g are taught to all of the pupils in the school (the
Western New York Institution) recorded as following this method.

III. THE ORAL METHOD.--Speech and speech-reading, together with
writing, are made the chief means of instruction, and facility in
speech and speech-reading, as well as mental development and written
language, is aimed at. There is a difference in the different
schools in the extent to which the use of natural signs is allowed
in the early part of the course, and also in the prominence given to
writing as an auxiliary to speech and speech-reading in the course
of instruction; but they are differences only in degree, and the end
aimed at is the same in all.

IV. THE AURICULAR METHOD.--The hearing of semi-deaf pupils is
utilized and developed to the greatest possible extent, and with or
without the aid of artificial appliances, their education is carried
on chiefly through the use of speech and hearing, together with
writing. The aim of the method is to graduate its pupils as
hard-of-hearing speaking people, instead of deaf-mutes.

V. THE COMBINED SYSTEM.--Speech and speech-reading are regarded as
very important, but mental development and the acquisition of
language are regarded as still more important. It is believed that
in many cases mental development and the acquisition of language can
best be promoted by the Manual or Manual Alphabet Method, and so far
as circumstances permit, such method is chosen for each pupil as
seems best adapted for his individual case. Speech and
speech-reading are taught where the measure of success seems likely
to justify the labor expended, and in most of the schools some of
the pupils are taught wholly or chiefly by the Oral Method or the
Auricular Method.[558]

Of these methods the oral and the combined are practically the only ones
found. The auricular is employed only in connection with certain pupils
in some of the schools; while the manual method is found in but two
schools, and the manual alphabet in but one. In the institutions the
combined is by far the preponderating system, being employed in all but
fifteen of the sixty-five; while the oral is employed in twelve. On the
other hand, the oral method is used in the day schools almost
altogether, there being but two of the sixty-five schools employing the
combined system. In the twenty-one denominational an