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DEVELOPING THE POWER OF LIP READING


In this effort to develop the hearing, however, the necessity must not
be forgotten of also training the brain to associate ideas with what the
eye sees on the lips when words are spoken. In the case of the very
slightly deaf child, this visual training is not quite so important as
the auricular training, but when there is much deafness it is the more
important of the two. The comprehension of much language can be given to
the little deaf child by constantly talking just as any mother does to
her hearing baby, only being always careful to take a position facing
the main source of light, which should come _from behind the child_.

The hearing child arrives at the association of meaning with the sounds
of words only after very many repetitions. How often must the child hear
"Mamma," "Look at mamma," "See, here is mamma," "Mamma is coming,"
"Mamma is here," "Where is mamma?" "Do you love mamma?" "Mamma loves
baby," etc., etc., from morning to night, day after day, week after
week. The mother does it for pleasure; to play with and pet the dear
baby. She does not think of it as a teaching exercise, but it is a very
important one. The deaf baby will learn gradually to associate a meaning
with the various sequences of movement of the lips, if a little care is
taken to watch his eyes and to speak when they are directed toward the
speaker, and to stand in such relation to the light that it falls upon
the speaker's face. The speech should be the same as to the hearing
child, but it takes a little more care and watchfulness to have the deaf
child _see_ the same word or phrase as _many times_ as the hearing child
hears it. If it is spoken when the baby is not looking, it does not