Evening star., 1938-12-09
Handicapped
Child Needs
Attention
Defective Hearing
Often the Cause
Of Poor Marks
BY ANGELO PATRI.

my little daughter is in the
seventh grade. Her teacher says she
Is able to do the work, but she has
to be prodded constantly to get her
to attend. She sits and looks into
space. She is good child and never
gives me any trouble. Last year
she had to have an operation for
mastoid, but is now quite recovered"
When child has had a mastoid
operation one should be on the
watch for poor hearing Sometimes
it is destroyed by the operation,
sometimes it results in what one
might call delayed hearing" The
child does not hear as quickly as
others do and the teacher does not
wait, or the opportunity to respond
passes.
When a child has dull hearing
much of what goes on in the class
room passes over his head. He does
not know what people are saying.
He hears most of what is said by
those close to him, if they speak
clearly, but he cannot hear what is
said by those behind him. And re-
member that in school he is not
supposed to turn about and look at
those who are talking. You can see
that he is severely handicapped in
the classroom.
Because he loses some of tho work
each day he Is soon hopelessly behind
in the class. His marks are bad, his
work is poor, and his attention is
elsewhere. He day-dreams. ~What
else can he do? He cannot hear ef-
fectively; he cannot work because he
cannot hear, 50 what is he to do?
He has to take refuge in his
thoughts. His difficulty is not his
inattention, but his poor hearing.
1t is necessary to attend to his
hearing, not his lack of attention.
He will attend when he hears. And
he will learn.
Such children ought to have a
careful examination by the ear spe-
clalist every three months. They
should be placed close to the teacher,
and the teacher should make a point
OF talking directly to them and make
them hear. 1t is helpful to appoint
friendly, helpful child to assist the
handicapped child. And, most i'm
portant, such a child needs five
minutes or so of personal attention
from the teacher every day to keep
him well up in his work. There are
few such children, so the burden
should not be too heavy for the
grade teacher.
II the child is very hard of hear
ing he should have the privilege of
gong to special teacher for grade
instruction, two to three hours Of the
school day, and of working with his
classmates in the common classroom
the remainder of the time.
My experience with all sorts Of
handicapped children does not in
spire me to suggest special schools
or classes for them. I found we
could do better with such children
by scattering them through the
grades and gathering them again for
special, personal help from an espe-
cially- trained, thoroughly skilled
teacher. Segregating them made
them feel isolated and doomed, SUBJ
jected them to the gibes of unthink-
ing classmates, made them thor
oughly miserable. They have rights,
and they certainly have great needs.
School can help them a grea deal.
Mr.. Patri will give personal at
tention to inquiries from parents
and school teachers on the care
and development of children.
Write him in care of this paper,
enclosing q Scent stamped, self
addressed envelope for reply.