Students and teachers used a variety of listening equipment in classroom settings and testing booths. Volume increasing headphones assisted some students in discriminating sound. Visual meters and gauges were intended to show pitch, volume and tone. Students had occasional audiological exams where they would indicate when tones were heard and try to listen, or guess words spoken by the audiologist.

This student uses an earphone to listen for tones during an audiological test.

This student uses an earphone to listen for tones during an audiological test at the Virginia State School for the Deaf at Hampton. Students were instructed to raise their index finger if they heard a sound.

Gallaudet University Archives

In this classroom, the Deaf students, a teacher demonstrates early electronic listening equipment.

In this classroom at the Rochester School for the Deaf, a teacher demonstrates early electronic listening equipment in 1919.

Rochester School for the Deaf

Deaf child is with the earphone and sits on the hearing teacher sits on the chair in the class.

Hiding lip movements by speaking from behind her pupil, this teacher tests his understanding of sounds in the absence of speechreading.

CLARKE School for the Deaf/
Center for Oral Education