—, 
-and his hearing 
ON MENTAL AND PHYSICAL FACTORS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION. 333 
association may concern itself principally with either term of the asso- 
ciation already existing in the child’s mind—with sound or with meaning. 
It is rare to find the meaning emphasised above the sound. Yet 
something of this kind occurs in the early stages of the method advo- 
cated by Herr Taubstummenlehrer Malisch of Ratibor, and described 
by Meumann.’ ‘Thus, an egg, a jug, a hat, a fish, &c., are drawn, 
naturally in very schematic form. Then in the picture—e.g., in the 
oval of the egg—the word egg is written. The child seizes this inscrip- 
tion as a sign.’® Further, as Meumann himself points out, the thing 
itself can be placed by the side of its sign. Some teachers, for instance, 
have been known to label all the things in the schoolroom with their 
names. Usually, however, the sound of each word is emphasised at 
the same time. This greatly assists the process of seizing the purport 
of the sign. For the sound is already understood and used as a sign 
for the thing. But there have been instances in which the sound could 
not be clearly perceived in any way, and in which, consequently, all 
the emphasis had to be placed on the thing or meaning. This was the 
case with the Wild Boy of Aveyron. This boy was unable to speak, 
at least for the sounds of speech—was of little, if 
any use. Yet M. Itard succeeded in teaching him some common words 
and their meanings by the aid of sight alone.?® 
Usually, however, as already stated, the sound of the word receives 
a large share of attention. And this is only natural. For the sound 
constitutes, as it were, a handle to the meaning, the latter being 
definitely grasped by means of it. 
When the child perceives and apperceives the printed word in this 
way, he is said to learn by the Look-and-Say Method. 
But the development of visual percepts of words and the associa- 
tion of these with the sound-meaning complexes proceed on a very 
different plan when the Phonic Method is adopted. In this method, no 
attempt is made during the early stages to facilitate the perception 
of words by attention to them as wholes. Nor is any use made of the 
sound-meaning complexes which already exist. Instead of this, atten- 
tion is directed to the perception of letters on the one hand and of the 
elementary sounds corresponding to them on the other, and between 
each pair (letter and sound) an association is made. The letters are 
now presented in combination—as syllables or words. The correspond- 
ing sounds are aroused and combined to form the spoken forms of 
those syllables or words.1° When once all the letters have been dealt 
" Op. cit., pp. 229-31. It is obvious that with deaf-mutes much more atten- 
tion must be given to the meaning than is necessary in normal cases. Yet even 
here the ‘ sound’ can be attended to in the sense that the movements of articula- 
tion can be observed and to some extent imitated. And astonishing results have 
been obtained in this field. 
* Meumann, op. cit., p. 230. 
-* *Rapports et Mémoires sur le Sauvage de l’Aveyron,’ Paris, Alcan, 1894, 
p. 76. An English translation was published as far back as 1802, but seems now 
hard to obtain. A copy exists in the British Museum. 
10 Somewhat serious difficulties arise in connection with this analysis and 
synthesis. ‘A “word” as read is both a visual and an auditory-motor complex, 
and it does not follow that both these complexes admit of being split up into the 
same components. Thus, while letters are evidently the constituent units of 
