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Children whose rate of development does not satisfy doctors and health
visitors are referred to Developmental Assessment Clinics, which are conducted
in different parts of the Borough.
In 1971 a total of 192 children had their first examination at Developmental
Clinics of the Borough; 12 more Lambeth children were developmentally assessed
by Dr. O. Nietupska at King's College Hospital. One must remember that a
developmental assessment is a continuous process; one cannot limit it to one
or two examinations and then endeavour, on this basis, to predict the child's
future achievement. The continued assessment is carried out to some degree by
all people concerned with a particular child, i.e. parents, nursery nurses, etc., and
the information from the fieldworkers makes a vital contribution to the
paediatric assessment.
Table 6 shows the ages of children referred to Paediatric Developmental
Assessment clinics from various Child Health Centres. It is hoped that with the
improvement of screening techniques in Child Health Centres, children will be
referred to Developmental Assessment Clinics at an even younger age than they
are at present.
The paediatric developmental assessment is always followed by an
appropriate remedial action, i.e. medical, social, or educational, leading to
improvement of the child's condition. Some children received educational
treatment from a home teacher. Many children were placed in day nurseries
and play groups for stimulation and socialisation, and some were referred to
Child Guidance Clinics, etc. The majority had diagnostic appointments at
Braidwood Audiology Unit, followed by therapy when necessary. Many
children were referred to Paediatric Departments of local hospitals for
investigation, diagnosis, and treatment.
Education and counselling of parents which constitutes a vital factor
in the improvement of a child's progress in all aspects of his development, was
not carried out to an adequate degree; this was due to shortage of staff and
to the fact that there is no social worker attached to either Observation/
Handicap Register, or to Developmental Assessment Service.
The early assessment and subsequent treatment of young developmentally
delayed children resulted in the improvement of their functioning,
and in consequence in a reduction in the number of children referred for
statutory mental examination at the age of 5 years. (Table 7).
It is interesting to note that with the improved facilities for the
identification of handicaps more cases are coming to light, for example,
speech delay and language disorder. It is equally rewarding to note that
the faciltiies for speech therapy, and for promotion of speech development
have also increased, as indicated by Table 8.