110

T E A C H I N G

Speci[ie Language Disabilities

THE "WoaD DEAF" CHILD

L I L L I A N CRAIG

He was eight years old. His pa ren t s stood by helplessly as he rolled

over and over on the floor of the l iv ing room, screaming! Simi lar inci-

dents had occurred several times, each worse than the one before. They

had tr ied wh ipp ing him but tha t had mere ly in tens i f ied the trouble. For

some t ime af terwards they could see hate for them in the face tha t

usua l ly was expressionless except for a s t ra ined look, a puzzled expres-

s ion as he would s tare up into his pa ren t s ' faces. I t was an appeal for

help, help they did not know how to give.

This boy had always been d i f fe ren t f rom the i r o ther chi ldren. He

was late in l ea rn ing to talk and even now ta lked bu t l i t t l e - -a few words

and much po in t ing conveyed his mean ing . Bu t he had not been real ly

u n h a p p y un t i l he s tar ted to school. By and by, the teacher began saying,

"Read," and other chi ldren would look at the book and say words they

saw on the p r in ted page. But those words, to Tommy, were a j u m b l e of

f u n n y l i t t le marks, mean ing noth ing . And for the most part , the words

they said were f u n n y lit t le sounds tha t m e a n t noth ing . His c lassmates

would look at h im and laugh. And on the school g round he would hear

the word "dumb." " T o m m y can ' t read! T o m m y is dumb!" He d idn ' t k n o w

wha t the word "dumb" meant , bu t it was someth ing he d idn ' t l ike to

be called, and it had someth ing to do wi th tha t awful th ing called a book.

Books caused people to laugh at him; books caused the teacher to be

cross wi th him; books caused his mo the r to cry w h e n she said "Read"

and he didn' t . Books were his enemies, yet the world seemed to be full

of them. He had tr ied to get r id of the things; he had t h r o w n all in the

book cases out of the window; he had in t ended to b u r n t hem later, bu t

his fa ther had taken a long t h ing called a whip tha t cut deep and hur t ,

and had forced h im to car ry t hem all back into the house again. Now

exhaus ted by the work of t h rowing several h u n d r e d books out and carry-

ing several h u n d r e d books back in, su f fe r ing f rom the wh ip which sti l l

s tung, puzzled by his paren ts ' cruel ty, f rus t ra ted in his efforts to get

rid of books - -he was ly ing on the floor screaming! Screaming!

His fa ther pu t his a rm a round the mo the r and led her out of the

room. "We m u s t face it!" he said as the tears poured down his cheeks.

"Our boy doesn ' t have good sense!" And she cried, "Let 's take h im to a

Miss Lillian Craig, now retired, studied with Dr. Samuel T. Orton and taught by his methods in Roanoke, Virginia, for a number of years. She is also the author of several novels and has written a series of phonetic readers published by Educators Publishing Service, Cambridge, Mass.

From BULLETIN OF THE ORTON SOCIETY, Vol. VIII, 1958, pp. 11-12.

Diagnosis and Treatment: Craig 111 psych ia t r i s t and see if a n y t h i n g at all can be done!"

So they took h im to a psychia t r i s t . "Your boy is word-deaf!" he said.

"He has per fec t ly good s e n s e - - t h a t is, his m i n d is all r ight . Bu t he wi l l

g r o w up wi th eve ry indica t ion of be ing feeb le -minded unless you get

help for h im." W o r d deafness, the doctor expla ined, was a condi t ion

which the wises t phys ic ians d idn ' t qu i te unders tand . T h e h e a r i n g of the

chi ld was per fec t so the t e r m w o r d "dea fness" was a mi snomer . Yes, he

could be l ieve tha t T o m m y was the f i rs t in the f ami ly to hear an air-

plane, or to hear a car coming up the i r d r i v e w a y to the house. The boy

unders tood sounds. But to h im words w e r e only s o u n d s - - s o u n d s tha t

d idn ' t make sense.

So this was the trouble! The pa ren t s now knew: the spoken word

did not m e a n to this chi ld w h a t it did to others . W h e n a bucke t of food

was handed to h im wi th a wave of the hand toward the hog pen, he

could feed the hogs, but the fact tha t the words hogs, pigs, sows and

shoats were all used about the same animals , had h im so confused tha t

he did not call t hem any th ing ; he had no word for the c r e a t u r e s he

dai ly fed.

He had shocked his re l ig ious pa ren t s by do ing n o t h i n g but g iggle

w h e n they had h im get on his knees to pray. Yet w h a t was m o r e na tu ra l

t han for this child to do that? He had n e v e r found out w h y he was

told to get on his knees, nor to w h o m he was ta lking; he had no concept

of God. His parents , educated, consc ien t ious pa ren t s though they were,

had long before classed h im as feeble-minded, bu t t h e y had h idden this

awfu l fact in the i r hear t s un t i l th is day w h e n they confessed the bel ief

to each other.

