El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-08-09

sort of instruction is that every sound
or word addressed to the child must
be perfectly natural. No mouthing or
grimacing by the teacher is permiS-
sible. A method commonly adopted by
the instructor is to take the child on
her lap, and so use good sized hand
mirror that the pupil may see his own
and the teachers face side by side,
and thus observe for himself whether,
in the movements of his lips. he is
correctly copying his teacher.
The regular lessons begin with ex-
erciSes to form in the pupil the habit
Of initiating, with eXactness, the va
riOus positions of the lips, tongue.
teeth and Jaws in the utterance Of
definite sounds, and to enable him 40
gain by practice, ready command of the
muscles which control the visible or
gans of speech. All of this, it will be
understood. because the child, before it
can talk, must first acquire the abil-
tty to utter the sounds which are the
elements Of words.
When the pupil SUCCEEDS in uttering
the desired sound, the letter of the al
phabet that stands for that sound is
shown to him. Thus, for example, the
child is taught to open his mouth to
some extent, with tongue flat, and to
breathe strongly When he does this
correctly, the letter H is placed be
fore his eyes. He is taught to press
out his breath suddenly in opening
them. but without putting his cheeks,
Then the letter P is exhibited.
It is the same way with all the other
letters; and thus the little deaf mute
learns how to recite the alphabet.
Clear Utterance Is Taught.
The aim is to get clear and correct
utterance, rather than q large vocabu-
larry Of indifferently articuIated words.
DistinctneSS Of utterance is the prime
essential; for. be it realized. the object
in view is to make the child as much
like normal persons as possible He
must be able to talk, and to talk like
ordinary peOple-not like deaf mute.
From letter sound the pupil natural
" proceeds to words of one syllable,
and then to longer words. Colors are
taught with the help Of q box of pretty
pieces Of silk and velvet, or with col
ored cards, beads, etc. The hueS OF
these are read from the teachers lips,
and the child writes the names.
Later on, words are put together into
sentences It is a kind of instruction
which, even with the most intelligent
deaf mutes, is painfully slow; but is
pays It places the deaf mute on
level with his fellow men; he is no
longer either a quasi imbecile or
freak In this age and generation
realized that an infant incapable from
birth Of hearing sound may. never
theless, learn anything that anybody
else knows, and may therefore become
a happy useful citizen. And as for
speech, why, the children in the deaf
and dumb .Ilindergartens of the present
day are regular chatterboxes-
Seeing the Ear Doctors
There are plenty of ear doctors, and
people pay them big prices for treat
ment for deafness. But did you, honest
" now, ever know Of case where the
patient was much benefited? Nearly
always they imagine that they are get
ting better (fOr the. trouble is variable,
and at intervals the hearing exhibits
what seems like improvement, but,
slowly and inevitably they grow worse
The real difficulty lies in the fact
that the inner ear, where the trouble
lies, is physically unapproachable. The
cannot even examine it He
can look with ease into the eye; he can
inspect at leisure, with the help of an
electric light. the cavities behind the
mask of the face; he can even examine,
by like means, the stomach and the blad-
der But the inner ear is beyond his
reach, during life. 1t is even impos-