All language subtitles for Thursday’s Children 1954 eg

"Monday's child is fair of face,

"Tuesday's child is full of grace,

"Wednesday's child is full of woe,

"Thursday's child has far to go."

Dennis will be father,

June will be mother.

Janet is going to give baby a bath,

and Alan will fetch the water.

This is the way we play.
This is the way we start our lessons.

Every morning, at 9 o'clock, we
come in and we find our chairs.

Our teacher is called Miss Taylor.

She looks after us when we are in school,
and she gives us all our lessons.

There are different lessons every day, but
every morning starts in the same way.

Bless...

...us...

...all...

But we do not hear Miss Taylor.

We watch her speaking...

...but we do not hear anything...

...because we are deaf.

Alan is deaf.

When he was 3, he had meningitis.

Since then, the world has
been a silent place for him.

In this classroom, only
Miss Taylor can hear.

To Robert and Rosemary, there
is no such thing as a sound,

no such thing as language.

They don't even know what a word is.

Without words...

...there can be no thoughts,

only feelings with nothing
to join them together.

What is a prayer to John?

How can he know what a prayer is if
he doesn't even know what a word is?

The first thing is to give him some words.

So we start with a game for John,

who does not know what a word is.

And for Rosemary, who has
never heard a sound.

They have never been to school before.

Joan and Brian have been here a year,

and they know that to win this game,

you've got to watch Miss Taylor's lips.

For Robert, a shoe will never be a shoe.

It will just be:

Now, the game begins.

And, first of all, it is John who is
going to come to try to learn a word.

Which of all these toys does she mean?

It's hard to tell just from
the way she moves her lips.

This time John has to be helped.

But one day he'll learn
that that movement means,

"a doll."

When he's played this
game as often as Joan.

Things you pick up have names,

and so have things you do.

At first, this is difficult to understand.

Miss Taylor's lips tell Rosemary nothing...

...but Brian has learned what "jump" means.

Brian has learned to lip-read.

So, Brian falls...

...and Joan runs...

...and Robert walks...

...and Joan loves Brian.

Now, it's John's turn again.

John knows what his word looks like,

but he isn't sure what it means.

Perhaps, it's the same as Brian's.

Who can tell John what "washing" means?

So, John learns what "washing" means,

and "falling," and "jumping,"
and "walking," and "loving."

He is beginning to
understand what words are.

You can talk to him and he
will know what you are doing.

Soon, when he's a bit older,

there'll be a new game to
learn, and a harder one.

These children are going to learn
how to make words themselves.

This is a game... called "Speech."

We learn words by imitating sounds,

when we are too young even to know.

If you've never heard a
sound, you can't imitate one.

These children have to be
shown what sound looks like.

There are all kinds of games that help.

When you want to make other letters,

you have to start using your voice.

You can't do it by hearing,

so you do it by feeling.

Miss Taylor speaks and
the balloon vibrates,

and you catch the feelings on your fingers.

Your fingers must be ears to catch that
voice and send it back to Miss Taylor.

Speech is coming.

And there are other games:

Miss Taylor holds your hand on a cheek,

and you can feel the sound.

And all the time,

you are getting nearer and nearer...

...to words.

Bath.

These children are starting
to pass through the door

that silence has put between
them and the world outside.

They are beginning to
understand each other.

Father...

...fell.

Baby...

Father...

...jumped.

The...

The boy...

...jumped.

The great thing is a letter from home.

Dennis can't read his letter by himself,

but he knows what it is
and where it's from.

And he can take it to Miss Taylor,

and she can put it in the
simple words he knows.

So, Dennis will know that
his Mother and Father,

and his brothers and
sisters, who are not deaf,

have not forgotten him.

Dear Dennis,

I hope you are well...

Mother will send you a parcel.

Baby Irene sat in the pram.

Sometimes, Miss Taylor will make a mistake,

but Dennis will not be caught.

Brother Ray has 12 rabbits.

That's Father rabbit...

...that's Mother rabbit.

Love from Mummy and Daddy.

By the time they are 6 or 7, these children

are still a long way behind
children who can hear.

They still don't know many words...

...and it's only through words that their
minds can grow and reach out into the world.

