Evening star., 1926-04-12
NEW METHOD IN AID
OF TOTALLY DEAF
Experiment in Developing
Normal Talking introduced
, in GaIIaudet College.

A way to show totally deaf persons
that spoken language has rhythm is
being tested by DIR. Robert II. Gault,
professor of psychology in Norwestern
University, who, under the auspices OF
the National Research Council Is con-
Quoting experiments upon students or
Gallaudet College for the Deaf here.
The method has grown out OF DIR.
Gauit's experiments in relation to sen
sation of touch. If it IS put into use
in schools for the deaf. it will help the
child who has never heard the sound
Of spoken words to talk much more
normally.
"The deaf person has great difficulty
in graSping the idea OF the swing or
human speech" says DR.. Gault. That
is why his sentences often sound stiff
jointed and .queerly accented. BY
means of apparatus which conveys the
vibrations Of speakers voice TO the
finger tip of the deaf person he Is able
to catch the swing Of the sentence and
the grouping OF words and phrases
and fine distinction among words
Apparatus Described.
The apparatus used for these eXper-
imentS Is the same that DIR. Gault has
used for some time in testing the prac-
iicability of enabling the deaf to
understand speech by the way it feels
upon their finger tips. The speaker
talks into a transmitter, and the vi
brations of his voice are a1nplihed 175
times. The deaf listener, who may be
in a different part of the building,
holds in his hand a receiving device
that looks like a radio earphone, and
presses one finger against the disc to
catch the vibrations. Different VoWelS
and consonants have different Vibra-
tons, and one by one the student
learns to identify the sounds that
make up the language.
Some of the deaf subjects. who have
spent no more than l20 hours III the
laboratory have learned 10 recognize
several hundred words with their mn
gers. One succeeded in identifying
1870 sentences without error, after
having been over them but eight
times, and others have done almost
as well.
These subjects, DR.. Gault says,
have now acquired a familiarity with
the swing or movement OF speech
which they never had before. This
is giving them n thrill Of speech that
they never experienced. They enjoy
the movement of verse, some verses
more than others. They can take !;
list of unfamiliar sentences and mark
them to Indicate how II good reader
might read them. Subjects of cor
responding age and school experience
who have not taken part i'll any OF
Dr. Gault's experiments are approx
mately 28 per cent inferior in this
respect to the practiced subjects.
DR.. Gault also has his method in
connection with lip reading, and he
has demonstrated that the feel of
speech is Of practical use here.
Lip Reading Promoted.
''There are many different groups
Of words, each member of which
looks like every other word in the
group to the individual who is read
ing the lips of a speaker" he explains.
For instance. the words aim and
'lpe' look exactly alike as the lips
form them. These syllableS, how
ever. are very different when they
are felt by aid of the instrument in
the laboratory"
The psychologist has selected 103
such groups at random for expert
mental purposes to discover how far
the sense of touch can go in making
distinctions among them. In only
sevens groups out of the 103 did he
fail to find definite differences in feel
different enough to enable the sub
5ects to make Identification.
Because Of the large number of
words that are difficult to distinguish
in unaided lip reading, he believes
that learning would be easier for the
deaf child ii he could watch the
teachers lips and at the same time
feel the words in his fingers.
when tho deaf in school can both
see d speakers face aud feel his words
and the movement of his speech, in
truction can be very greatly speeded
up without separating the pupil from
the language of normally hearing
people," says DR.. Gault.