of his deafness, for now she can establish a system of responses on the
part of the child that will show her when he perceives the sounds she
uses in her tests.

In order to be certain that the little one knows what she wishes of him,
she must begin with some sensation that she is sure he feels. We will
assume that he has as yet no speech, and cannot count, at least does not
know the names of the numbers. Let the mother pat him once on the
shoulder and then cause him to hold up one of his little fingers. Then
pat him twice, and make him hold up two fingers, then three times and
have him put up three fingers. Now return to one pat and one finger,
repeat two pats and the holding up of two of his fingers, and three pats
and three fingers. Go over and over this little game until he has
grasped the idea and will hold up as many fingers as he feels pats.
Simple as the idea seems, it will often take a bright child some time to
realize what you want him to do. But you are _sure_ that he feels the
pats, whereas, if you began at once with sounds, you could not know
whether his failure to respond was because he did not hear, or through
not understanding what you expected of him. He will weary of the
exercise soon, and then mother may as well turn to something else till
he has rested.

Having established this system of response on his part to sensations
perceived, it is not difficult to shift from the number of pats to the
number of times he hears a noise. This once accomplished, tests can be
made with sounds of different kinds, different pitch, and different
volume, varying the distance, the instruments, and the vowel when the
articulate sounds are reached. He can be shown a whistle, then, when it
is blown behind his back, he will hold up as many fingers as the times
it was blown, if he perceives the sound. He can be asked to distinguish