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RESEARCH RECOMMEND DATIO~-S OF THE SECOND
CONFERENCE ON PROBLEMS OF THE
DEAF AND HARD OF :ElEARINTG
INTRODUCTION
THE FIRST CONFERENCE
At the annual meeting of the Division of Anthropology and Psy-
chology, on May ~3 and ~4, ~927, the Committee on Tactual Interpreta-
tion of Oral Speech and Vocal Control by the Deaf presented its report
and asked to be discharged. This committee had been appointed in ~924
to supervise an investigation into, the possibilities of communicating
to the deaf by means of vibrational stimulations which had been com-
menced the previous year under the auspices of the Division, but with
which the Division was to have no further connection after July I, ~9~7.
The discussion in the Division of the possibilities of obtaining signifi-
cant results in such investigations led to the consideration of the advisa-
bility of a survey of the research needs and opportunities in the whole
field of the care and training of the deaf, in order that further research
might be efficiently and economically directed.
The Division voted:
That the Chairman take steps to call a group conference on the
possible organization of a research institution on matters in con-
nection with the deaf.
In pursuance with this action of the Division, the Council sought funds
for the holding of a Conference on the Problems of the Deaf, and
obtained (October, ~927) a grant of $2000 from the Laura Spelman
Rockefeller Memorial for that purpose. The Chairman of the Division
then proceeded with the organization of the Conference, with the advice
and assistance of various persons, among whom Dr. Percival Hall,
President of Gallaudet College, Dr. Harris Taylor, Principal of the
New York Institution for the Improved Instruction of the Deaf, and
Miss Josephine Timberlake, Superintendent of the Volta Bureau, were
especially helpful.
The scope of the Conference was enlarged to include the problems of
the hard of hearing, as well as those of the deaf. A list of members
(see Appendix A) was inherited to represent institutions for the deaf,
organizations of workers with the deaf, organizations for the hard of
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~ Problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
hearing, and the fields of physics, psychology, physiology, anatomy,
orology, and medicine; and a program of discussion was planned. The
Conference was not designed to be comprehensively representative,
but to provide a small gathering competent to consider the situation then
existent.
The Conference was held in Washington, D. C., January no and As,
~9~8, in the Board Room of the National Academy of Sciences, with
Dr. Knight Dunlap, Chairman of the Division of Anthropology and
Psychology, presiding. Dr. Vernon Kellogg, Permanent Secretary of
the National Research Council, welcomed the Novembers and extended
the Council's commendation of the purpose of the Conference. As a
basis for the discussions, papers were presented by R. H. Gault, T. C.
Forrester, Harvey Fletcher, S. R. Guild, Bessie N. Leonard, R. Pintner,
Gordon Berry and C. W. Richardson. The minutes of this Conference
have been issued in mimeographed form, and a limited number of
copies are still available.
In the discussions following the papers, the Conference reached the
conclusion that scientifically grounded information concerning the basal
problems pertaining to the deaf and the hard of hearing was sadly
lacking, and that a determined effort to enlarge scientific knowledge in
these fields was imperative. The following resolution was adopted:
Through two days, this Conference, consisting of representatives
from the fields of Psychology, Anthropology, Physiology, Otology
and Laryngology, Physics, Education of the Deaf, Educational
Psychology, and the organizations of the Hard of Hearing, have
listened to reports of activities in these several fields, relating to
the general problem of deafness, treating of the discovery, describe
tion, classification, pathology, treatment and prevention of deafness,
and of the education and social and economic welfare of deafened
children and adults.
We feel individually and as a committee that much of value
has been derived from the reports and from the discussions which
have followed. Especially do we feel that effort should be made
to conserve the results of the Conference, not only by publication of
the proceedings of the Conference, but by the development of some
plan whereby cooperative effort may be fostered for the solution
of some of the problems presented, and to the end that a program
of research may be developed and facilitated.
A. We therefore recommend that a committee of not more
than seven be appointed by the National Research Council
in the Division of Anthropology and Psychology, whose
duties shall be:
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Problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing `~
I. To digest and make available the materials resulting
from the Conference.
2. To find and list research which is in hand and provided
for.
3. To formulate a coherent program of fundamental
research bearing upon the problems of the deaf and the
hard of hearing.
4. To suggest the best methods and agencies for carrying
out this work.
