TALKING IN CLASS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 June 1930, Page 7

TALKING IN CLASS

SCHOOL . TH AT CHILDREN LOVE

I have just visitor! a children's ; c- In) ,1 who pc* <mo of tile golden rales s reversed (writes a rcprcsenlai'ive of -lie Sundry Kxpit-s-V hi tin's scho.d £<ilKill'' during class is not discouraged —it is wolf;nitrd joyfully. For the p.irinse of i.h.o school is to

teach children to speak. It is hold in Set. Thomas’s T Ti'-M. ~M (| the oupils are little hoys and girls who

:re suffer mg from sleech delects. Ti c* school is he'd in one of the .cards two afternoons a week, and lie teachers are vi.T'Uifaiy workers—'o etionisls, a tresses, and others, chn n iderstand the use and m Issue of ■he voice. The children—stammerers, lis pens.

■ line who are word-hlind, others, who •annot ivss the stage of baby talk", oiiie with their j-j| ( > school. ’T-.ev ! ek forwi*rd t" tin* classes, for 'cell week luinrs 1 hem nearer the* .ini" \vh-n at last ihev will he able

to talk like other boys and girls, to join in their games without fear of bein ': laughed at.

When I looked in at the temporary .schoolroom a dor.on girl teachers were dealifig with classes of four or five children while Miss Elsie Fogarty, the honorary principal, and her assistant, Miss Jean Van Thai, moved about Won one little group +o another.

! have used the word “school,” but there i® nothing of the strict atmos-

•■>’ere rf the ordinarv school a'bout it. ’’to* t"ielinv« end their pupils are friend®—t-dkins and playinw together and trying to forget that there is a lesson to learn.

For ihe secret of the cure is to make the children !«■**••" tlwr fear. In

•nonv eases nervousness is at the hack •of th-'ir little soeoch troubles, and tlie '-mi.iren must ho made happy and at ease. /

A! is« Fogei'ty led me J "* a corner where a teacher and a. bov of 13 were olayin;.; with large, carved wooden letters.

“This hoy is word-blim 1 .” said Miss Focrertv. “lie cannot distinguish one letter from another. Of course, he -o-ddn’t learn to read. That made him nmuons and backward, and he heg->n to stammer.” The hoy turned his bock on. MR.® Wvrertv. and she handed him a letter, vftcr feeling it for a moment he was aide to name it.. The" she laid down some letters and asked him to name them.

The letters were O-A-K. The hoy 'nuked at them, blushed, and then ■ h'mmered out tint ■'». did not know. Miss Fogerty helped him to pronounce the letters. Then the boy was told to relax, and lay stretched on his back. Then we went to another part of the room, where a little boy and girl were blowing stamps across a window led go. “These are the most, difficult eases—-1-bo children with organic defects,” said Miss .Fogertv. Then she smiled, oattecl the little girl on the head, and •sked her" to count her fingers. “One. two, three, four, five‘Six” proved difficult. The little girl hesitated. “Six” came with an effort, then in a rush, seven-eight-nine-

ten.” One of the most difficult cases of all is the word-deaf girl. Tier hearing is perfectly clear, her brain is otherwise normal, but she cannot distinguish one work from another. Talk to her is merely unintelligible sound.