Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-14
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
IL the resources Of science are
to be directed against the age

LII Inc resources OF science are
~ to be directed against the age
"A old curse of deafness.
4 a A committee of the National
Research Council has been
authorized to carry out during the next
few years an extensive program to find
out what can be done to lift some Of
the burden from the shoulders Of the
deaf and hard-of-hearing 1t will be
supported by psychologists, anthropoIo-
gists, physicians, child specialists and
physicists throughout the United States.
Much Of the activity of the campaign
will be conferred in Washington.
Approximately 100 lines of research
have been laid down. These will be
taken up progressively as financial
support Is obtained. The program will
be under the direction of Knight Dun
lap, professor of psychology at Johns
Hopkins University and head of the
department of psychology and anthro-
pology of the National Research Coun-
ell. The basic plans were adopted at
meeting of approximately 100 spe-
cialists here last week
Beyond the physiological causes SCI
ence knows very little about deafness.
But 1t recognizes that the world of
eternal silence in which the deaf per-
son lives is a strange and terrible
place-even more strange and terrible
in some respects than a world of
eternal darkness. It is this weird re-
gion of silence which will be explored
by the investigators.
Some are born deaf. Few come into
the world with harder road to travel
than these unfortunates. Some ac-
quire deafness and the extent of the
misfortune Is determined largely by its
delay. In addition, the investigators
must consider the varying degrees of
deafness, each making its own contri-
button to misery.
Attention to Child.
The greatest attention will be de-
voted to the deaf child, whose lot is
the hardest Of all. He is born into
an inhospitable and incomprehensible
world, deprived not only Of hearing,
but of speech, because, although the
speech apparatus is intact, it has no
basis for language symbols. What sort
of life does such a child live? 1t
must be strikingly different from ordi-
nary childhoods. What are its COM
plexes, its fears, its phantasies. its as
pirations. its play and its troubles?
The deaf child, the committee re-
ports, at present is a closed book from
birth to the seventh year. the minimum
age at which most existing schools for
the deaf will take children. In recent
years early childhood has come to have
new significance to psychologists,
whose experiments indicate strongly
that character, personality and, to
large extent, intelligence itself does not
come into the world with the new
born, but is nodded in the years be-
tween the cradle and the kindergarten.
Parents and teachers can mold the
environment of the normal child, but
the problem of the deaf child is strik-
ingly different. There is not even
reliable way to determine if 1t really
is deaf. This much Is known, however,
according to the committee report:
After the average deaf child has been
in a school for the deaf for a period
of from six to eight years he can read
no better than the average z or 8 year
old hearing child. 1t requires about
to 10 years of instruction in special
schools to bring the deaf child to the
level which the ordinary child reaches
in one or two years of schooling.
Blindness Lighter Addiction.
blind children are relatively slightly
retarded in comparison with deaf chill
dren. Deafness appears to be many
times as great a handicap, with refer
ence to development. than blindness.
There is some indication that deafness
retards in the development of all proc
esses. 1t would seem to be an easy
task for a person with vision to repro
duce' digits from memory when such
digits are presented usually. This Is,
however, a task which is practically i'm
g. M Hororncn
of any defect in vision, but because Of
the failure of the associated language
processes which make such visual mem
CRY possible.
"A third interesting point arises from
comparison of the progress of deafened
children through schools for the deaf
in relation to the age at which hearing
was lost. The rapidity of progress Is
related quite directly to the length Of
time they had hearing. Children who
are born deaf are much more handi-
capped than children who have had
hearing up to the age Of 8. Children
who have been deafened at 3 seem to
be much more handicapped than chill
dren who have been deafened at g."
A nursery school for deaf children
will he established, where specialists
can study their problems under con-
trollabie conditions. The site has not
been selected, but several members of
the committee are in favor of locating
1t in Washington, pointing out the
facilities for child research here. Fiji
teen lines of research have been laid
down for such school when 1t is
started. The first would be on the
hereditary factor in deafness. It is
known that some kinds of deafness
seem to run in families, but it has
been impossible to secure any very re-
liable data.
The nursery school also will work
on adequate tests Of hearing in young