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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    ^3 [A Voice : How much time have the students had in their speech-work?] [Dr. Gordon: These beginners are arranged as nearly as possible in small classes, not exceeding six in a class, and the time devoted for a single exercise is half an hour, and the indi- vidual instrudion never exceeds fifteen minutes at the most. The results are remarkable when everything is considered. In al! cases there is too little time for the best results. Then, too,, if a working system is employed at all, the students in speech need the stimulus of recorded work. In the speaker's opinion the work in articulation should be included hereafter in the reg- ular curriculum of the College. I think perhaps the time has not come yet, but 1 think it is approaching when so many will come to us with speech and lip-reading already acquired that it will be well just to take it as a matter of course, that they should go right on with their constant usage of speech and lip-- reading.] In conclusion, I may say that it is exceedingly difficult to form the speech-habit in adult life; and for this reason it is bet- ter for the pupils to begin when they are young. The intelligence, and knowledge of language, which these grown-up beginners brought to bear upon their work enabled them'to accomplish as much in speech in one year as might be expeded of young chil- dren in two or even three years. But this great advantage does not balance the influence of the acquired and inveterate habit of silent methods and the complete degree of satisfaction with these methods of communication, nor is it possible to secure in adult life the full development of the sound-producing organs. It should be borne in mind that every one of these forty-one adults came to the College dumb, from schools in which an effort was made to teach all promising pupils speech and lip-reading. Pra(5lically they were all rejeded cases without trial or with little trial, with the exception of one young woman Who had had five years of in- struction in the early part of her course, and was then dropped as an unpromising subjeCl. I am, from my own observation, convinced that every one of them was a suitable subjed for oral instruction. The final lesson is this:— Let us not be too easily discouraged with unpromising cases. I cannot do better in closing than to refer to one o;