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196
Annual Report of the Loudon County Council, 1912.
The greater frequency of cases of heart disease among girls is associated with the increased
incidence of rheumatism in their sex, but the proportion of cases of heart disease which had presented
previous rheumatic manifestations is substantially the same in boys (68.3 per cent.) and girls (69.5 per
cent.)
Schools
for the
doaf.
Schools for the Deaf and Partially Deaf.
The investigation of the causes of educational deafness is one of very great importance and the
results obtainable therefrom will, if acted upon, materially reduce the number of children who suffer
from acquired deafness to such a degree as to require highly specialised teaching. The prevention of
acquired deafness is a question of a very far-reaching nature, and requires the disinterested co-operation
of many bodies, educational, medical, municipal and social.
Mr. Macleod Yearsley visits the deaf schools in rotation, giving the head teachers at least three
days' notice of his visit, and seeing such scholars as they may wish him to inspect. All new scholars
are seen at the first visit after their admission when the condition ot their ears and hearing and of the
upper air passages is ascertained, so far as this is possible with uneducated deaf children. In many cases
it is not possible to make complete tests of their hearing until such children have received a considerable
amount ot special education, but as far as may be it is ascertained whether they are stone deaf or have
hearing for noises, vowels, or words and sentences, as these points are of importance for determining
on education by the oral system.
Head teachers welcome the visits of the otologist and have generally some matter to discuss or
some case upon Which they want advice.
Eegular visits are also made to the residential schools, where the scheme of work is much the same
as at the day schools. All the new arrivals are seen at the first visit after their admission and are
examined de novo, so that those whose previous examinations as to the amount of hearing have been
necessarily incomplete are freshly and more thoroughly investigated, and those whose examinations
have already been exhaustive are all re-examined and the notes confirmed. By this means, it has been
possible, since 1908, to collect records of some 1,100 cases, approximately 600 boys and 500 girls.
During the first month of the year, it is the custom to visit each school, residential or day, and to see
every scholar, so that no child misses being seen at least once during the twelve months. The children
in the schools for the deaf are also regularly supervised by the Council's ophthalmologist to avoid, so
far as possible, any risk of impairment of vision which has assumed a greater importance from the failure
of auditory activity. Similarly, from time to time, the otologist reports on cases in the schools for the
blind.
Children nominated for admission to schools for the deaf are examined at the offices of the Public
Health Department, their auditory status and physical condition determined, and a conclusion arrived
at as to educational treatment. The results of these examinations for the year are as follows:—
Fit for elementary schools (including, however, some cases with
suppurating ears) 114
Fit for elementary schools, but to sit in front row 74
Fit for classes for the partially deaf 34
Fit for education in a deaf centre 111
Fit for education in a mentally defective school 9
Imbecile 2
Physically defective 8
Invalided 13
Exempted 4
Total 369
Schools
for the
partially
deaf.
The class for the partially deaf at Ackmar-road began on 12th September, 1910, with six children
and has, at the present time, sixteen on the roll. In all, twenty-six children have been taught, and of
these six were returned to elementary schools, one was transferred to a mentally defective school, one
was invalided for treatment and later transferred to a deaf centre, one left for domestic service, one
was taken to a home, sixteen are still in the class.
The children are under the special supervision of Mr. Macleod Yearsley, the Council's otologist,
who reports that the deafness of the children now attending the class Was due in nine cases to suppuration
and in seven to catarrhal conditions of the middle ear. In no case was the hearing distance for the
ordinary voice (conversational tone) more than 4 ft., and in every case the deafness was such that the
child was severely handicapped for the work of a hearing school, even when placed in the front benches.
It is, however, equally the case that none of these children were sufficiently deaf for special education
in a deaf centre and had they been placed in deaf schools they would have been brought into contact
with deaf scholars whose habits of thought are entirely different from their own and whose language
attainments are more limited.
Some of the partially deaf children have appeared to improve in hearing since their admission.
This may be attributable to the functional rest of the ears, due to their having been subjected to less
strain by reason of the acquisition of an additional means of communication (lip-reading) and the
increased knowledge of language that this new means of communication has given them. The general
result of the education received in the class has been marked, from a dull apathy due to the hopelessness
of understanding the teaching in an ordinary hearing class, to a brightness and happy alertness. In
order to ensure this the hours of attendance and the arrangements for meals and prayers are such as
to separate the partially deaf from the other scholars in the deaf school.
Lip-reading appears to be readily acquired by most children. Those with most hearing seem