him more. She should, however, speak a little louder, a little nearer to
him, possibly a little more slowly and distinctly, exercising the
greatest caution, however, not to exaggerate speech into unnatural
facial contortions, or to accompany it by gestures. To fall into the
habit of mouthing and gesticulating, making faces and motions, will
defeat entirely the purpose of all efforts to develop an understanding
of speech by the child. Unfortunately, such exaggerated and absurd
speech is a natural and very prevalent fault. To avoid it is absolutely
necessary, but requires constant watchfulness, as there is a strong
temptation to try to make speech-reading easy for the child by opening
the mouth wide and making extraordinary movements of the tongue.

The object aimed at is to lead the child to interpret natural, everyday
speech, and such facial contortions and exaggerations cut him off from
practice in reading natural speech. This point cannot be too strongly
emphasized. Speak naturally and normally _always_ to the deaf child.

Above all, the mother should form the habit of watching his eyes and of
speaking as often as possible when his gaze is fixed upon her face. The
habit on his part of looking at the face of a speaker, and the habit on
his mother's part of observing his gaze and, when it wanders, of pausing
in her talk till he is looking at her again, are two very valuable aids
in the language development of the deaf child. In addition to always
raising her voice a little in speaking to her baby, the mother should
several times a day take him in her lap and sing to him, and talk to him
with her lips not far from his ear. Talk to him just as all mothers do
to their babies (but not with the mangled and distorted words called
"baby talk"), about the pussy, the dog, the bird, his foot, his toes,
his arms and hands and fingers; about his papa, brothers, sisters; about
the flowers, the grass, the trees, and a thousand other things. Say the
good old Mother Goose rhymes of "Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Baker's Man,"
"This little pig went to market," etc., etc. But in all your frolics and
stories and songs, take the greatest care that he shall hear or see, or
better still, _both_ see _and_ hear, what you are saying. Gradually he
can be taught to understand many simple commands and questions just as
hearing babies learn them, by constant repetition at times and under
circumstances when the meaning is obvious. Such as "come," "go," "g