Not So Deaf, Not So Dumb

If a baby is born too deaf to hear, he cannot imitate speech and therefore cannot learn to talk. At least one baby in every thousand is born with no apparent capacity for hearing; he is "deaf and dumb." But so-called congenital deaf-mutism is actually a misnomer because inborn defects of the vocal cords that make speech impossible are almost unknown. The real trouble is in the hearing mechanism. The vocal difficulty is almost inevitable because children judged to be beyond the help of any hearing aid are often sent to special schools where the emphasis may be on lip reading and sign language. Their own voices may never develop intelligible sounds, so they may fit their lives to their handicap and relegate themselves to a deaf-mute ghetto.

But not if the born-deaf baby is lucky enough to land in either of two special schools in France, both run by Dr. Guy Perdoncini, 50, who has his schools in Villefranche near Nice, and at La Norville outside Paris. Otologists have long known that even the "totally" deaf child usually has a vestige of hearing--mainly for the rumbling, deep-bass tones, which carry more energy than thin, high notes. Dr. Perdoncini was convinced that even this minimal capacity could be developed so that the child could learn near-normal speech. And in finding ways to prove his theory, he has made himself a world leader in the treatment and education of the congenitally deaf.

No Lip Reading. Dr. Perdoncini believes in getting his pupils started young, often with preliminary training at home when they are only a year old. To make lip reading impossible, he and his teachers cover their mouths with loose cloth masks. At three or four, the child goes to school full time.

The little freshman in a Perdoncini school is fitted with earphones into which a bass tone is fed at a volume that would be ear-shattering to a person with normal hearing. At first the sensation means nothing to the student. But he also gets a visual signal; a light flashes on along with the sound, and the teacher gestures with her hand to show that she has heard and seen. The youngster copies her and gestures with his hand to show that he, too, has heard and seen. Soon he learns to recognize the sound alone, and the visual cue is abandoned. Next he learns that sounds may be long or short, and with building blocks of different lengths he tells teacher which is which.

After a few weeks or months, depending on his own rate of advance, the child enters a world in which some sounds are high-pitched, some low. With patiently encouraged practice he learns to hear a widening range of frequencies. Tones that came through to him so weakly that once they stirred no response at all now turn into recognizable sounds. Soon the child is fitted with a microphone, and when he makes a noise with his own vocal cords, he sees a light flash on and the teacher signals receipt of this message with her hand.

Inevitably, many a child begins by pitching his own vocal efforts too high or too low, too loud or too soft. Dr. Perdoncini and his twelve teachers are implacable about correcting a pupil's pitch until it is acceptable. The child who is born deaf may need only a year to learn how to pronounce the names of foods, toys or friends. Words for abstract ideas take longer.

Catching Up. Slowly, as they learn that the sounds they are imitating carry specific meanings, the kids build up a practical vocabulary. Then, equipped with powerful hearing aids, they are graduated from Dr. Perdoncini's schools around age ten. They are not cured--they are still deaf--but now they can make use of the small auditory sense they have. They have been habilitated to the stage where they can go to ordinary schools and face the task of catching up to normal children. At the same time, without skill in lip reading or sign language, they adapt themselves to the society of those for whom talking is as natural as breathing.

Dr. Perdoncini, a modest Rivieran of Swiss-Italian extraction, does not claim to have discovered or invented anything --only to have developed a method that, when pursued with enough patience and determination, gets results. He is understandably pleased that his method is finally being adopted by special schools in Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Lebanon. One such school has begun operating in Quebec, and four Canadian teachers are currently in Villefranche for a years study of Dr. Perdoncini's method.

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