The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-06-11

and voice consonants; that he may
 place his voice properly; that he may
 modulate his voice so as to get smooth
 ness instead of rasping; infection in- stead of the deadly monotony that would otherwise characterize the voice
 of the deaf So. for the little one de- prived of the sense through which na- ture gives her first speech and lan- guage lessons, we substitute the use of other senses-sight aided by touch. The deaf child, usually enters school with no words at his command, where
 the hearing child knows scores of
 words. The deaf child first learns his elements of sound, a system of phonics especially adapted to the deaf He learns them first singly and then in combinations. gradually in every com bination used in his mother tongue. Later these combinations are formed I into words. and the first words he learns are the names of familiar per- sons and objects, as is the case with the hearing child.
 Soon he learns the names of actions with which he is familiar. With a noun and verb he has material for a sen
 tence, and here again these sentences describe things familiar to the child.
 I laughed saw a cat Always com plete sentences are encouraged and re- quired, so that the deaf child may gain d COluiAduu Ol SpOkGH language equal to that of the hearing child.
 "The spoken form always precedes the written form. as is the order with
 those who hear, and the ability to un- derstand the spoken form precedes the ability to use it. Lip-reading precedes speech, Just as speech precedes writing
 Training in lip-reading should be be-
 gun very early, as soon as deafness Is
 discovered, and in addition to this the
 child must be surrounded with an at
 mosphere of speech. so that his speech
 environment will be as nearly as possi-
 ble like the hearing child. The ability
 to speak and to understand speech places the deaf child in communication with organized society-provided it is properly exercised and directed.
 "The children who come to US enter
 school at a reasonably early age, but
 they are at the very beginning as re- gards speech and language. It takes at least two or three years to develop
 in them vocabulary equal to that possessed by hearing child when he enters school"
 RYTHM AND VIBRATION Miss Cornish has the work on the piano in rhythm and vibration. Miss Cornish is one of the comparatively few young women who after ,thoughtful consideration chose one certain line of work. give time and earnest effort to perfecting themselves in that line, and then follow it with joy and single ness of purpose that is a fulfi'lment of the expectation of each one as he starts his life work. Her few and happy years experience indicate what she may ac-
 complish for the deaf 5. Her, work is based on the principle
 that through the vibrations of the effect of sound. Voice-the vibrations of the vocal cords-comes to hearing persons through the ear. To the deaf it must come through the sense of touch. For this work Miss Cornish has the children consider the piano keyboard as divided into three
 parts-high. middle and low. The chill dren place their hands on the piano case and feel the vibrations when a chord is struck, as they also put their hands on anotherss throat and feel the Vibrations as words are spoken. With hands on the piano case and eyes closed these little deaf children learn to rec ognize chords struck in high. middle or low register. They know how many times the chord Is. struck. If high. one
 may say earnestly, Miss Cornish, it was very small."..
 Under Miss CorniSh's instruction and guidance they soon 4 understand that
 similar vibrations are made in one's
 throat and that these vibrations pro- NNSO WOidS, WAACtl dEc nSCoS6ATy 10
 communication. Slowly they learn to
 reproduce these svibrationssi in their own
 vocal chords. What delight 1t is to them; what infinite pains they take to
 put into proper use these vocal chords
 that otherwise would be as unrespon-
 sive as are their senses of hearing.
 When a high chord is struck the
 child raises his voice to a harmonizing
 pitch. and lowers 1t to harmonize with
 low chord. By carrying out this
 idea with words and sentences the deaf child acquires the idea of raising and
 lowering. of moduiating, his voice. The
 idea Of accent is taught in much the
 same way, with the result that the
 deaf child's voice is not void of modula-
 tion and infection.
 simple air Is played on the piano, and after the children learn to recog-
 nice it from the vibrations they feel
 through the piano case, another of diff ferent rhythm is played and the two are later entrusted. These first songs are usually nursery rhymes set to mu- sic and the children learn to speak tho words, keeping time to the rhythm felt on the piano case and giving har- monizing pitch
 The immediate and apparent use of these exercises is to lay the foundation for pleasing, well modulated speaking