GENERAL MEETING. Be 
the mouth. The elementary sounds of our language, represented 
by the letters P, B, and M, involve a closure of the lips. Hence 
the differences of adjustment that originate the differences of sound 
are interior and cannot be seen. But while the deaf child may not 
be able to say definitely whether the sound you utter is P, B, or M, 
he knows certainly that it must be one of these three, for no other 
sounds involve a closure of the lips. And so with the other ele- 
ments of our language. While he may not be able to tell definitely 
the particular element to which you give utterance, he can gener- 
ally refer it to a group of sounds that present the same appearance 
to the eye. In the same manner he may not be able to tell the pre- 
cise word that you utter, but he can refer it to a group of words 
having the sameappearance. For instance, the words “ pat,” “bat,” 
and “mat” have the same appearance to the eye. While he can- 
not tell which of these words you mean when it is uttered singly, 
he readily distinguishes it in a sentence by the context. For in- 
stance, were you to say that you had wiped your feet upon a “ mat,” 
the word could not be “ pat” and it could not be “ bat.” 
Here we come to the key to the art of understanding speech by 
the eye—Context. But this involves, as a prerequisite, a compe- 
tent knowledge of the English language; and we may particularly 
distinguish those children who have acquired the art from those 
who have not, by their superior attainments in this respect. We 
can, therefore, see why children who have become deaf after hav- 
ing learned to speak, naturally acquire this power to a greater ex- 
tent than those who are born deaf. 
There are many cases of congenitally deaf children who have ac- 
quired this art as perfectly as those who have become deaf from 
disease; but in every case such children have been thoroughly 
familiar with the English language, at least in its written form. 
Fallacies Regarding Speech-reading. 
The fallacy that speech is as clearly visible to the eye as it is 
audible to the ear hinders the acquisition of the art by causing the 
teacher to articulate slowly and word by word, even opening the 
mouth to its widest extent to make the actions of the organs more 
visible. When we realize that context is the key to speech-read- 
ing, theory asserts that ordinary conversational speech should be 
more intelligible than slow and labored articulation. This is amply 
proved by the experience of the most accomplished speech-readers. 
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