London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1961
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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It is interesting to note that nearly a third of these children are receiving education in
one or other type of special school. This is an under-estimate as the sample is known to be
deficient in this type of child.
Table (v) shows the age of admission by main type of defect, each child counted once
only.
Table ( v)
| Defect | Sex | Total cases | Approximate age* in years at admission | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | N.R. | |||
| Stammer | 717 | 25 | 41 | 87 | 97 | 97 | 74 | 77 | 71 | 60 | 35 | 27 | 20 | ||||
| 7 | |||||||||||||||||
| Dysphasia | 36 | - | 9 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 3 | - | 2 | - | - | - | |||||
| g | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | |||||||||||
| Sub-mucous cleft | b | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| g | — | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Cleft palate | b | 36 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | |
| g | 7 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||||
| Alalia | b | 47 | 11 | 6 | 1 | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | |||||
| g | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||||
| Dysarthria | b | 85 | 2 | 15 | 7 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 5 | - | - | - | |
| g | - | ||||||||||||||||
| Dyslalia simple | b | 492 | 12 | 40 | 79 | 86 | 88 | 42 | 39 | 29 | 14 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| g | - | ||||||||||||||||
| Dyslalia multiple | b | 614 | 32 | 103 | 164 | 134 | 82 | 35 | 18 | 22 | 11 | 8 | 1 | - | - | ||
| g | - | - | - | - | |||||||||||||
| Dyslalia general | b | 269 | 29 | 53 | 91 | 41 | 21 | 12 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | |||
| g | 7 | - | - | - | - | - | |||||||||||
| Dysphonia | b | 30 | - | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | ||||
| g | - | 3 | - | - | - | - | |||||||||||
| All | b | 2,330 | 112 | 274 | 456 | 386 | 316 | 187 | 156 | 160 | 115 | 68 | 51 | 39 | 6 | 4 | 7 |
| g | 69 | ||||||||||||||||
| Both | 3,279 | 182 | 384 | 637 | 528 | 446 | 266 | 225 | 203 | 165 | 107 | 48 | 11 | 5 | 11 | ||
*Age was calculated by deducting year of birth from year of admission.
Those children suffering from alalia in the older age group were attending training
centres.
No marked modal age is demonstrated for stammering but there is a peak at 7-8 years
old. The modal ages show for dyslalia at 6-8 years and a lesser peak at 11. This probably
reflects the result of routine school medical inspections.
155