B. We recommend for the careful consideration of the Com-
mittee, the following apparent needs:
I. The investigation of the usefulness of instruments
now sold or proposed for use in the education of the
deafened children; such as: auditors, amplifying sets?
the Osiso, the teletactor, and audiometers.
2. The study and development of methods of measuring
in the deaf and hard of hearing:
a. Intelligence.
b. Mechanical, motor and other special abilities.
c. Achievement in education.
d. Ability to speak.
e. Ability to read the lips.
3. The study of curricula of schools for the deaf, to
determine what actually is taught, and to discuss what
should be taught.
4. The establishment of an experimental nursery school
for very young deaf children.
5. The study of the emotional adjustment of the deaf
and the hard of hearing.
6. The study of the problems of the training of teachers
for the deaf.
The development of methods of rating the usefulness
of mechanical and electrical hearing devices.
8. The study of fundamental problems of audition.
9. The study of hard of hearing children relative to their
discovery, management and education.
THE COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH FOR THE DEAF AND HARD
OF HEARING
The Executive Committee of the Division approved the action recom-
mended by the First Conference; and the National Research Council,
on nomination from the Division, appointed a committee of six members,
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4 Problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
with Dr. Rudolph Pintner as Chairman. The Laura Spelman Rocke-
feller Memorial made available additional funds for the work of the
Committee, and for the holding of a second conference, and the Con~-
mittee began its work with little delay. At the first meeting of the
Committee, March lo, ~928, it was decided to form a group of sub-
committees to which should lye entrusted the primary work of discover-
ing research problems in specific parts of the general field, and which
should report their findings to the Committee.
The Committee and its subcommittees continued their labors into the
Fall of ~9~8, concluding on December ~5, when the Committee placed
in the hands of the Chairman of the Division the collected recommenda-
tions of the subcommittees, to be integrated into a program of research
recommendations for presentation to the Second Conference. (For
list of Novembers of the Council Committee and Subcommittees see
Appendix C.)
THE SECOND CONF=ENCE
The Second Conference convened in Washington, D. C., on February
~ and 2, ~929, in the Lecture Room of the National Academy of
Sciences, with the list of members as given in Appendix B. Dr.
Knight Dunlap, Chairman of the Division of Anthropology and Psy-
chology, presided. After certain routine announcements, the Chairman
presented to the Conference Mr. Charles G. Dawes, Vice-President of
the United States, who' spoke, in part, as follows:
" Ladies and Gentlemen: As the official listener of the United States
in the chair of the Vice-President, I do not know whether I am pre-
pared to give encouragement at all to anything done to cure deafness.
As a matter of fact, I sometimes wish I were a deaf man myself.
" As is usual with most of my public appearances, I am not prepared
to speak upon the subject which is uppermost in your mind; but, as
I understand it, this is a part of the National Research Council; and I
want to say that I am here because of the name National Research
Council and what it means to us.
" The National Research Council is a good illustration of what the
authoritative mobilization of talent can do in this country. This great
Council has established a position of leadership in the minds of the
people interested in any great progressive enterprise in this country.
You are interested in the advancement of a great cause in your particular
department of science We wish you well."
The Chairman then introduced Dr. Albert L. Barrows, Assistant
Secretary of the National Research Council, who welcomed the Con-
ference and sketched the history of the Council's interest in the problems
of auditory deficiency as follows:
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Problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
5
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Conference: I greatly regret that
Dr. Kellogg, who is the permanent Secretary, as you know, of the
National Research Council, is out of the city at this time, and on that
account unable to extend to you himself the greetings of the Council.
If Dr. Kellogg were here he would certainly wish to address you and
to welcome you personally on this occasion. In his absence, however,
may I assure you still of the great interest which the National Research
Council has in the problems to which you are to give attention today
and tomorrow; and I assure you also of your welcome here for the
purposes of these discussions.
" The importance of the problems concerning aural mechanism and
function has been impressed upon the National Research Council for
a good many years. In fact, the concern of the Council in this problem
goes back to the first year of the organization of the Council, during the
War, when a committee was appointed to study the relation of a portion
of the inner ear to the sense of balance in the human body, with respect
to aviation. This interest still continues in the Council, through the
maintenance of a special committee on this subject.
" The interest of the Council in the problems of the deaf and hard
of hearing began in ~g24 and ~25, through a survey of schools for
the deaf, and with preliminary studies on the physical causes of deafness.
