Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor To the Editor: "Visual Memory in the Deaf" by Ernest D. McDaniel in the February 1980 issue, I should say, has quite some similarities to my doctoral dissertation, "Visual Memory of Deaf Students in Comparison with Hearing Students of Similar Ages." As in the case of his article, I believe that deaf students actually need media reinforcements as much as possible in their educational pursuits. Also it has been evidenced in both studies that deaf students are as good as or better than hearing counterparts in adaptability to media feedback. Emanual Golden Baltimore City Public Schools To the Editor: During my 10 years as a teacher of the aurally handicapped, music has been a vehicle for language/speech acquisition and aural habilitation and auditory training as well as a means for stimulating motor activity and enhancement of self-concept. The use of music is not unusual in the teaching of hearing-impaired children but the use of tone to discover islands of hearing (ability to detect a significant degree of sound, possibly not at the usual audiological testing points) appears to be a useful innovation. The discovery that severely hearing-impaired children, as well as those who are less handicapped , can match tones on the piano (I play the note(s) and the child sings that note), may provide useful information insofar as the construction of hearing aids is concerned and also help develop new methods for speech/language acquisition. Profoundly deaf children with no useful speech patterns have learned to speak words which were practiced on their tones. The children's islands of hearing and their ability to perceive and match tones appear to be affected by factors other than hearing deficits per se. However, there are predictable responses for each child. Among these responses is the ability for given children to match certain tones accurately and with regularity. All this in no way suggests replacing pure tone audiology, but this could provide supplemental information for audiological work-ups in addition to enhancing the general curriculum. Sara Lundgren Ceres, CA ANNOUNCEMENT At its 52nd meeting held in Omaha, Nebraska, the Conference of Executives of American Schools for the Deaf approved, with minor changes, the proposed Constitution and Bylaws as published in the February 1980 issue of the American Annals of the Deaf. Among the changes involved in the new Constitution is a change of the official name of the organization. The new name of the CEASD is the Conference of Educational Administrators Serving the Deaf, Inc. Other changes relate to agency membership eligibility and representation within the organization . Additional information may be obtained by contacting: Conference of Educational Administrators Serving the Deaf 5034 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20016 520 A.A.O. I August 1980 ...