شهور
རྫ་
CLUB FOR THE
DEAFE
1
The handsigns above mean 'Club for the Deaf.' The Social Welfare Department operates two such clubs-one at the Wong
Tai Sin Community Centre and the other at the Tsan Yuk Social Centre. A year ago, two deaf-mute brothers, IP Shiu-yuen, aged ten, and IP Ping-keung, aged nine, were brought to the Wong Tai Sin club by their mother (Picture 1). At that time they were shy, backward and ignorant. They did not know how to play or com- municate with other deaf children. They could not identify even simple everyday objects. But the teachers at the club soon changed all that.
The picture story
story on the following pages shows what happened to the two brothers during the course of the year. They not only learnt how to play with other children (Pictures 2 and 3) but also how to read and write (Picture 4) and to make simple toys (Pictures 5 and 6). They were also taught to reproduce simple speech, with a mirror and pieces of paper being used to help them visualize the concept of a particular sound (Picture 7). At the end of the year the boys could fashion very workmanlike toys for them- selves and could write several hundred characters. They found life at the club so rewarding that they brought along their six-year-old brother, IP Ping- wah, who is also a deaf-mute, to enroll (Picture 8).
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