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1965. There is a need in Greenwich for a nursery class to help
mothers of blind and partially sighted children under the age of
five years. These children tend to be over-protected by their parents
and could be helped much earlier in life. Perhaps it may be possible
at some time to provide combined nursery facilities for partially
hearing and deaf, partially sighted and blind pre-school children,
which might be linked with an ordinary day nursery.
Blind children attend Linden Lodge, S.W.19, or private schools.
There is no delay or difficulty in admission of these children.
Similarly, there are no delays for admission to day open air
schools for delicate children.
In the case of epileptic children, however, there were usually
long delays and difficulties in arrangements for admission of suitable
children to Lingfield. Several epileptic children, insufficiently
controlled by drug therapy to attend ordinary schools, attended
either the school for the physically handicapped or the day open
air school.
Speech Therapy
There are seven speech therapy clinics within the Borough,
but there is a shortage of speech therapists and a long waiting list
for nearly all the clinics. As far as possible all children have their
hearing tested before attending for speech therapy. Great efforts
will have to be made to recruit speech therapists not only in the
school service but in the junior centres provided under the Mental
Health Act. A greater sharing of facilities must be explored, and
these same difficulties apply to physiotherapy.
Day Nursery Facilities
Although this is not directly related to the School Health
Service, this Department is aware of the need for a day nursery in
the Borough. This need is experienced not only in the case of
children whose mothers need to work for economic reasons, but
also handicapped children and children from deprived environments,
e.g. the child with normal hearing whose parents are deaf
and have little or no speech.
Ten places are available to the Borough in a day nursery
within the London Borough of Lewisham, but these places are
always over-subscribed and a decision on priority admission is
essential, leaving many deserving cases without assistance. Head
teachers of local nursery schools have been helpful in admitting,
occasionally, a handicapped child who is in need of company, but
the numbers helped in this way are necessarily very limited, due
firstly to the great deal of individual attention required by some of
these children, which adversely affects that given to "normal"
children, and secondly to the fact that some of the staff feel unable