Since the Conference on problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
which was held here a year ago, much work has beers accomplished in
defining and in outlining the things which ought to be done in the course
of a study of the occurrence of deafness and of the essential bases on
which the education and the social adjustment of the deaf must be
founded.
" The progress which has been made in these studies has been most
gratifying. The range of the problems which these deliberations of the
past year have brought forward is extensive, and their very extent is
convincing and indicative as to the fundamental value of the assistance
which these studies of these problems can contribute, in the improvement
of educational methods in this field. A thorough knowledge of the situa-
tion, gained through surveys or other reports and summarizations such
as recommended by a number of your committees here, or as have al-
ready been commenced, is certainly prerequisite to progress toward a
solution of these problems.
" It is confidently expected that this Conference will still further
clarify the approach to a solution of these problems.
" On behalf of the National Research Council, may I again assure you
of your welcome to this Conference and of the gratification which the
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6 Problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
National Research Council has in being able to join with you in the
consideration of these very important problems.
" I thank you."
Committees of the Conference on various aspects of the report to
be presented were announced by the Chairman (Appendix D), with
the suggestion that proposals for amending the research recommenda-
tions in the report be referred to these committees with or without
instructions in case such proposals should need consideration or formu-
lation for resubmission to the Conference.
The Chairman then called upon Dr. Pintner, Chairman of the Division's
Committee on Research for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, to present
the Committee's report to the Conference for its consideration. This
report, the body of which contained the Committee's research recom-
mendations to the Conference, was prefaced as follows:
The Committee on Research for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing,
appointed by the National Research Council in the Division of
Anthropology and Psychology in compliance with the request of the
first Conference on Problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing,
herewith submits its report to the Second Conference.
Although the substance of this report is in the main the work of
the ten subcommittees, the Committee has of necessity somewhat
reformulated the conclusions of the subcommittees, in order that
these may appear in a unified form. It is just and fitting therefore,
that the Committee should assume responsibility, while assigning
the maximal credit to the subcommittees.
It appears to the Committee that there is urgent need for re-
search over a wide range of problems of auditory deficiency. These
problems occur over the range of educational and social processes;
extend into the domain of legal and economic conditions; and bear
upon the development and adjustment of the auditorily deficient
individual, from the point of view of his personal interests? as well
as that of his value to society.
It is to be emphasized, however, that lying beneath these general
problems there are many problems of a detailed and scientific
nature, the solutions of which are essential to the attack upon the
others.
In the carrying out of the research covered by this program,
there will be fundamentally necessary the efforts of the physicist,
the psychologist, the physiologist and the neurologist in order that
facts may be uncovered and methods developed for the more
sociological part of the work. It is to be emphasized, moreover,
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Problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing 7
that this labor, in its full extent, is Herculean in its proportions,
requiring a considerable period of time, large sums of money, and
the fullest cooperation of scientists with the educators of the deaf
and hypacousic.
The research recommendations of the Committee were presented
section by section, and were discussed in detail during the first day
and the greater part of the second day of the Conference. Certain
minor alterations, and certain other alterations capable of ready formu-
lation were currently made; and certain other points were referred to
the appropriate committees of the Conference, after discussion had
made plain the general type of reformulations or revisions desired.
On the afternoon of the second day, the research recommendations
were again taken up section by section, in connection with the reports
of the Conference committees, were put into final form as printed in the
second part of this Circular and were unanimously adopted.
In closing the business session, the Chairman spoke as follows:
" On behalf of the National Research Council, I express to the mem-
bers of the Conference on Problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
our great appreciation of the work done by the Conference, and to the
committees our congratulations upon the results which have been
achieved."
On motion of Dr. Anderson it was:
Voted, That the Conference express its appreciation of the many
courtesies extended by the National Research Council during the
meeting of the Conference, and empower the Chairman to express
to them and to the donors of the funds which made the Conference
possible, its sincere appreciation.
The Conference concluded with a banquet in the evening, at which
the members were addressed by Dr. Hugh S. Cumming, Surgeon Gen-
eral of the United States Public Health Service, as follows:
"Ladies and Gentlemen: It is. not to be expected that any one not
having special knowledge in some branch of the large subject of deaf-
ness could contribute any very specific suggestions of value to this
meeting. Since I make no claims to being proficient in all of the special-
ties of medicine or of otology in particular, I shall confine my remarks
to some generalizations on the place which deafness occupies in the
general subject of public health.
