Teaching of speech and language to deaf children

 

Speech is not merely the ability to utter articulate sounds but it is also the power to use words to express thoughts. Thoughts in any language can be expressed well only when the words are used in a certain order accepted by the general public speaking that language, without it all that will be spoken will not be understood easily and cor­rectly. For the above reason teaching of speech (proper arti­culation) and language must be together.

In normal children who have all their senses in that speech and language develops casually as they grow because they:

(i) Have the power to hear all that is spoken around them

(ii) Can associate all that is spoken to name any object or to express any idea

(iii) Can imitate and reproduce the sounds meantfornam­ing different objects or expressing different ideas.

Deaf children because of their inability to hear sounds properly are not able to do any of the three things described above without special help. If communication skills of deaf children are to be developed successfully and properly this special help must be given to them from thevery early stage and for this early diagnosis of deafness i.e. before the age of two years is necessary. It is because eаse and fluency in speech can be acquired only when deaf children by this special help are made to pass happily with interest and no tension through all those stages through which normal children gene­rally pass before speaking their first meaningful words.

To develop communication skills of deaf children first thing that is required is to compensate for their loss of hearing so that even if they cannot hear well they could un­derstand and associate correctly all that is spoken to name objects or express ideas. This is done by adopting multi-sensory approach and using proper methods of teaching. What deaf children are not able to hear and understand even with the help of hearing aids are enabled to watch on the face of the speaker.

Association of spoken patterns with right objects or ideas in early stages is made possible through proper home-training, schooling and situational guidance. For this me­thods that are adopted are:

(i) Incidental teaching intheir daily routine,

(ii) ”Directed Activity Method”,

(iii) “Story Method”,

(iv) “Dramatisation” etc.

Incidental teaching of sреесh and language is done du­ring the daily routine of children to create speech environ­ment, to maintain contact and to encourage them to understand all that is said in real life situations. This also encoura­ges them to vocalise or utter some words to express their feelings, moods and thoughts.

"Directed Activity Method" aims at selecting such acti­vities which are meaningful, have some educational purpose and which also suit the ages, attainments, interests and ap­titudes of children. As in these activities real objects are used and children are given opportunities to do, to think and to express under situational guidance they are helped to develop mentally аnd thus are enabled to associate correctly all that is said to them byhearing and looking at the face of the speaker. Directed Activities also stimulate them to express their thoughts orally under the help of a sympathetic teacher.

"Story Method" aims at making them tell a story of which they have the experience. They do this under the guidance of a teacher with the help of pictures for each step of the story. The teacher in it helps them to think, and express by asking appropriate questions.

Dramatisation of stories known to children not only stimulates them to speak but also provides teachers with some­thing by which they can know that children understand what is said to them or required from them.

In primary and secondary stages to speed up the usе of correct language by deaf children besides the encouragement to speak they are also encouraged to read suitably graded ma­terial and to write their thoughts in correct language. Every lesson no matter of what subject, in this connection is so planned that it primarily is a speech and language lesson and then anything else. At this stage situational guidance and contextual guidance are given to make children understand and express.

To be able to reproduce sounds to express their thoughts they are helped to acquire speech skills which consist of:

(i) The use and management of a natural speaking voice; ability to adopt its loudness in quiet and noisy en­vironments; unconscious control of pitch according to the need of the situation.

(ii) The capacity to speak rhythmically in syllables and phrases.

(iii) The ability to combine phonemes in syllables, words and sentences.

(iv) The ability to pronounce phonemes (vowels and consonants) distinctly.

To be able to imitate a spoken pattern, speech skills from deaf children demand the ability:

(a) To perceive the pattern.

(b) To understand the instructions (i.e. what they are required to do).

(c) To control or co-ordinate their organs of speech.

To enable them to perceive the patterns and thus encour­age them to speak deaf children are given social experience. This is to arouse inthem a desire to listen and enjoy, using hearing aids, the art of lipreading. For this they are of­fered incentives in relation to their own interests and acti­vities so that theу could cultivate friendly social attitude in a talking environment; and begin to feel the desire to com­municate with others. If helped properly this brings them to the stage where they are ready to acquire speech skills.

