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APPENDIX C
SPEECH THERAPY IN L.C.C. SCHOOLS
Introduction—Speech is not an automatic development, it is something learned by the
child; to attain such a power the child must have a pattern to follow and the ability both
to recognise this pattern and to follow it. A child who for various reasons (for example
deafness or no speech in the environment) never hears speech used is unable to make speech
sounds. Given hearing and the presence of speech, there must be some power of concentration
and some intelligence before profitable progress can be made in developing
speech. This development can be retarded by emotional problems and even if hearing is
normal there may be difficulty in interpreting sounds and reproducing them as useful
speech.
The ability to communicate is a necessity to the human race if not indeed to all animals;
speech, amongst those using the same language, is the simplest method. Education without
speech and an understanding of speech becomes very difficult and life in the community
is full of frustrations.
It can be accepted then that, where speech is inadequate, there is a place for speech
therapy in the work of the school health service. The reason for the inadequacy of speech
is usually to be found amongst the conditions noted above, but in many cases it is not clear
how they operate.
More children are recommended for speech therapy now than formerly and there is a
general impression that there is more poor speech amongst children in the younger,
pre-school and infant school age groups. There is no obvious cause for this, but it may
have relation to the amount of time that radio and television is left on in the home. Instead
of talking, telling stories and reading at close range in quietness, there is an overlay of
noise from the radio and fewer stories are told by parents; there is less accent on the value
of the story read by the fireside and indeed on the relating of the day's doings amongst the
family. The pattern of speech seen, heard and felt by the small child sitting close to the
speaker is lost in these circumstances and lost with it is the stimulation of speech necessary
to small children. There can be no objection to radio, but its indiscriminate use may well
be harmful. Harmful too is the need for keeping children quiet in flats lest the people
below or above object. There is need to experiment in speech just as in walking. Shouting
and crying are useful as are whistling and laughing.
The child needs to have someone to listen to and to talk to and nothing so far has
replaced home companionship as the best way to achieve this. The speech clinic is able to
help children to attain normal speech and language by correcting incorrect sounds and
exercising the child in the development of new sounds necessary for language but not yet
within the competence of the child; work done at home by the parents guided by the speech
therapist is a useful supplement, and in the case of a school where there is good contact
between the school and clinic and parents the situation is still better.
The start—The need for some special provision to be made for children with some
disorder of speech was becoming apparent in London by 1912. Before this year a few
children 'suffering from stammering, idioglossia and cleft palate' were 'recommended
for a course of instruction in articulation ' in a deaf school.
Mr. Yearsley, the Council's otologist at that time, reported that this was not satisfactory
and drew attention to the needs of children with disorders of speech requiring treatment,
for whom no arrangements had been made. The annual report of the School Medical
Officer for 1912 recommended the provision of centres for their treatment and emphasised
that instruction must be by an expert.
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