When the Abbé de l’Epée introduced the sign method, many of his contemporaries, such as Abbé Deschamps, refused to be associated with the new school, and a lively debate ensued between him and Samuel Heinicke of Leipzig, a great proponent of the speech method, among educators of the deaf, which has continued ever since. Professor E. A. Fay in his American Annals of the Deaf gives the following classification and definition of the methods used in schools for the deaf:
“(1) The manual method: Signs, the manual alphabet, and writing are the primary means used in the instruction of students, and the principal aims are mental development and the promotion of understanding and use of written language. The degree of relative importance given to these three means varies from school to school; but this is a difference of degree only, and the end sought is the same in all.
“(2) The manual alphabet method: – The manual alphabet method and writing are the main means used in teaching students, and the main goals are mental development and the ability to understand and use written language. Speech and speech reading are taught to all students in one of the schools (Western New York Institute) listed as following this method.
“(3) The oral method: – Speaking and reading, together with writing, are the principal means of instruction, and aim at dexterity of speaking and reading, as well as mental development and written language. there is a difference in the different schools in the extent to which the use of natural signs is permitted at the beginning of the course, and in the extent to which writing is given as an auxiliary means to speaking and reading during instruction; but they differ only in degree, and the aim is the same in all.
“(4) The aural method: – The hearing of semi-deaf pupils is used and developed to the greatest possible extent, and, with or without the aid of artificial aids, their learning is carried on chiefly through the use of speech and hearing, together with writing.The aim of the method is to produce its pupils not as deaf and dumb but as hearing-impaired people.
“(5) Combined system: – Speaking and reading are considered very important, but mental development and language acquisition are considered even more important. It is believed that in many cases mental development and language acquisition can be best developed by the manual or manual alphabet method, and, as far as circumstances permit, such method is chosen for each pupil as seems best for his individual case.Speech and reading are taught where success seems to justify the labor expended, and in most schools some pupils are taught wholly or mainly by the oral or aural method.”
Some teachers of the deaf use the method of visible speech, which is a kind of phonetic writing: symbolizing the movements of the vocal organs while speaking. There is also a phonetic aid in which several hand positions not only represent different speech sounds, but also briefly indicate the way in which the represented sound is produced physiologically or mechanically.