Af t e r he had been diagnosed, the boy was sen t to me. " W h a t a

handsome y o u n g s t e r you are," I thought , "bu t w h a t a b lank l i t t le face."

And I soon decided his mind was as b lank as his face. L o n g la te r I

found his mind was not as comple te ly b lank as I thought , for t he r e w e r e

m e m o r i e s of th ings s tored the re wh ich I did not suspect. Bu t so far as

I could then learn, no th ing was there. The n o r m a l chi ld hangs new

th ings he learns onto the th ings he has a l ready learned, new expe r i ences

onto past exper iences , bu t appa ren t ly T o m m y had not a th ing onto

which to h a n g anything!

Firs t , I had to teach h im the Eng l i sh l a n g u a g e - - j u s t as if it w e r e a

fore ign language, only the ave rage chi ld would h a v e l ea rned tha t far

more quickly. I showed h im p ic tures and had h im say the word. The

p ic tu re of a house had to be shown m a n y t imes and the w o r d "house"

said over and over. T h e n I would take h i m outs ide and show h im my

house. The words "porch, roof, window, tree, bush, g rass" w e r e t a u g h t

the same way. This vocabu l a ry buiIding was kept up all the s ix yea r s I

112 Specific Language Disabilities t augh t him, bu t af ter several weeks, I decided to t r y to teach reading.

Firs t , I t r ied the word method. Tha t a l ready had been t r ied for two

years, wi th much, much coaching be ing done at home, and no progress

wha teve r had been made. But I t r ied it w i th associa t ing words wi th pic-

tures. The re were no results . He s imply could no t r e m e m b e r even a

few words by sight. So I began teaching h im phonics. The f i rs t sound

I gave h im was the sound of the le t ter m. I said it, had h im say it, had

h im not ice how his mou th felt w h e n he said it, had h i m p r i n t it and

notice how his h a n d felt w h e n he made it; and so wi th ear, speech, h a n d

and m o u t h - - v i s u a l , audi tory and k ine s the t i c - - a l l w o r k i n g for h i m at the

same time, he learned it after several days, and af ter going th rough the

process more t h a n 500 t imes. He lea rned the second sound af ter 400

efforts, the th i rd af ter approx imate ly 300 and so on, each sound re-

qu i r ing fewer repe t i t ions before it was mastered. I t was a long process,

bu t at the end of six years, he was a handsome, laughing , well ad jus ted

boy ready to en te r a smal l p repa ra to ry school. A nd there he is doing

well. If he persis ts he can take a college educat ion.

Yet for qui te a whi le after T o m m y first came to me, I would have

to ask the same ques t ion at least three times, before I could f ind a com-

b ina t ion of words which he unders tood. E v e n then, I would have to

wai t for an answer whi le he s lowly t hough t i t over and f igured out

what I meant .

He did no t l ike to he read to because he d idn ' t u n d e r s t a n d the

words, jus t as we would not enjoy stories to us in a foreign l anguage

wi th which we were not familiar . But at last, by te l l ing a s tory in ve ry

short easy sentences, and act ing it out, somet imes h a v i n g h im act out

the par t of one charac ter whi le I took another , he began to u n d e r s t a n d

wha t stories were. T h e n I would tell them, whi le I p re t ended to read

them, so as to get h im to associate stories wi th books. I t r ied to make

these happy periods and usua l ly ended t h e m wi th g iv ing h i m a piece

of candy. Bad for his teeth? Well, someth ing had to be done to conv ince

h im books d idn ' t deserve to be t h r o w n out of the windows!

At f i rs t he did not ta lk plainly, not because he had not "heard" cor-

r e c t l y - b u t because he had not r e m e m b e r e d t h e s o u n d correctly. Fre-

quen t ly he gave names of his own to things, as cal l ing an u m b r e l l a a

r a i n b r e l l a . In r ead ing he would subs t i tu te words, showing he associated

ideas wi th t hem bu t could no t recall the word itself. Such was the case w h e n he called "barn" farm and "hogs" corn which he fed to them. "Ball"

he called th row and "candy" store.

Words wi th more t han one m e a n i n g confused him. I r e m e m b e r his

disgust af ter he had become a good four th grade reader w h e n one day

he a n n o u n c e d tha t he would no t f in ish tha t story; the boy in it was an

Diagnosis and Treatment: Craig 113 idiot, he said; tha t boy had t aken his t en t far back in to the m o u n t a i n s

to go camping. And after ge t t ing i t there, he had t h r o w n it away. W h e n

he read the offending sentence to me, it was " T h e n Bil ly pi tched his

tent ."

