Evening star., 1950-12-28

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classes to which admission is
available upon recommendation of
the District of Columbia Health
Department.
There is practically no normal
child-normal in every way except
for some degree of hearing loss
who cannot learn lip reading, the
mainstay of the hard of hearing
program for learning a new way
to hear" In fact. one teacher as
serts that in her more than
quarter century Of teaching the
hard Of hearing, she has never
had a child who could not learn
some lip reading, and thus be
benefited. The degree to which
it IS learned varies, of course, just
as variations in other learning
are found among school children
There is one phase of lip read
ing, however. which depends in
large measure upon the "other
fellow" Some person lips are
much more difficult to read than
are others. The lips. the tongue,
the teeth and other elements are
factors that contribute to this diff
ficulty. A thick tongue may IL
deed be very troublesome. But
one only needs to remind himself
of the handwriting of various peo-
pie to find related problem. After
all. there is mo royal road" to
reading and writing. or to lip read
ing either. 1t requires concentra-
ton. time and patience as do
most worthwhile achievements.
Related Studies.
The hard of hearing classes in
schools of the Nations capital
offer group and individual work in
lip reading, in enunciation, in
speech training and in auditory
has some hearing. there are vari-
training. Even though a person
has some hearing. there are vari-
Gus sounds he may never have
heard because of his hearing loss.
The highest pitched audible note
differs in individuals with normal
hearing. and many persons, for
example. fail to hear the chirp of
a cricket which lies near the upper
audible limit. The same is TRUE
with the low pitched audible notes.
And thus enunciation. speech and
auditory training become impor-
tant phases Of hard of hearing
teaching. They help keep the child
from being different in his speech
and voice from ether children.
And this immeasurably contributes
to his whole normal personality.
Children enrolled in these spe-
cial classes in the D. C. public
schools range in their loss of hear
ing from a slight loss to a severe
one Any child who is recognized
by his teacher as possibly having
a hearing deficiency may be given
a complete examination by the
Districts Health Department. If
the hearing loss justifies need for
special work, he can enroll in the
hard of hearing classes. If total
deafness is found. he can be re-
ferred to the residential school
for the deaf in the District.
At the Tyler School. Tenth and
G streets Sc. 13 children are at
present enrolled in the hard of
hearing classes. They come
largely from the southeast and
northeast sections of the city.
They come in the buses provided
by the Board of Education for
pupils in the special classes. They
range from kindergarten through
the sixth grade. When a pupil
has successfully completed the
sixth grade, he may go to the
regular Junior high school where
he can continue some lip reading
training if he still needs to do so.
With Other Pupils.
The hard of hearing pupils
have one or two periods a day for
their special classes. Usually, one
period is for individual instruc-
ton; another for group instruc-
ton. Otherwise these pupils fit
in with the regular classes at
Tyler School. They study and
recite their lessons. such as read
ing, arithmetic and language with
the regular classes. They partici-
pate in everything within their
range of abilities just as the other
children do.
Listening in on some of the
classes, one learns that, as in SPELL
ing. there are things which seem
alike when they are not alike at
all in meaning. A young child. or
even its elders. in a spelling class !
may be quite puzzled by such words