The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-19
DEAF UNDERSTAND
 EVERYTHING SAID Lip Reading Being Brought to Great Perfection A GREAT DISCOVERY The Aged Learn Quite as Fast as the Youngsters-Are Not Very Much
 Hampered Apparently By
 Their Affliction
A GREAT DISCOVERY
From the Washington Post.

| From the Washington Post.
 The other day a woman advertised for
 instruction in lip reading. This adver-
 tisement was the outcome of an incl-
 dent related to her by a relative who
 had attended a luncheon given in a prl-
 vate house.
 Opposite me-" she said, sat woman
 who I noticed looked directly at every speaker, seldom letting her eyes fall to her plate. She talked a good deal her
 self. too, and was one of the liveliest
 guests.
 | When leaving, finding myself almost
 at the side of this woman, I spoke and
 was surprised to get no answer I re- peated the remark and got no answer, but a second later she turned, smiled pleasantly to my surprise, saying some
 thing quite irrelevant to my remarks,
 and we chatted a few minutes before
 separating.
 Not till some days later did I learn
 that for nearly eight years this lively guest had been deaf as the result of an
 accident and that for long time she had morbidly kept away from social gathering. Her re-entry into social life
 was due to a little girl almost totally deaf from scarlet fever, who by attend | ing a school for the deaf had learned | to read the lips of anyone speaking to | her with a degree of skill which made l her almost as useful as a child who l could hear.
 "The child was delivering a parcel at | the house of the deaf woman when the | latter, seing the little messenger in an imated conversation with a servant, asked some questions and immediately decided to take the lessons. which re- suited in restoring to her many of her | former pleasures"
 Few Know Possibilities | At the end of the story the listener, | sitting close to an acousticon into which | the visitor talked, resolved to advertise l for a teacher, the caller having no in formation to give on this point. AS
 matter of fact, most deaf and partially deaf adults know, as rule, very little about the possibilities of lip reading as | it Is taught today.
 | Statistics furnished by an instructor show that there are 100000 deaf per- | sons in the United States, and that 21a | per cent of New Yorks population. or | something like 100000 persons are deaf | The latter figures, he thinks, do not in- clude many partially deaf persons whose dlDCtlOn IS lIe OulCOlilS ol a SutuCh ot- | tack of illness and a growing percentage | of whom, because of their skill in lip reading are not classed as deaf at all | In the last few years 1t has been made easier for adults to get instructions in the lip-reading method. but even now the market Is not overstocked with good teachers.
 When Public School 47, in East Twen- | ty-third street. New York, was opened | fa, oh institutions the I try over were levied on for capable | teachers able to instruct by the oral | method only, signs and the sign lan-
 guage not being permitted. Opening with 4S pupils and teachers, the school now has nearly 200 boys and girls from to | IS years old, who are taught by IS teachers the regular public school ele-
 mentary course. including cooking and
 sewing for the older girls, and shop work
 for boys over 12. At the spring exarnna- tions the progress made by the first-year pupils fairly astonished the examiners and visitors, who could scarcely realize
 at first that the conversations carried on
 between teachers and pupils were in audible to the latter.
 Hope for Others To some extent this example has | given hope to older deaf folks and made some of them wish that free evening | classes to teach lip reading to adults might be included In the public schoo! | curriculum, but too often. teacher Of the deaf says, the middleaged and elder | ly including persons of high intelligence and large means, are so timorous, so doubtful of their ability to learn lip read ing that they shrink from making the attempt.
 When the principal of the public
 school for the deaf was asked if she thought 1t possible for an adult to master the method to the extent Of un- derstanding readily what was said by
 watching the speakers lips, she answered emphatically:
 -"I don't think it, I know it. Becoming | deaf at 13 or IA a child is almost as much handicapped as an adult would be, yet
 have known boys and girls past that age and by no means nimble perceptions who | have acquired the method easily. | The principal sent for John, now nearly IS, who has acquired most of what he knows of lip reading since at- tending the school, although he has been almost totally deaf since the age of IS, and the two chatted briskly several min utes.
 What was John making in the work | shop? What was this and that boy mak- l ing? At the club the other night what was 1t newcomer had said about John? | the principal asked, speaking no more slowly than usual, nor with greater em- phasis and without the least attempt to mouth her words.
 | John, apparently understanding every word, answered promptly, and by re- quest he told the club incident: ~ "There was a new boy at the club the other night who, because he saw me talking with the fellows, bet another boy that I wasn't deaf at all; that I was just putting up a game on them. After lx aLnI hnt1 {nd yna to get mo to talk, and of course I couldn't, not seeing his mouth. I seen
 him coming through all right" "Seen him.' interjected the principal. | 1T mean I saw him coming" John replied instantly II would attach no age limit to the
 ability to learn lip reading" the princi- cipal said. as the door closed behind
 John "The adult Of average intelligence
 and power of observation is of the two better fitted to learn easily than the average boy or girl.
 Cause of Deafness "One-third fo the pupils here were
 born deaf and they are the most diffi- cult to teach because they must also be | taught articulation. One-third are. deaf as the result of illness. meningitis in the lead, and the remaining third became
 almost deaf gradually without clearly | defined cause"
 The methodical person of analytical mind is a less apt pupil than the pupil
 whose intuitive faculties are liveliest, he has found
 Age has nothing to do with results" declared our teacher. The most hopeless pupil ever had was a young girl of IT, | One of the most proficient was a grand
 mother of 65, whom never saw; can
 hardly call her my pupil so far as per