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Report of the County Medical Officer—Education.
197
to learn it most rapidly, so that children who are only very slightly hard-of-hearing require a shorter
term of instruction than those who have less hearing, and when trained to watch the lips of the speaker
they should gather what is said by the mutual assistance of hearing and lip-reading. Children who are
very hard-of-hearing would probably require longer teaching and practice to enable them to become
thoroughly proficient lip-readers.
The conclusion arrived at, after carefully watching this class and consulting on several occasions
with the teacher, is that, in a class of about 16 children of ages varying from 7 to 14 years and representing
all standards, it is not practicable to teach all together, as the language and ideas of the older
scholars are much in advance of those of the younger ones. With the aim in view of their return to
hearing classes, a certain amount of teaching, with practice in lip-reading, of such subjects as geography
and history seems advisable, besides adding interest to the school work. A considerable amount of
time must necessarily be spent in keeping the little ones usefully employed and in training them to
work by themselves whilst the older ones are receiving lessons. The younger ones also require instruction
in reading and writing. In a small class some of the children can with advantage be set to practise
lip-reading with one another, whilst the teacher pays special attention to the more backward or to those
with speech defects.
There are, scattered throughout the Council's elementary schools, a number of children who
are unfit by reason of their defective hearing for education therein, and equally unfit by the limited
extent of their defect for instruction in a deaf school, yet who should receive a modified form of special
teaching, such as is provided in a class for the partially deaf.
Out of 1,194 cases seen during the last three years, 113 were judged to be fit for classes for the
partially deaf, or 9.4 per cent. The greater proportion of such children noted in the course of 1910 was
due to the presentation of a number of cases from one district to be examined specially with a view to
the establishment of a class for the partially deaf in the neighbourhood of Old Kent-road. The area
served by the present class at Ackmar-road comprises Battersea, Chelsea, Fulham, Hammersmith,
Kensington and parts of Wandsworth and Westminster. It is possible, therefore, that the establishment
of five more such centres would be sufficient to enable the partially deaf children in the county to
be dealt with in an efficient and practical manner. The greatest necessity for such centres exists in
the areas about the north and north-west, east, south-east and south-west.
The question of the organisation of classes or centres for the partially deaf requires careful consideration.
In the first place, it is essential that the partially deaf child should be guarded from mixing
with deaf mutes, and removed from proximity to deaf centres. Even the precautions taken at Ackmarroad
are powerless to keep such a child from contact with the deaf mute outside the school, whereas
he should be encouraged to mix with normal hearing children. For this reason, centres for the partially
deaf should for preference be arranged in a large elementary school. The scholars could then mix
with their hearing fellows in the playground. By this means, also, they could attend ordinary hearing
and manual work classes, whilst passing a part of their time in the special centre. Each centre should
contain two classes, one for younger children, from say 7 to 10, and one for older children, from 11 to
14. These would require to be in charge of an experienced teacher of the deaf, and could be taken by
one teacher, the younger children attending in the morning and the older in the afternoon. Those not
being taught in the special centre would be taking part in the work of an ordinary hearing class.
Failing the establishment of these classes, the only alternative is to place the partially deaf children in
deaf schools, where alone they can receive the instruction required, but they are costing the Council
the full expense of deaf children and are occupying places which can be filled by children more suited
to deaf schools.
Mr. Yearsley draws attention to the needs of children suffering from stammering and similar
speech defects. There are, at present, no arrangements for dealing with these cases, although a few
isolated instances of stammering, idioglossia and cleft palate have been seen and recommended for a
course of instruction in articulation at a deaf school. This involves certain disadvantages. In the
first place, they have to make the journey from their own school to a deaf centre, which takes up time
and is an expense, and, secondly, the teacher who is giving them instruction has to neglect his or her own
class in the deaf school in order to give the undivided attention necessary to the lesson in articulation.
Moreover, the educational treatment of stammering, etc., is of a special nature, and it is not every
teacher of the deaf who has the requisite expert knowledge. It is not possible to overcome the defective
speech known as stammering in a class. It is true that certain fundamental laws of breathing and the
co-ordination of the various mechanisms concerned in the production of speech may be taught in a
class the numbers in which are strictly limited, but, once this spade-work is accomplished, each stammerer
has to be considered as an individual and, therefore, each must have individual attention from a
skilled expert. The best course to be pursued with regard to these defects of speech would be to
arrange for certain centres to which children suffering from stammering and allied conditions could
come for lessons once a week, where they could be taught by a visiting teacher, each for from half to
one hour. It is, however, of paramount importance that this teacher should be an expert.
Instruction, save from an evnert is worse than useless.
There have been no changes to record in the ordinary special schools of this character, the
important feature of the year has been the increased provision of accommodation for those suffering from
high myopia and other defects of vision which have rendered the children incapable of benefiting
adequately by the instruction available either in the ordinary elementary schools or in the special schools
for the blind. These schools have been under the special supervision of the Council's ophthalmologist,
Mr. Bishop Harman, who contributes the following notes of the progress and present state of this
experiment in the instruction of those who while not blind suffer from severe visual defects.
Schools for
the blind and
partially
blind
bo soon as any attempt was made to ascertain the cause of bad vision amongst school children,
cases of high myopia were discovered and immediate difficulty arose in providing for their satisfactory
Myope
schools.