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the facilities which are most easily available in London. Most
pupils are within the bounds of at least average intelligence. A
psychiatric social worker attends on a full-time basis and sessions
are held at the school every week by a consultant psychiatrist and
a psychotherapist.
Northcote Lodge is a school for maladjusted girls aged from
10 to 16;22 boarders and three day pupils. The school is visited
once a week by a family doctor, a psychiatrist and a psychologist.
Apart from education and medical attention, however, great importance
is attached to the social development of children living
in a community and helping one another.
Gideon Day School accepts maladjusted children of primary and
secondary school age and in addition there are day classes for
the maladjusted children at four ordinary schools, viz. Earlsfield,
Gatton, Huntingfield and John Burns Schools.
Audiometry
Hearing loss may be detected not only by clinical examination
but also by the use of audiometers (machines which provide an
accurate assessment of the hearing defect). Routine audiometry
forms part of the health examination of school entrants, and preschool
children are tested whenever possible. The tests are performed
by three school nurses with special experience in the use
of the apparatus. An audiometry test is employed as a preliminary
measure in the investigation of educational subnormality as a deaf
child of normal intelligence may sometimes give the impression of
being educationally subnormal. Audiometry is of particular value
in investigating learning difficulties which are sometimes found to
be due to a relatively slight degree of defective hearing.
There has been a further increase this year in the number of
children tested before speech therapy. It is important to appreciate
that abnormal speech patterns may develop in a child with hearing
impairment. Limitation in the number of available staff prevents
extensive use of audiometry at secondary schools, but the
tests may be required in certain circumstances, as for example
in the case of a child who has recently arrived in this country.
The numbers of children given audiometer tests during 1968
are as follows:—
Pupils given screening tests 7,644
Pupils given pure-tone tests after failing screening tests 1,284
Pupils referred to otologist 400
Audiology clinics and deaf register
At the end of 1968 there were 296 children living in Wandsworth
whose names were on the deaf register, as their hearing in one or