Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-07-23
By HELEN GULLION
Contributing Writer

When 'the doors of the
Children's Hearing and
Speech Center's new build
ing open in September it will
be because Of a combination
of great hearts, open hands,
hard work and the stubborn
ness of one woman who keeps
asking "Why?"
The why-girl is Edna K.
Monsees, director of the Gen.
ter which has been operating
for the past four years at st.
Adams Episcopal Church.
Her question is aimed at
aphasia, the inability to I'M
derstand and/or use speech.
Mrs. Monsees interest in
speech and hearing began
when she lost her own hear
ing as a young woman. She
Immediately studied lip-read-
ing and wore a hearing aid.
Soon after her marriage, her
husband lost his hearing also
and her interest in the prob
lens of the hard of hearing
intensified.
She won a scholarship that
is given annually by the
American Hearing Society
to train lip-reading teachers
and in 1913 she open a small
office in Washington to teach
lip-reading to adults. She
had always been interested
in teaching and had a degree
in elementary education.
Shortly after she opened
her office a doctor brought
his very young son to her for
instruction. Despite her
teaching degree, she felt I'M
prepared to teach lip-read-
ing to youngsters. However,
at the doctof's urging she
asked why not?" and she
took on her first child pupil.
LIP-READING LED nat
urally to interest in speech
correction and she went to
Johns Hopkins to the famous
audiologist. DR.. william G.
Hardy. and served her APP
premiership with him. She
speaks with gratitude of his
great heart and his willing
ness to share his knowledge"
Her lip-reading work con-
tinued in Washington and
soon she found that more
than halkof her pupils were
children.
She wanted to teach speech
correction to these children
along with lip-reading, but
to do this would be to buck
the orthodox opinion that
the hard of hearing could
not teach speech correction.
elf you can't hear it clearly,
how can you correct it?D
DR.. Hardy's answer to her
"Why?" was prove them
wrong" and she's been doing
1t ever since.
The next 'why?' was the
great 'why?' that bore the
germ Of the present Chill
dren's Hearing and Speech
Center, which is devoted to
teaching and research. Why
could some children learn
lip-reading and speech while
others could not? Once
again Edna Monsees ran into
a brick wall Of established
opinion that held the ability
to learn speech akin to the
talent to learn how to play
the violin. you either have
it or you don't" She
couldn't and wouldn't settle
for this. whether I play or
don't play the violin doesn't
alter my life, but whether I
can speak certainly does and
we'd better find out what
that talent really is" she de-
termined. tits a talent, yes
but a talent that is
vital to living"
DEAFNESS ALONE can
not account for the in
ability to lip-read or to
speak. She was able to teach
some children with profound
hearing losses and others
whose loss was slight. In
telligence entered into it only
in the case Of mentally re-
tarded children. Those of
average intelligence could
learn while, in some cases,
extremely bright children
could not. Why? What is
really wrong? Even some
intelligent children with per-