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110
During 1956 consent was obtained from the Ministry of Education
to the opening of an Audiology Unit in Tottenham for the ascertainment
and supervision of young deaf children. Unfortunately its
opening was followed shortly after by the prolonged absence through
illness of the Visiting Aurist, Dr, F.P.M Clarke, so that a real
start could only be made with this on his return to health.
The separation of partially deaf children from the deaf has
been of great value in the younger age group and it is hoped that
a unit for senior partially deaf pupils will, during 1957, beopened
at the new Markfield (Secondary Modern) School in Tottenham. The
degree of integration with normal hearing children would be much
greater with these older children than is at present the case at
the Devonshire Hill class for junior partially deaf children.
With so much work accomplished in the field of provision of
new facilities for handicapped children in the past few years, it
is useful now to have a period in which we can take stock. As is
well known, there has been a revolution in medicine over the past
few years and this has had far reaching effects on the type of
child needing special educational treatment, and less apparent
effect on the numbers, An attempt has been made here to consider
these changes as they affect the problems of the deaf and physically
handicapped categoriesofschool children- The use of prophylactic
technique (e.g. B C G vaccination of infants' and chemotherapeutic
drugs and antibiotics has wrought far reaching changes in the types
of children reaching the B1anche Nevile School for the Deaf, These
drugs, the sulphonamides, penicillin and streptomycin at first
succeeded in saving the lives of a great many children who would
otherwise have died of meningitis but unfortunately many of the
survivors were afflicted wi th deafness some as a result o f streptomycin
therapy. This phase has been succeeded by another in which
therapeutic techniques seem to have greatly improved so that the
survivors are not being deafened. Tables A and B illustrate these
phases admirably. Table A shows the causes of deafness in the
various age groups among deaf and partially deaf chiIdren atspecial
schools (both day and residential) in the Autumn term of 19 56.
Table B was prepared from the register of the Blanche Nevile School
as at September 1951 and the two together illustrate the changes
that have taken place in five years.