" It is the ultimate object of public health to help to release the citi-
zenry from the mental and physical handicaps which beset them, and to
hasten the day when a sound mind in a sound body shall be the assured
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3 Problems of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
birthright of all. While this is an ambitious objective, the progress
already made by an activity which historically speaking is still in its
infancy, is our encouragement to redouble our efforts in the sure hope
of further conquests.
" I shall not refer to the now familiar statements regarding the de-
creasing death rates, and the practical banishment of most of the great
-
pestilential diseases from civilized countries, further than to call atten-
tion to the fact that the progress here represented has been chiefly due
to researches in the communicable diseases of parasitic origin. This
group is the one which thus far has received the most intensive atten-
tion, and the progress made has encouraged us to hope that the solution
of the problems offered by those communicable diseases which still re-
sist, will only be a matter of time-and hard work.
" This brings us near to the subject of deafness, because this condi-
tion, aside from its hereditary aspects, is associated in great part with
some form of communicable infection. True enough, there remain the
subjects of nutrition and of the poisons whose influence on deafness
may prove ultimately to be of importance. Again the interplay of these
factors, nutrition, poisoning of various kinds, and infection, has not yet
been sufficiently investigated, to enable us to say with assurance which is
primary and which secondary.
" Public health endeavor, as you are aware, has its chief concern with
prevention as contrasted with cure or relief, without in the least dis-
paraging the importance of the latter. This attitude leads its interest to
concentrate upon causes, the removal of which would prevent the un-
favorable condition. Nevertheless, due to the imperfection of present
day knowledge, it is often the duty of health agencies to obviate, if they
can, the secondary results of infections which they have not learned
how to prevent. As an example I may cite infantile paralysis, the
spread of which cannot yet be efficiently controlled by any means com-
patible with the inevitable contacts of modern life, but the crippling
effects of which can to an extent be prevented by prompt and wise
treatment.
" Our first line of defense against deafness must at present be found
principally in the control of those infectious diseases with which cer-
tain of its types are associated. The responsibility for this falls chiefly
upon health organizations, and, as has been indicated, it is known that
such agencies are able significantly to limit the spread of some infec-
tions and with advancing knowledge will presumably be able to exert a
more effectual control. The more recent work on scarlet fever, for
example, holds promise of the ultimate significant reduction of this
disease, conspicuous for its orological complications. But these health
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Problems of the Deaf and Hard: of Hearing 9
organizations, where they exist, are all too frequently deterred from
giving full service to their populations by the limitation of funds and
facilities. Moreover, we must remember that a large portion of our
rural population, which is still nearly one-half of the total, is utterly
devoid of health service. I feel that in our preoccupation with the
dire results of deafness and the salvage of those so handicapped, we
should not lose sight of this first line of defense, and of the need for
supporting both its research and its control activities.
" Even the second line of defense has intimate public health relations.
If salvage and restoration is to be most effectual it must be under-
taken at as early a stage as possible. The first recognition of deafness
must often be left to the visiting health nurse, and to the health physi-
cian in the schools and clinics, whose duty it is to secure proper medical
attention for those afflicted.
" Therefore, while we should with unabated zeal work for the re-
habilitation of those who are already handicapped, we should not forget
that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and should see
to it that all agencies which may be employed to head off, in some mea-
sure, this stream of affliction at its source, are given the recognition and
the means to exert their potential influence, and by research to devise
improved methods."
Following General Cumming's address, the following unscheduled
appreciation was presented by Dr. Gordon Berry:
This closes a year in which we have been identified with the
National Research Council in its consideration of the Problems
off the Deaf. We have already formally expressed our apprecia-
tion of this privilege and of the Council's generosity in our behalf.
We wish to add an informal word of appreciation of our
Chairman, Dr. Dunlap, and of our Secretary, Mrs. Britten, whose
sympathy with our aims and ideals, whose understanding of our
occasional differences, whose generosity with our errors, have com-
bined to make our labors in this Conference both happy and profi-
table. We hope we have contributed materially to the cause of the
deaf and the deafened, but we feel that this has been made possi-
ble only through the kindly guidance and scientific vision of our
leader.
We now leave our hypacousic child in his tender anthropological
care with the assurance that thus will it have its best chance of
survival. May it grow to a sturdy and useful manhood, a brilliant
psychological exponent of the gracious arts of finger spelling and
lip reading.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
laura spelman
