller that she could
be taught to speak. 1t was nearly two
| years later, however, before any effort
was made In this direction. Learning
at that time that a deaf and blind child
had acquired speech, Helen became
anxious to learn to speak, Miss Fuller
was quite ready to undertake to teach
her.
NJ ISIS Fuller describes how she gave
the child her first lesson. II was evil
IDENTIFY task requiring much patience,
for Helen was obliged to learn how to
use her organs of speech by feeling her
teachers mouth and throat, aud deter
mining by the same means the position
of the tongue and teeth. She proved
an apt pupil, and in little while she
was able to pronounce the vOwels and
TO give utterance also e s9me of the
cOnsnnents.
Having gone through this prelimin
AIRY drill the teacher shaped her lips
for the vowel "a" and with the child.
fingers as guides, she slow ly closed hel
lips and pronounced the word 'arm.
Without hesitation, Miss Fuller SAYS
the child arranged her tongue. repeated
the sound, and was delighted to know
that she had pronounced a word.
Her next attempt at pronunciation
was with the works "mammqh ant
papa" which she had tried to speal
before going TO the teacher. The bes
she could do with these words wa
mum num-" and pup pup" Tn
, teacher commanded her efforts, and il
order to illustrate TO her how tn
words should he correctly pronounce
she drew her finger along the back c
the child's hand to show the relativ
length of the two syllables, the child
l other hand in the meanwhile restin
on the teachers lips. After few rept
tijiOns the words imam ma" an,
papa" OIme with almost musica
sweetness from her lips.
/. There were nine lessons after this i
which tho child proved an ideal pupi
following every direction with tn
utmost care, and seeming never to fOl
get anything told her. At the close {
her lessons she used speech duently
} She received her first lesson March q
1890, and April l9 of the same yea
Z she related an account of a visit to d
Oliver Wendell Holmes, in which ht
: pronunciation was 80 good that theT
: were only four words out of more tina
+ hundred that the teacher failed
. understand,
2 AS part Of this sOVenir there are tW
. letters wonderfully well written by Il
2 child, the first at South Boston, Apr
= 3, 1890, and the second at her hon
at Tuscumbia, Ala, OctOi er 20, l89
A photograph Of the child is also pu
lished in the souvenir.
Helen Adams Keller is the daught,
of Major Arthur Henry aud Ka
Adams Keller She was born at Tu
cumbia June, 27. 1880.