XV Teaching Lip Reading

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All that has been said about training the little deaf child to read the lip movements and associate them with the names of things and of actions, will apply also to the little boy who has suddenly been made deaf, after speech has been learned. Be careful that he is looking at you always when you speak to him or reply to some question he has asked, but speak just as you would have done before he became deaf. You may have to repeat things to him very often at first, but do not permit any sign of impatience in your face. Do not let him get the idea that it is a hardship to talk to him. Remember that you are changing his manner of understanding speech over to another way, and that his present and future happiness depends very greatly on the thoroughness and promptness with which it is done. In all dealings with a deaf child the mother should remember that the child draws his impressions of the character and the feelings of those about him from the expression of their faces, and many almost unconscious little acts and gestures. Avoid very carefully any appearance of being impatient, or bored, or contemptuous at his failures. Try to understand the difficulties under which he is working to maintain his place in the world. Do not humor his whims, or spoil him by indulgence, yet treat him with the greatest consideration and fairness. Above all, be cheerful and, at least apparently, interested in his doings and sayings.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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