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The Deaf Taught To Read

The Deaf Taught To Read image
Parent Issue
Day
27
Month
April
Year
1846
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

"Dr. Barilelt rcccntly sent to tho Lowell Courier an interesting account of the success of some of the Germán teachers, n nstructing thosc who havo boen dcaf mu tes,in the art of speaking. A few days since the pupils of tho Hartford Institution, at their exhibition at Boston, showed tliat in that institution a very gratifying success hos been átlainfcd in iliis valuable bran'cli of their inslruction. - One or hco of the yoxtng vepple spoke vcry intclligibly, - and could undorstand by the eyc, tho spoken reinarles of their leacher. Dr. Bartlett, wrttingat Vienna, in October, on the subject of tho procosses of teaching Mutcs to speak, says: "It will bc suflïcient for me to say, that tho pupiK by placing his hands or finge rs on the throat of the teacher, so as to feel the voicc, and llicn by plncing them on his own. for the same purpose, - by imitatinglho motions of tho tcachcr's lips r.nd tongue and jnws - and by similar means, comes at lnst to utter the eleincntnry sounds, lic is then carricd along fröm the casier and simpler elcments of speech to their more diflicult and complex combinations, until, finally, as L witnessed in several cases, ho is cnablcd lospcak with a readiness and distinctness suilicient for all the duily and important pui'posos of lifc. lt is hardly nccessary for me to say, that as tlicy have no hearing to guide them, thero can bc neither musical modulation nor expressive ticcenl in their speech: but I was agreeably surprised at the general absenco of ovcry thingdisagrecableor oftonsivc. You will be satisíicd tlint ihey can bc taught to spoak distinctly cnough, when I teil you, that at Berlín, I understood ot once and without diffieully, the short and simple sentence of a lt 1 1 lo girl in an.swer to her teacher. He asked her first how niany brothers and sisters she had, to which she readily answered, and then gave tliéir nanios. She then tokl him the color of the tnble, its shape, - say ing it is nol round it is square, - tho kind of wood of which it was made, and so on." - New York Observcr. It appears, howcver, Irom other state ments, Ihat the ncqui.silion is diflicult and tedlous, made only by n few, and will not fuperspde the geticral uso of signs.