London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Edmonton 1946
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Edmonton]
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The 90 new cases seen in 1946 were classified as follows:—
| Stammerers | 25 |
| Dylaalics | 37 |
| Retarded | 3 |
| Dyphonics | 17 (including respiratory disorders). |
| Sigmatismus | 6 |
| Psychological | 2 (these 2 were both older boys whose disorder was one of extreme lack of confidence exhibited in a speech symptom). |
| "Our 40 discharges were classified as follows:— | |
| Stammer | 9 |
| Dyslalia | 16 |
| Dysphonia | 14 |
| Sigmatism | 1 |
"The number of defaulters is decreasing but we would ask the schools for
their co-operation in this respect. By far the greater number of defaulters is
among children suffering from slight vocal and respiratory disorders. The
parents feel that treatment for breathing and a husky voice is unnecessary and
we do not get anything like the same co-operation as in our stammerers for
example. Another difficulty is that our standard of good speech inevitably differs
somewhat from that of the parent and it frequently happens that we have a
child with whom we have worked for a number of months whose parents decide
that they now consider his speech normal and he therefore becomes a defaulter
within a week or so of final discharge. It is our rule never to discharge a child
until we have received a satisfactory report on his speech in school.
Our figures for 1946 are as follows:—
| 1/1/46 | 114 cases on the books. | |
| 90 new cases. | ||
| 6 previously discharged. | ||
| 5 previously defaulted. | ||
| Total | 215 | |
| Discharged | 40 | |
| Deleted | 31 (this includes defaulters, left school, left the district, sent to special schools, etc.). | |
| Receiving treatment | 100 | |
| Waiting list | 42 | |
| Requiring previous treatment | 2 (i.e., awaiting operations). | |
| Total | 215 | |
"All chidren on the waiting list have been called for treatment in January.
The number of school children on the books on 1/1/47 is therefore 144.
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