From this stage of speech readiness to lead them оn to the stage of articulation readiness in their experience is given the vocabulary of such words through directed activi­ties and incidental teaching which a teacher might use to make them understand what he wants them to do when they make mistakes during a formal speech and language teaching lessons. Until deaf children are able to understand the instruc­tions of the teacher to correct the mistakes in speech and language proper control and co-ordination of speech organs will not be possible.

To plan his short and long term policies to teach speech and language to a class of deaf children a teacher first of all has the details of hearing loss of each child in the class and then assesses the structure and intelligibility of speech and language of every one of them individually. This enables him to plan his activities, stories and lessons for proper speech and language teaching either to the class using appropriate hearing appliance or to anу child individually* using speech training unit.

 

*Individual speech and language teaching is done to remove individual difficulties of children noted by the teacher during class teaching. It also helps to encourage children in their efforts to acquire speech and language because of personal teacher pupil contact.

Т Е R M S

 

proper articulation правильная артикуляция

communication skills коммуникативные навыки /навыки обще­ния/

incidental teaching эпизодическое обучение

directed activities method метод направленной деятельности

story method метод рассказа

daily routine распорядок дня

attainments знания, навыки

aptitudes склонности, способности

term policy семестровый курс

incentive побуждение, побудительный мотив

to cultivate social attitude развивать общественные отношения

to assess the intelligibility оценивать понятность

hearing appliance слуховой аппарат

training unit дополнительные часы занятий

situational guidance руководство в зависимости от обстановки

 

UNITS FOR DEAF CHILDREN INОRDINARY SCHOOLS

 

The establishment of classes in ordinary schools for children with defective hearing has become increasingly po­pular in most countries in recent years. In England, for example, there were twenty-four such classes in 1955 and by January 1965 there were 149. A scheme for educating not on­ly partially hearing children, but also many who are seve­rely and profoundly deaf, in very close association with normally hearing ones, has been given a fairly full trial in New Zealand during the past five years.

To a class of not more than thirty normally hearing children, a group of six or eight deaf children is added, together with a teacher of the deaf. The deaf children spend roughly half the day with the hearing children, andthe two teachers work in the one room. For the development­al period (when children choose their own activities and then talk and read and write about them), reading and number activities, printing, music, rhythmic work, art, physical education, nature study and class visits, the two groups are usually combined, the two teachers working main­ly but not exclusively with their own group. At table work, the deaf children sit, as far as possible, between two hearing children though not necessarily performing the same tasks. Subjects for which the deaf children need specialist help - for example speech, language, news sessions, story and, say, the teaching of a new process in arithmetic - are taken in the small room.

There are a number of educational, social and economic advantages in using this method, and some of these are listed below:

More children are able to live in their own homes and attend school daily rather than соmе to the school for the deaf as boarders.

There is a normalizing effect on the deaf children. Socially they become more mature through observing the be­haviour of hearing children of their own age.

The deaf children also bесоmе more “oral”. The tempta­tion to use the hands in communication is reduced.

There is also normalizing effect on the teacher of the deaf! She has an excellent opportunity of observing daily the behaviour, the thoughts and the language of normally hearing children.

The teaching of language seems much easier. When the deaf children see the others speaking, and reading and writing, they are stimulated to do the same. The children have an opportunity to adjust to their deafness about twen­ty times each day. They can learn, for example, that al­though they cannot write as much as the hearing children, they can run as fast, they can draw perhaps better, they can build more interesting things, they can do mechanical arithmetic just as well, and so on.

 

T E R M S

 

a fairly full trial довольно значительный опыт

mechanical arithmetic устный счет

a new process in arithmetic новое действие в арифметике

 

 

DEAFNESS IH CHILDREN

 

Research is going on under the Direction of Mr. Stuart Mawson, a member ofthe National Deaf Children's Society's Medical Research Committee into a particular form of deafness that mainly affects children. The children become deaf as a result of a gluey mucoid substance that forms in the middle ear and prevents the normal passage of sound from the ear­drum, across the middle ear to the nerves of hearing in the inner ear. No one yet knows where this material comes from - it could be produced in the ear itself, or in the eustachian tube connecting the middle ear with the throat. To study the muscus and remove it so as to restore hearing it is necessary to make a small incision in the drum (this later heals up completely) and draw the "gluey", stuff out with suction. Through understanding of the nature of this substance could lead to a way of stopping its occurrence, or at least indi­cate where it is coming from and sо get at the root of the trouble.

