SOUND BY TOUCH

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 March 1935, Page 8

SOUND BY TOUCH

training deaf babies

An account of remarkable work being done to teach deaf-mute babies to hear and speak is given to Mr. Philip Franklin, Otologist to the hcbeaich Clinic for Deaf Mutes, and Infant? Hospital, Vincent Square, London, in a recent issue of La The article is entitled the Deaf, Mute—a Plea 'for Early 'Treatment, and describes what is really the fits attempt to train deaf-mute babies to the present law,, the •PCT* of a deaf child is compelled to send [lie’child to a special school from the £ ot seven, though a child may be admitted fpm the age of tw o. ' ’ 'Experts think that valuable cai b iyefc? of -training are thus'lost, and that there is* in this ‘J elay . “ ai ’ e "er to deaf and dumb childien than to any other type of defective child. “Ze potentialities of the young deaf mute, poth as regards speech agd education," are considerable, wiites Mr! Franklin, “and when use is made of them by means of deaf aids apo other methods'of opening the avenues of approach to the child s mind, the energy, enthusiasm, and thirst io knowledge shown is often very strfkiiiff ” , The child who has no hearing cannot perceive sound; produce; therefore is dumb, jpe work in the clinic at the Infants Hospital aims at the earliest possible cooperation between, and co-ordination of, touch and sight as a aabstlt " b ® for the absent hearing sensedeaf babies are trained more icadi . . o recognise the sound impressions and produce them in terms of speech. One of the methods used, and de scribed in “The Lancet, ’ is to stinplate the finger-tips by a y ib * atl Pp nkte controlled by an electric, cuiFent Records show that the response to vibrations through the eais ipi through the finger-tips is identical., The normal child and the deaf ch|ld denend upon imitation for speech, but for the deaf child audible suggestion is impossible. The deaf s>*. only imitate what his eye sees <n his hand feels. He is taught to recogSsS by tench—tie primitive sense of hearing.

THE TELETACTOR. Two main instruments are used;in the clinic—the audio-frequency-ampli-fier and the teletactor“Tho audio-amplifier has been designed to amplify sound to the extreme limit of distinct perception, says Mr. Franklin, “and three grag phone records are used With it- toe first record produces noises such as whistles, bells, a barking » ' which tlie normal hearing child is accustomed; the second yvas made to introduce certain letters of (he alphabet, vowels, and copsonants deliye 1 - cd in a special niapner. The thiid record represents a bass' singer uojng "Tho object of the teletactor is tp transmit amplified sounds rpcejved by the subject through the fingeirtipo bejjig placed on a uietallic vibrating plate. The instrument use.q at Vincent Square is the only ojie t in Mrf Franklin says tliat early etii) I’!* 1 ’!* latipn by these instruments .attoj-ds several possibilities. i, „ “In practice the child sees tlie speech therapist form the •feels the"words’ with its finger, and hears them by means of an ampiiueg sound apparatus. | ' “Where there is no auditory perception left and the deafness is total, only'dual stiinuiatipn is possible: that is, visual and tactile. . , “In the clinic at tho Infants’ Hpspitaf, co-ordination is aimed at between the physicist, concerned with the two instruments mentioned, the otologist concerned with diagnosis and determination of degree of residual hearing present, and the speech therapist, whose, special knowledge enables her to educate the, as yet, unstimulated power of speech. “All three work as a team, and it should be borne in mind that the cases they treat are those for whom medical or surgical treatment in the accepted sense is useless.” Mr. Franklin says that the average session for each child is about fifteen minutes, but the child may have to be played with and coaxed for a long time before it will submit to “the alarming instruments with which it is surrounded.” The present attendance at the clinic is thirty cases, ages varying between eighteen months and five years. “Valuable time is lost by delaying treatment until the age of seven years has been reached,” Mr. Franklin concludes. “Educational therapy begun as early as the second year will hasten the mental, development of the child, encourage the acquisition of natural voice production, and may increase the residual hearing.” The surgeon adds that he is astonished at. the ease with which the deaf child’s interest is secured, the spqntaneity with which the deaf mute reacts to a minimum treatment by emitting sound “babbling,” and the improvement in the attitude of the fainily towards the child.