View report page

70
which the, parents take in the work, whilst the welcome given
to them by the Head Teachers does much to promote an allround
friendly spirit.
DEAF SCHOOL.
At the special school for Deaf and Aphasic children
there are 72 in attendance. Of the 70 deaf children some
have been totally deaf from birth or early childhood, and were,
consequently, totally dumb till placed under instruction.
Others are deaf in varying degrees and their instruction has
to be carried on by such methods and under such conditions
as will develop their natural but imperfect speech and scanty
knowledge of spoken and written language. A few had, on
admittance, normal speech, but are too deaf to benefit by the
instruction given in large rooms in ordinary schools, and must
supplement their hearing power by lip reading.
All the children in the school have been examined by me
twice during the year. I found that the hearing power of
3 of them had sufficiently improved to enable them to be sent
back to the ordinary schools. One boy had to be dismissed
as mentally deficient.
48 children were reported to me by the Head Teachers
as suffering from deafness, and on examination I found that
17 of them were so hard of hearing that it was desirable to
transfer them to the Deaf School, as they were not able to
benefit by instruction in the ordinary schools.
The are two aphasic children in the school. One, a case
of congenital word blindness, upon whom we reported last
year, continues to make steady progress. The other is a boy
of eight years, who has been totally dumb since he was