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High tone deafness—About one pupil in a thousand receives special educational treatment
as deaf or partially deaf, in day or boarding special schools, or in partially deaf units
in ordinary schools. Nowadays virtually all pupils requiring such special schooling are
detected at an early age and it is most unusual for a child who is seriously handicapped
by deafness to be first brought to notice in an ordinary school.
It is most important that deafness should be detected at as early an age as possible,
certainly before the age of two years, so that, with suitable training and treatment, the
child learns to detect and distinguish normal sounds. The modern development of the
miniature transistorised hearing aid has enabled babies of under one year to be fitted with
aids, so that, like the normal child, they learn to listen in their cradles. The doctors and
health visitors in maternity and child welfare clinics have, in recent years, been receiving
special training in the somewhat difficult task of testing young children for suspected
deafness and all doubtful cases are referred to a consultant otologist. Therefore, by the
time a child starts school, most cases of congenital deafness should already have been
detected and appropriately dealt with. However, there are some children who suffer from
unilateral deafness or from high tone deafness, whose disability may not be at all obvious
and may never even have been suspected.
The routine audiometer tests, now carried out soon after children start school, should
pick up such cases but for some years there will be a number of children in school who have
never had such a test. Teachers can, of course, always refer any child about whom they have
a doubt to the school doctor but, as was stated above, high tone deafness is not necessarily
obvious and the only symptom presenting itself in class may be some degree or other of
backwardness or of defective consonantal speech.
In fact it has been not uncommon in the absence of a reliable audiogram for cases of
high tone deafness to be confused with educational retardation. But the emotional
difficulties caused by this type of hearing loss often make it impossible for any but the most
experienced tester to obtain an audiogram and then only by using special techniques.
The confusion and insecurity of living in a world where all sound may be likened to
a poor telephone line often causes behaviour problems at both ends of the intelligence
scale. Thus abnormal aggressiveness or withdrawal, in many cases coupled with a speech
defect, could be an indication of impaired hearing for higher frequencies. The speech
defect is present because the child repeats what he hears and probably has no idea that
his speech is different from that of his fellows. The sounds which are made on the higher
frequencies include: t, p, k, th, sh, f, ch, x and wh. Ee also contains some high frequency
components. Obviously confusion of these sounds can lead to backwardness in reading
and other subjects.
Survey of deaf children—In September, 1959 a special count was made of children known
to be receiving special educational treatment for defective hearing. The survey excluded
children in ordinary schools who were not specifically receiving special treatment (other
than 'sit near the front') and thus does not represent the total incidence of impaired hearing,
but only those cases warranting special treatment. The results were as follows:
Day schools for the deaf 203
Non-L.C.C. boarding schools (deaf) 71
Rayner's school (deaf) 18
Total deaf — 292
Day partially deaf units 73
Non-L.C.C. boarding schools (partially deaf) .. 36
Rayner's school (partially deaf) 14
Total partially deaf — 123
Children attending auditory training centres—
(a) under 2 years of age 5
2- 3 17 60
3- 5 38
(b) over 5 years of age 166
Children 'followed-up' by peripatetic teachers 62
Total under peripatetic teachers — 288
Total 703
104