New-York tribune., 1922-03-19
When the child has learned to max
the Uibration in his throat
speech has begun

~ ANVIL II ne needed a nnal rein1orce-
ment, got it when Clarence Day jr.
- pointed out that the true proof of our
simian descent is inordinate love
of chatter. No other species has INDUCED this
faculty for mere extraneous expression so con-
sistently. True to our simian nature, we pity
acutely those who are dumb and have only a
minor sympathy for those who are deaf After
all, so little that other people say is relevant.
Therefore, to give speech to the dumb seems
to any of more nearly miracle than to
give hearing to the deaf. And yet the school
at 225 East Twenty-third Street. which does
both, calls itself simply the School for the
Deaf. The fact of the matter is, and this is an
astounding recent discovery there is no such
thing as dumbness. Except in the exceptional
instance of throat paralysis or mental def
cheney, deaf mute child is only deaf, not
mute. A child who does not hear will not
know there is such thing as speech. The
moving lips of the people about him will
seem only another of the unaccountabe things
they do. He never has learned to use his voice
because there no sounds for him to initiate.
That's all. Speech is largely initiative, and
even an adults voice will dwindle to whisper
with deafness. A child who becomes deaf
when he is ten or twelve years old will often
forget the trick of speech and lapse into signs
unless he is watched and taught.
Specifically, Public School AT is undiffer-
cntiated from 46 and 48. 1t is the same old
school building, smelling strongly and rem-
niscenty of disinfectant, wet slate and steam
heat But none the less it is different. Here
there is none of the represslve discipline or
the schoolroom All the effort is to make the
child expressive. Even the physical aspect OF
the classroom is different-the absence of the
rigid forms, the small classes grouped around
the teacher and the continual freedom given
to the child. All this makes the relations be-
tween pupils and teacher curiously easy.
The School for the Deaf has $50 pupils, sent
from all parts of the city. The city pays the
c.rfare for those who cannot afford to pay.
About half have become deaf through Illness
II ,,akes the usual elementary school curricu-
fum bv ways entirely and uniquely 1rs own
but it does it in eleven years instead OF eight
The deaf child is just three years behlnd 1he
- normal child. ~
The handicap of the deaf child is different
from any other, and imposes its own physlcai
and psychological conditions of teaching
Their muscles very tense; they nave 1io
sense of rhythm; their coordination IS oe-
fective and they have no sense OF balance.
They are temperamentally sensitive ana
morose. There is no isolation like that OF
Deafness The blind need not be lonely. But
the deaf, seeing world whose thousand allu-
sions escape them, are frequently bewlldered
and unhappy
The first day the child comes to school, sup
posing it is totally deaf child, it does not
speak save in the most elementary signs. The
teacher draws the child to her, and, breathing
OH her own palm, she urges the child to initiate
her She shows the child how to emit Its
breath in little puhs. That is the sound ~.
When the child has learned that the teacher
puts the childs right hand at her own throat
and the othes Mt the teachers, and she forms
sound which has the appearance of the "P,
but which is accompanied by vibration in the
throat This is the sound "B." When the
child has learned that and how to make the
sane vibration in it's own throat, speech has
begun. 1t has learned to babble. The SOUND
ba-ba-ba" that normal children make IN
the cradle these children learn first in the KIN
dergarten. So they initiate and learn the soft
sounds and their corresponding vibrant ones
the soft IF" and the vibrant "v,' the short It"
and the long 3D. the ak" and the "g." deaf
child learns to read much sooner than nor
sounds In the throat he is made familiar with
them in their written form.
On that memorable first day, too, the teacher
takes the child by the hand, herself jumps up
and down and says Jump" The child may
not get It, but the word and action arc re-
Dsat~d she construss Il ~ An invitation 20 lm5-