One of the problems of operating оn the ear is that it is small and difficult to get at - especially in children. Ear operations are routinely carried out through special bi­nocular microscopes that give the surgeon a greatly magnified view of what he is doing. It was with the aid of such a microscope that the reason for this very common type of deafness in children - mucoid substance - was discovered.

 

T E R M S

 

to affect поражать

gluey mucoid substance клейкое слизистое вещество

middle ear среднее ухо

ear-drum барабанная перепонка

inner ear внутреннее ухо

eustachian tube евстахиева труба

occurrence происхождение

 

 

EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE OFHANDICAPPED CHILDREN

 

Educational guidance of children especially of those who are in anyway handicapped and present problems to their parents should bе the concern of every welfare state big or small because the quality of care a nation gives to its han­dicapped children is a test of its inward strength and pur­pose and every country should try to pass this test. Handi­capped children can be categorised as "Blind, Partially-sighted, Deaf, Partially-deaf, Delicate, Educationally sub­normal, Epileptic, Mal-adjusted, Physically handicapped and Speech-defective etc."

For educational guidance of these children it is essen­tial to secure the collaboration of a number of specialists. The normal working team should consist of a medicalman, an educationist experienced in testing and placement, an educa­tional Psychologist, a pediatrician or Psychiatrist or other specialists who may be occasionally required. Such teams as far as India is concerned should function under Nagar-palikas, Maha-palikas and Zila-parishads. These local bodies should have the general duty to provide schools sufficient in number, character and equipment for the education of all pupils in their area according to their ages, abilities and aptitudes. They should have particular duty to ensure that all disabled pupils in their area are educated by special methods appro­priate to their disability either in special schools or otherwise as suggested by the team for educational guidance. The team should consider a case for special educational treatment only when medical and surgical treatment is inappro­priate or has not effected the desired improvement. Before giving its final recommendations for special educational treatment in the case of any child the team should:

(i) Understand the complexities of his problems.

(ii) Suggest the parents ways by which they can help the child best as regards his social, emotional and in­tellectual development.

The recommendations about any child's educational placement should normally be made keeping in mind what is current­ly available but the team can certainly suggest to open edu­cational facilities for any category of children if the same is not provided and the local bodies on their part have every right to press upon the Government for help in the same.

To understand the complexities of a child's problems the team should draw up a schedule of the information required, so that nothing noteworthy is left and proper recommendations for placement are made or if necessary further investigations in the case are possible.

Briefly the team should have the information about a child under the following headings:

1. Usual personal information.

2. Aetiology and age of onset of the handicap.

3. Medical treatment given.

4. Medical report about the child,

5. Tests of hearing:

Pure tones, speech tests. In case the child hаs

6. Use of hearing aid if hearing defect.

supplied with one.

7. Attainments:

Language, speech, reading, arithmetic etc.

8. Psychological:

I.Q., parental attitudes, social adjustment etc.

9. Present placement.

These informations about a child can be had from parents, school records, teacher's report etc. In certain cases it may be necessary to test the child afresh and for it ex­perienced testers may be needed. These testers should besides having the mastery of thetechniques required for tests should also have:

(i) The skill to adapt the test situation to meet parti­cular problems presented bу individual children,

(ii) The ability to secure co-operation from children of different ages, aptitudes and temperaments.

Experience in advanced countries has shown that the re­commendations of the team should never be treated аs final because very often a child for proper educational guidance is found to be a case of re-examination. Therefore it will be a folly to close the case after first recommendations. Follow-up is an essential part of educational guidance. The right procedure should be to know the progress the child is making in the circumstances recommended and to consider whe­ther alternative recommendations are desirable. For this some months after the child's placement it is necessary that the team must have a report about his progress and then re-examine him to ensure if he has been properly placed for spe­cial educational treatment.

 

T E R M S

attainments знания, навыки

parental attitudes отношение родителей

complexities сложности

nothing noteworthy is left ничего не осталось из того, что следует отметить

aptitudes склонности, способности

term policy семестровый курс