Some of the methods employed in the care and training of feeble-minded children of the lower grades / by Walter E. Fernald.

  • Walter E Fernald
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some of the methods employed in the care and training of feeble-minded children of the lower grades / by Walter E. Fernald. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    to see what he looks at, to hear, to understand, and to obey.: After the connection between the spoken command and’ the desired movement is thoroughly understood the teacher, omits the action, and the class perform it from dictation! alone, without the music. This is a much more complicatedi process than the imitative drill. The child must be closelvi attentive, he must hear and understand the command, he j must will to do, he must send out the correct nervous im- pulse to move certain groups of muscles in a definite manner. : As a direct result of this training the child often becomes-i relatively quiet, orderly and obedient. These exercises de-. velop a power of will and of self-contrpl that it would be^ hard to arouse in any other way. ' Right here I want to emphasize my firm conviction that it is utter nonsense to attempt this training of low grade cases 1 unless it is done in the most painstaking, conscientious and | thorough manner by a teacher who thoroughly believes in the real value of this work. When we began this marching and drill to music with one j group of recently admitted cases with habituall}' untid}- hab- j its the attendants at once noted the fact that these children i never wet their clothing during the active exercise. ! At intervals follov\ ing each active exercise comes the drill | in silence and quietness when each child is expected to sit li perfectl}' still with arms folded for perhaps five minutes at a ij time. This is a valuable lesson in mental and physical self- I control. I These children need long continued actual instruction in i dressing and undressing, buttoning garments, lacing shoes, I etc. They are taught to correctly use familiar utensils and j to do simple domestic work. Here also we have found great i assistance in having the schedules of the exact exercises to be attempted carefully written out with the assignment of the different children to the various classes. We have regu- lar classes, each containing about six pupils, in floor polish- ing, faucet burnishing, scouring knives, dusting, sweeping, bedinakiiig, &c. Children learn to do these things well who show no interest whatever in the idealizations of the kinder- garten. Indeed books, slates, and the conventional curricu- um of the school room are not for these low grade children, i et all of this training is education in the truest sense. ;