Although there was a certain degree of
vacancy in the expression of the child, it seemed quite to brighten up
at each successive step, and the occupation was evidently a source of
considerable enjoyment to him. This little fellow had been a very short
time in the Asylum, and when admitted had not the slightest idea of
form, colour, or size.
Another mode adopted is, to take little blocks of wood of different
sizes and forms, which the child is required to fit into corresponding
holes cut out in a board. All this is for the least advanced pupils.
They learn afterwards to read and write, and some of the very little
ones traced lines upon a board as well as most children could do with
all their senses about them. The elder ones could write short words and
read easy books; they are taught to read by having short words like cow,
dog, ox, printed on cards, and are then shown by a picture what the
words represent, and they are not taught their letters or to spell words
till they begin to learn to write; the elementary books therefore
consist chiefly of words representing ideas quite independently of the
letters of which the words are formed. Many, however, can never fully
obtain the power of speech, and that without any physical defect in
their organs, and without the accompaniment of deafness, for they hear
perfectly.
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