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Very young
deaf children
If a child is suspected to have some defect of hearing when he is examined at an
infant welfare centre, or is seen by a health visitor, the child's name is referred to the
local Council audiology clinic and arrangements are made for an examination at a
convenient place. If, as a result of this examination, it is confirmed, or still suspected,
that there is some defect of hearing, the child's name is referred to the Audiology Unit
of the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, Gray's Inn Road, where further
investigation is carried out, and, if necessary, pre-school training (which is intended to
benefit the parent as much as the child) is provided. If the child concerned is two years
of age or more, the hospital audiology unit informs the Principal School Medical Officer
(usually after training has continued for about six months) whether special educational
treatment is recommended. (Liaison between the School Health Service and the
Audiology Unit of the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital is particularly
close, as Miss E. Whetnall, the Council's consultant otologist, is in charge of the
audiology unit.) Recommendations received in this way from the hospital are, of course,
reconsidered, and re-examination at the County Hall may be carried out if this is
considered to be necessary.
Although a number of children attend the Council's schools for the deaf from the age
of two, many other children, for various reasons, do not attend the nursery classes of
these schools until the age of three. By the age of three, however, valuable time has been
lost unless a child has been receiving special training. This training in speech and understanding
should begin when a child begins to talk, i.e., at about 10 months, and should
be given continuously at home by the parents, who should be under instruction from a
certificated teacher of the deaf. Pioneer work on these lines has been carried out at
certain London hospitals, and it is felt that there is now scope for expansion, and that
local centres would avoid the problem of travelling long distances, and thus encourage
attendance. Accordingly, therefore, the Council has established two special clinics for
training very young deaf children and their mothers, and it is the intention to establish
up to a maximum of one in each of the nine health divisions of the County. These clinics
are held in the existing audiology centres, and the training is given by a certificated
teacher of the deaf, working under the advice of the otologists attached to the centres.
The centres are equipped with pure tone audiometers and other special equipment. The
work is under the general supervision of the Council's consultant otologist.
Diabetic
children
The present arrangements for the treatment of diabetic children are the result of
experience gained during the war. Most of the diabetic children for whom the Council
was responsible were evacuated in one party to Hutton Residential School. The unit was
staffed by nurses and the children were taught how to test for, and how to control, the
symptoms of their disease. Apart from this the children lived the same life as other
children and they attended local schools. This educational aspect of the work was
successful in helping the children to return home and to order their lives in accordance
with their disability. It is not, of course, necessary for all diabetic children to spend part
of their school lives in such a hostel, but, as in the case of all types of handicap, the
social and psychological problems of each child must be considered in assessing what is
his need. After the war, a unit for diabetic children was retained at Hutton. The Council
thus became the first authority to provide residential care for diabetic pupils under the
Education Act, 1944. Early in 1954, the unit was moved to Palingswick House, Hammersmith.
The children live together in the unit, but go out each day to ordinary primary
and secondary schools.
Educationally
sub-normal
children
The Handicapped Pupils and School Health Service Regulations (1945) established
the concept of ' educational sub-normality' to replace that of mental defect so far as
educable children were concerned. In speaking of this type of child in the period before
these Regulations came into force, it will therefore be necessary to use the term ' mentally
defective'.
A certain amount of training for mentally defective children was given in the asylum
for idiot children at Earlswood (1847) and the Royal Lancaster Asylum (1864). In July,
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