"cap," and "sheep," are not easily confused. Place two of the objects
before him, the car and the sheep, and speak the name of one of them,
"car," we will say, loudly and distinctly close to his ear, but in such
a way that he cannot see your mouth. Then show him the car. Repeat it
with "sheep" and show him the sheep. Repeat "car," and take his little
hand, put it on the car. Then "sheep," and make him put his hand on the
sheep. Continue this process until he will indicate to you the object
you name. When he makes only occasional mistakes with two objects, add
the cap. When he can get the right one about 90 per cent. of the time,
then take three new words, returning occasionally to the first three.
Very soon his own name and those of others, with photographs to enable
him to indicate which, will prove of interest to him. When he has
successfully learned to distinguish a few single words, a beginning can
be made on short sentences. Commands that he can execute are convenient.
"Shut your eyes," "Open your mouth," "Clap your hands," can follow drill
on the three words, "eyes," "mouth," "hands." "Open the window," "Shut
the window," "Open the book," "Shut the book," "Open the door," etc.
"Stand up," "Sit down." When this beginning has been made, the road is
open to the gradual increase in a hearing vocabulary, but do not
attempt so much at once as to confuse and discourage the child.

The suggestions already made should be studiously followed throughout
his whole childhood. If his hearing is not too seriously impaired, he
will begin to attempt to imitate spoken sounds by the time he is
twenty-four to thirty months old. But his ability to imitate sounds is
not an accurate measure of his ability to hear. He may perceive the
sounds much better than he is able to reproduce them. Distinct utterance
comes slowly to the child with normal hearing, and still more slowly and
imperfectly to the child whose hearing is not good. But the continued
effort to make him hear _words and sentences_ is a very valuable