"You see." T o m m y cried, "to pitch a bal l is to th row it. A nd this

idiot th rew his t en t away!"

W h e n I expla ined the meaning , he said, bel l igerent ly , "P res iden t

E i s e n h o w e r ought to make a law aga ins t words h a v i n g d i f fe rent mean-

ings. Words ought to say wha t they mean, and there ough tn ' t to be bu t

one word to say it." I sympath ized wi th h im bu t I d idn ' t bel ieve even

the p res iden t could r emedy this pa r t i cu la r s i tuat ion.

Some of the cases I have t a u g h t were more severe t h a n Tommy ' s .

The re was Stella who was seven years old. She was ve ry i na t t e n t i ve as

all of these chi ldren are, and jus t as we would be in a foreign school if

we d idn ' t u n d e r s t a n d the language. These ch i ldren close the i r ears to

the sound of t a lk ing jus t as we do to traff ic noises or to the whis t le

of pass ing trains. W h e n v is i t ing a home close to a ra i l road track, I have

of ten been surpr i sed to hear one m e m b e r of the fami ly ask another ,

"Has n u m b e r four p a s s e d ? " - - w h e n n u m b e r four had caused the house

to shake wi th its great noise. But this fami ly had successful ly closed

the i r ears to the daily sound. Tha t is wha t these ch i ld ren do. And Stella

was an exper t at it. Also she was ve ry active, so I had to tie her in her

chai r and keep her direct ly in f ron t of me. I t took several weeks to teach

her a few words and several m o n t h s to get her to produce even a two-

word sentence "all on her own." I would po in t to a ball and say, "Pick

up the ball. Th row the ball," and t ak ing her hand, I would have her do

it. Or I would say "Walk" or "Run" and t ak ing her by the arm, I would

have her do as I directed.

This child's pa ren t s had felt she was hopeless w h e n she was not.

Since she did not ta lk to them, they did no t ta lk to her. A nd she had

been neglected, not th rough lack of love, bu t t h rough lack of knowledge

of how to help her.

E v e n in much mi lder cases, the parents , f ind ing a s i lent child poor

company, do not ta lk enough to him. And since the child pays no at ten-

t ion to the read ing of stories, the pa ren t s do not read to him. Therefore ,

these chi ldren are depr ived of the vocabu la ry bu i ld ing which the n o r m a l

child gets automat ical ly . And so they fail to acquire a great deal of in-

fo rmat ion tha t they would get if they could qu ick ly u n d e r s t a n d the

spoken word.

The "word deaf" often canno t r e m e m b e r syl lables in sequence and

are apt to spell, even in the h igher grades, and often to pronounce , three-

syl lable words as " in teres t ing ," in-est-ter-ing or "unde r s t and" as stand-

114 Speci[ic Language Disabilities under , and in this way m a n y words are p r o n o u n c e d - - a n d spe l led- -pe-

culiarly. I have found tha t they can do ve ry l i t t le wi th read ing and st i l l less wi th spel l ing un less they are t augh t by the phonet ic method. I have

tried every method in deal ing wi th them and have found that, for them,

phonet ics is the on ly approach by which they can learn to read.

No one knows how m a n y of these ch i ldren there are. Many of the

more severe cases are placed in feeb leminded in s t i t u t i ons because people

suppose a child who can hear bu t who c a n n o t ta lk or u n d e r s t a n d w h a t

is said, belongs there. Yet, u n d e r n e a t h the disabil i ty, they have good

minds. Some of them are placed in schools for the deaf, wi th the idea

that someth ing mus t be wrong wi th the i r hear ing.

But there are m a n y of these ch i ldren who have jus t a l i t t le of this

t rouble---mild cases who are in the publ ic schools. T h e y of ten t u r n up

in slow reading groups bu t they do not respond as the usua l pupi l does.

They are to be pitied more t han any others in our schools because they

have a double language handicap, aud i to ry as well as visual , and the i r

problem is seldom unders tood for wha t it is.

W h y have we not heard more about these affl icted youngs te r s? The

only answer is tha t they go, for the most part , unrecognized. They are

labeled "dumb" because they have t rouble l e a rn ing the i r mothe r tongue,

in u n d e r s t a n d i n g the world of words a round them. For them, l anguage

at first seems to be made up of sounds, no t words. Later, they miss out

because they do not grasp the f iner shades of word mean ings , do no t al-

ways p ronounce or spell them correctly. They s h o u l d be helped! They

can be helped! I know; I h a v e t a u g h t t h e "word deaf."