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The social service side of the work is of great importance to these parents; understanding
preparation by the Care Committee worker can make the whole prospect
brighter and less worrying to them. Many of the children return home for the holidays,
but many can be and are kept at the school for all or part of the holiday period. When the
time for discharge comes the child usually returns to his previous school but in some
cases the easier regime of the day open-air school is recommended for an intermediate
spell.
Physically
handicapped
pupils—
physiotherapy
Since 1950, physiotherapy at the Venetian special school for physically handicapped
children has been given at the school by physiotherapists working under the supervision
of the Director of Physical Medicine from the nearby King's College Hospital. This
arrangement has proved so successful, both in the treatment of the children and in the
saving of time as compared with children at other schools who have to travel to
hospitals during school hours for their treatment, that efforts are being made to effect
similar arrangements at other special schools for physically handicapped children.
Speech
therapy
Speech therapy sessions were held at 28 school treatment centres and, in addition,
sessions were held at 25 day schools for the educationally sub-normal, 15 day schools
for the physically handicapped and at four residential schools. At the end of the year,
1,135 pupils were under treatment at these various speech therapy classes. New admissions
during the year totalled 628, and 348 pupils were discharged as either improved or
cured. 241 pupils, most of whom had shown some improvement, ceased to attend the
classes for various reasons.
Plans were formulated to extend the work and to increase the number of staff.
Audiometry
The routine audiometer testing of pupils continued during 1954, using the group
gramophone test technique. The aim is that, each year, all entrants to junior schools
should be tested, and for this purpose eight sets of apparatus are in use in the divisions.
Pupils failing two consecutive group gramphone tests are tested individually with pure
tone audiometers, and pupils who fail this individual pure tone test are referred to an
audiology centre for examination by an otologist. The results of the audiometer tests
carried out during 1954 were as follows :
Percentage of
Number first tests
Estimated Junior School entrants age 7+ years 56,000 —
Pupils given first gramophone test 46,159 —
Pupils given second gramophone test 13,462 29.2
Pupils given pure tone test 3,805 8.2
Pupils referred to otologist 1,120 2.4
Reference was made in last year's report to the need for methods of testing the
hearing of children at younger ages than is possible with the group gramophone device.
'The Health of the School Child', the report of the Chief Medical Officer of the
Ministry of Education for the years 1952 and 1953, contains the recommendation, made
by the Medical Research Council's Committee on the Education Treatment of Deafness,
that the sweep frequency method of testing was preferable to the group method.
Towards the end of the year it was decided that it would be desirable to carry out
field trials in London of the rapid pure tone sweep method on school entrants of age
5 + years. The necessary apparatus was ordered, and during 1955 pilot schemes will be
operated in two of the nine health divisions.
Diabetic
pupils
Under the School Health Service and Handicapped Pupils Regulations, 1953, there is
no longer a separate category of 'diabetic' pupils; they are now included in the general
category of 'delicate' pupils. The new definition takes account of the fact that some
delicate pupils (e.g., diabetics) can be educated under the normal regime of an ordinary
school, but may need a change of environment to make this possible.
During the last war, as part of the special evacuation arrangements for handicapped
pupils, the Council started a diabetic unit in the curtilage of the residential school at
Hutton, Essex. The scheme was so successful that it continued after the war, until
April, 1954, when the unit was closed, and a residential hostel for diabetic pupils was
opened at Palingswick House, Hammersmith. Children suffering from diabetes mellitus,
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