The education of deaf mutes : shall it be by signs or articulation ? / by Gardiner Greene Hubbard.

  • Hubbard, Gardiner G. (Gardiner Greene), 1822-1897.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The education of deaf mutes : shall it be by signs or articulation ? / by Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    age age of admission is seven, while in the American Asylum the Directors advise that school education should not com- meuce earlier than ten, or he deferred later than twelve years of age, and for many reasons the latter age is preferable. 1 The objections urged by the Principal of the Hartford Asylum against receiving pupils under twelve years of age are, that home influences are peculiarly important to the lit- tle child ; that as but six years are allowed for instruction, greater progress can be made between the ages of ten or twelve and eighteen than at any other period, and that at an earlier age than twelve the pupils could not be taught a trade oy which they might in after life gain their own support. Home influences are no doubt of great value to the deaf nute, but they generally reach only to the education of the flfections. The reports quoted show that in most cases be- bre entei'ing the Asylum no effort has been made to instruct le mind of the child, or to train its mental powers. Indeed, le parent is cautioned not to attempt the more difficult nd abstract terms, lest, from his imperfect acquaintance with le language of signs, he should communicate false ideas, or 'eary and disgust the mind.2 There are also many objec- ions to sending a little child to a large asylum, that would ot obtain were it sent to a small family school of fifteen or penty pupils, or to a primary day school in Boston, where Here are a sufficient number of children to form such a hool. It would seem peculiarly important that the little jaf mute should commence its instruction at as early an e as possible. If the effort is to be made to save the speech ly lost, or to teach articulation to the congenital mute, the rlier the child is placed under instruction the better. The gans of speech are more flexible,.the powers of observation icker, the memory more retentive. A child will acquire a 'eign language with much less difficulty than an adult. 8 have seen little children speaking four languages with ial facility. I Fiftieth Report American Asylum, for 1866, p. 15.