But they have started to
work together, and work...

...is a more serious business now.

Miss Massey's children are beginning
to know where they are in the world.

Is it Wednesday?

- Thursday.
- Thurs... day.

Is it the seventh?

- No.
- No.

- Eighth.
- Eighth.

Eighth.

No! No!

Shall I rub it off?

- No!
- No!

Little Black Sambo has taken
the children's fancy.

They only met him yesterday when Miss Massey
told them his story for the first time.

They can follow a story now,

retold in the words they know.

For even a simpler story has words
that are new to these children.

A beautiful green umbrella.

Umbrella.

But best of all, like any children,

they like to take parts in a
story and act it for themselves.

Black Jumbo gave Little Black Sambo...

...a beautiful green umbrella.

Black Mumbo gave Little Black Sambo...

...a lovely little pair of purple shoes.

Then, Black Sambo put on his
beautiful little red coat.

Then, he went for a walk in the jungle.

There were tigers in the jungle.

The tigers were very fierce!

Little Black Sambo wasn't
afraid of the tigers.

Little Black Sambo was very grand!

That is why nobody wants to
lose Little Black Sambo.

- Don't you want me to rub it off?
- No!

All right, I'll leave it on, then.

Every story and every game
like this is a lesson as well,

giving the children more words
and more understanding.

Lip-reading must become
instinctive to them,

as natural as hearing.

Morris!

Tell Morris.

Morris, please fetch the mirrors.

All the time, Miss Massey is drawing
the children out of themselves

into the life of the class,

getting them used to the idea
of doing things on their own.

It is Linda's turn to
give the mirrors round.

She's quite aware of
what Miss Massey wants,

and quite aware of why
Catherine is making a fuss:

she doesn't want just any mirror,

she wants her own mirror.

The mirrors are for speech.

By this time, learning to
speak is less like play,

and more like work.

And so you start to recognise
what sounds look like

when you are making them yourself.

But a mirror can't show you how to speak.

There must be someone to help.

Choosing the words that have come
up in class, perhaps in the story,

Miss Massey sets to work, day after day,

to give her children speech,

showing them the shapes
their mouths must make,

making them feel the sound of a voice.

Black.

Black.

Jumbo.

Jumbo.

When someone speaks to you, it's
natural to watch their eyes.

Deaf children have to
learn to watch mouths.

Little Black Sambo.

Black.

- Black.
- Black.

Sambo.

A beautiful green umbrella.

Over and over, the sounds must be repeated.

A word comes very slowly

when you can only get it
right by remembering exactly

what it feels like when you say it.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Get it there.

Not in your nose.

That's it.

Beautiful.

A beautiful...

...green umbrella.

So, sounds grow to words,

and words grow to phrases.

And Catherine is going to say a sentence.

Who is that?

Little Black Sambo.

What is that?

Only one out of every three children who
are deaf can hope to achieve real speech.

They must be given strength and
devotion from the outside.

And they must have devotion
and strength themselves.

Like Catherine.

Little Black...

...Sambo...

...had a...

...beautiful...

...green...

- ...umbrella.
- That's right!

Only one deaf child in three

will achieve real speech.

Little Black Sambo.

"Thursday's child has far to go."

Four years old seems early to be
leaving home to go to school.

But for these children,

school is the safest and happiest way
of learning to live with other people.

So, they learn together,

and live together.

As they live, they learn.

Linda will find a place in life,
she is the managing kind.

John and Rosemary are already getting
used to their first term at school

and starting to look outside
themselves and enjoying what they see.

Faces become brighter when there
is understanding in them.

Eyes and hands are lively,

expressing what words cannot say.

And after time, you find that you can
use some of the words you have learned.

These children are being saved
from the worst enemy of the deaf:

from being alone...

...cut off in silence.

There are many good things in life
that these children can never have:

they will never hear music
or the sound of a voice.

They will find that the world
outside is often in a hurry,

and that luckier people, who have hearing,

are often impatient with
those who have none.

But these children will not be unprepared.

There is a spirit in them,

which will make up for some of the
good things they've got to miss.

Their world will never be
the same as our world.

But it can be a good world all the same.

Subtitles by
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