be
bravely and cheerfully faced, for it does not destroy the chances for
happiness and success. It is cause for neither discouragement nor
despair. It will demand patient devotion and courageous effort to
overcome the disadvantage, but what mother is not willing to show these
in large measure for her child when the future holds assurance of
comfort and usefulness?

The earlier that the facts are known and squarely faced, the better. It
is always wiser in life to prepare for the worst and gratefully accept
the best, than to refuse to acknowledge the possibility of the worst
until it is too late to remedy it, or at least to reduce it to its
lowest terms.

When a mother first suspects that her child's hearing is not perfectly
normal, what should she do? Of course, first of all, the best available
ear specialist should be consulted at once in order to determine whether
the cause can be removed and normal hearing restored. Sometimes,
however, the specialists are uncertain of the outcome, and sometimes
their hopes are not realized. In the meantime, precious days and weeks
are passing in which something could be done for the little one
educationally, without in any way interfering with the medical efforts
at relief. The two things can be, and should be, carried on
simultaneously. If normal hearing is restored no harm has been done by
the educational training; in fact, the development of the child has been
advanced. On the other hand, if the hopes that were entertained are
disappointed, then precious and irrecoverable time has not been lost.

The title presupposes that the mother has already accepted the fact that
her child's hearing is not perfect, and, for the sake of the child, it
is to be hoped that this knowledge came to her very promptly after the
occurrence of the deafness.

One would naturally expect a mother, of her own accord, to carefully
test all the senses of her child by many simple and repeated exercises
during the first few months of its life. The many cases, however, in
which deafness on the part of a child has not been recognized, or at
least not acknowledged, by the mother till the third, fourth, or even
fifth year, show a strange neglect of a highly desirable investigation,
and a natural unwillingness to accept a truth, the possibility of which
must certainly have occurred to her long before.

If she could only realize that she need not feel downcast and
heavy-hearted by reason of her little one's impe