TEACHING DEAF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23123, 23 August 1938, Page 13

TEACHING DEAF

CANADIAN PRIEST SCHOOL IN MONTREAL LIP-READING AND SPEECH AN INSTRUCTIONAL TOUR After two and a-half months in Australia tlio Rev. Father J. L. Page, principal of the School for tho Deaf, Montreal, passed through Auckland in tho Mariposa yesterday on his way back to Canada. The purpose of Father Page's visit was to give courses in lipreading instruction and speech training to sisters of the Dominican Order and Christian Brothers, who conduct schools for the deaf in Australia. While in tho Commonwealth he also visited somo of the loading State institutions for tho deaf. During a call at Auckland early in .Tune, Father Page made a visit to the School for the Deaf, Myers Park, and yesterday, with Bishop Liston, ho was entertained at morning tea there. Discussion ol Work In an informal conference with members of the staff and parents' association of tho school, and with officers and students of the League for the Hard of Hearing, he discussed the work of his school, which is the largest of its kind for boys in Canada. On behalf of those present, Dr. J. Hardio Neil, president of tho league, thanked the visitor for his interest in tho work being done in Auckland. Father Page said yesterday that the training of deaf children to read lips and to speak intelligibly was capably carried on in Australia, and lie had gone thero simply to teach teachers and demonstrate the latest methods. He had mado a number of similar trips to Europe and various parts of Canada and the United States. At present he had invitations to visit schools in Ireland and South Africa.

The course at his school, which was conducted by the Clerics of St. Victor, said Father Page, lasted 10 years, and included gefieral educational subjects when the use of language had been mastered. Among the pupils were some who were blind as well as deaf. Most of the boys came from Fi'eneh-speaking ifoniiUes;. they were taught in French and the remainder in English. Each language had difficulties of its own in regard to lip-reading. French had a greater number of vowel sounds than English, and some English consonantal sounds were hard to distinguish. A child was first encouraged to interest itself in pictures, and then with their aid was taught to read silently and to write. In the next stage the pronunciation of simple words, which it knew was demonstrated, the child placing its hand on the teacher's breast or face to feel the sound vibrations. In this way it learned to recognise words by watching the face of the person uttering them, and to utter them intelligibly by imitation. Films Very Useful With blind and deaf children this process was, of course, impossible, but they were taught to understand words conveyed in code by touch on the palm of the hand, and eventually to read and write Braille. Every possible use was made of visual aids in'tcaching general subjects to deaf pupils. As educational films were most valuable, especially for geography and nature study, his school had projectors for all gauges of film on tho market. Two specially-written and illustrated school papers were produced, one for pupils and the other for ex-pupils. A proportion of those who. entered the school, it was found, could hear in some degree with the aid of modern electrical appliances, and these were used whenever possible. While in Australia, Father Page demonstrated his own methods by teaching a boy and a girl in five weeks to recognise and utter intelligibly 100 words.