Progress in the amelioration of certain forms of deafness and impaired hearing / by J.C. Gordon.

  • Gordon, Joseph Claybaugh, 1842-1903.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Progress in the amelioration of certain forms of deafness and impaired hearing / by J.C. Gordon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    with the same vowels, and vice-versa, and then advanced to two syllables in which all the elements were different. And about this time 1 introduced some simple, easily visi- ble words used by many teachers successfully. [Here the speaker gave quite an extensive list.] Then I felt I was ready to begin simple narrative, and I was always anxious to find whether the pupil had committed anything to memory, rhymes or jingles, names of the States,—no matter what, and 1 would try to. get them to repeat them from my lips. If they had forgotten half, so much the better for the lip-reading,—knowing the general run of the thing, and not the precise words. They would seemingly make considerable pro- gress, with such verbal exercises; in reality, the progress was not great, but it encouraged them very much. Thus we proceeded from the known to the unknown, every once in a while work- ing in these phonetic drills or rather lip-reading drills in review. I will digress once more to say that there is a lady pres- ent, from New York City, Miss Keeler, who has had a number of adult pupils sent to her who had speech, but not lip-reading. Rev. Dr. Gallaudet, knowing her work, has recommended her in a number of cases, and many adults have taken lessons of her. She has a system which is probably a great deal better than mine,—though any method is better than none, and therefore I praise my own. But hers is the result of a great deal of study. She has not only worked out a general scheme, but the exad exercises which she will use from lesson to lesson, from day to day, so that not a moment is lost in thinking of what she shall say to her pupils. She can go through with such exercises with great ease and rapidity, and I hope the opportunity may be afforded her to give us a precise account of her method. It may eventually be published, so that all may have the benefit of the exercises. I may say that I used my series of exercises with one of my normal classes, and endeavored to have it used with some classes in the college; but there was considerable fridion. A great many students did not exattly see the necessity of anything so dry, and promising so little immediate result; they could talk very well without that. And it did not seem advisable to insist upon their following a dry routine where they did not fully com- prehend what the outcome might be, and where it might not meet my own expedations. But in the case of my own pupils