Backwardness in Speech Development

Apart from the standard exercises used for teaching deaf children tongue and lip movement, all the exercises were specially devised by the teacher for these particular children. They had to be short, for mentally defective children have little power of concentration and the deafness handicap made them tire easily. Each exercise had to involve some definite achievement which the children could themselves realize and by which their self-importance could be built up and their personality developed, as their handicaps caused a feeling of inferiority ^hich had to be overcome before real progress c?uld be made. These exercises, moreover, had to be related things of which the children had knowledge. This was a particular difficulty, as many of them ^ad been institutionalized for some years. "Jctures and objects were used and games built jpund them which involved plenty of action, tach exercise, therefore, was a source of Pleasure to the children, who soon delighted in l"eir achievements. Even such a short experiment appears to have ^tiorded sufficient evidence to justify the ?rniation of special classes for children with a<Jditional handicaps, and the deaf and dumb ?nd the spastic appear to be well suited to a Joint scheme.