Little Patricia Overcame Greater Handicaps Than Helen Keller, But There Are No Mother’s Arms in Which To Cuddle as a Reward .-luuTOf m Cflnifrft Stud\, Made for This Magazine, of Patricia Homans, 7 Year-Old Kentucky “Mi racle Child,” Who Over Greater Handicaps Than World Famous Helen Keller; Below, Blind Children En joying the Gymnasium at Perkins Institution, Where Patricia Is a and Basketball, Using in Almost All of the Track Sports. Student. The Sightless Youths Balls with Bells Inside, and They * >lls* lnla B. Hall. ^ shown A ho vp. '.. .*fe;V-^j Taught the Blind- " S^HTy, Oeaf-Mnte Patrt eta Homans to ■^■*SKJ-.S3sws*iipB58Ksa^^^^^^*BRRn^®iil Distinguish Be- . tween Objects by Placing Spoons, Balls, Blocks, Etc., In the Child’s Hands One at a Time as Many as 60 Times a Day While Repeating Their Names; and Now Patricia Knows the Difference Between This Cat, Below, and Other Animals. s. .:v SCIENCE, In its miraculous experi ment over 7-year-old Patricia Ho mans, who presents a more diffi cult case than Helen Keller and is eves more am axing; than the Dionne quintuplets, so far has claimed her through its mercy for life. But now these questions rise in the midst of the combined struggle of sci entific experiment and human kindness at Perkins Institution for the Blind. which is located at Watertown, Mass.: Who, other than a state and an Insti tution, cares for this astounding mite of humanity? Is there to be no bond of blood, no love, no reward for her tremendous achievement, no sentimen tal attachment in store for the most remarkable child of today? Patricia, born in Louisville, Ky., of a 16-year-old mother from a poor fam ily and a 17-year-old Princeton stu S.G. Howe, “Mir •.inr—ifiHTii" m aent rawer, was turned over to an institution as a blanketed baby. There was no other place for the inffmt. Her parents were divorced immediate ly after her birth. Her grandparents did not ac cept any responsibility whatever. It was soon discovered that while Patricia's body was well formed, her skin fair, her hair golden and curly, she could not see, hear or make a vocal sound. The blind-deaf mute even lacked sense of taste! (Helen Keller was not afflicted until she was three.) As little Patricia grew as an ordinary child would grow, she was rec ognized by the medical and scientific world as the only person ever to sur vive this quadruple handi m r Miss Hall Taught Patricia to Speak and Hear by Placing Her Tongue In Position to Make the Fundamental Sounds, “oo,w “ar” and “ee," and Then peating Words Over and Over, While the Child’s Sensitive Fingers Distinguished Their Sound Through the Vibrations of Miss Hall’s Voice. No Sign Language or Spelling in the Palms of Her Hands Was Used, as in the Case of Helen Keller, cap so long in an apparently lucid state. Now, 4s a result of the scientific magic of Perkins Institution to which she was taken two years ago, she knows IS commands, can feed' and dress herself, can climb and descend stairs. She can harmonize on elemen tary musical Instruments. She has a sense of protection, where once she was insensitive enough to go about colliding with objects. She has ac quired the first three elements in speech. She distinguishes scores of ob jects and can let her wants be known. Perkins Institution began to reclaim nature’s human mistakes over 100 years ago. It was there in the eighties that Laura Bridgman was taught to "see" and hear by Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe (husband of Julia Ward Howe of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” fame) and where later Helen Keller, through the sign language, palm alpha bet and Braille methods developed by Dr. Howe with Laura, grasped a soul from th# dark silence. Dr. Gabriel Farrell, present Perkins’ director, over great opposition from other authorities and against the cau tion of Helen Keller, believed that a new system of reaching into the dark, expressionless corridors of the mind could be successful and quicker than the laborious methods used with Laura and Helen. Hearing, he decided, could be accomplished through bone conduc tion; voice, words, could be given through tongue placement. Patricia was taught to "hear” through the bones of her head; to make sounds by having her tongue placed and by being taught to feel mo Perkins Institution lor the Blind, at Watertown, Mass., Where the Great Scientific Experiments of . . . Copyright, 1986, King Features Syndicate, Inc tions of other lips; to “see” by an in tensity of touch and developed sensi tivity to vibration. * “The experiments were at first a matter of hope—but now, with the progress of Patricia, they are a mat ter of fact,” he says. % "During this past season when little Patriciarwas ill and we had to give her four lumbar punctures apd saw her lie unconscious for long intervals, ia that no member of her family haa shown interest in her progress, and no sentiment has be^n promised for her future. “We believe both her parents are living and should be proud of this child. We have communicated with her grandfather. But whether the child lives or dies apparently raises no re sponse in the hearts of those who are bonded to her through blood.” wc nuuucicu ii| <uici on, our experiments in treat ing and teaching, in fore- I ing a mind, would last through her illness. "But we found that in her recovery she retained all the commands. Even in her weakened physical condition she could walk; she remembered her les sons in balance and through bone conduction she heard, therefore re sponded to footsteps of her companions. "While she presents the most extraordinary case on the records of the American Foundation for the Blind, Patricia also has been the means of proving the greatest ex periments known to the medical and scientific world. ’ "But our greatest con cern now about Patricia v. . Rev. Gabriel Farrell, Above. Are Having Amazing Results mm

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