View report page

Prior to the establishment of the Authority's service arrangements were made for
children to be seen at Child Guidance Clinics held at:—
The Child Guidance Training Centre
The Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic
The Tavistock Clinic
University College Hospital
Working in close conjunction with the Child Guidance Service the Authority opened
the
Diagnostic Unit,
Smith's Field,
East End Road, N.3.
for the education of children with severe learning problems, certain minor or severe
behaviour problems. The link between the Unit and the full facilities of the Child
Guidance Service being through the Senior Educational Psychologist.
Speech Therapy
The speech therapy service in the London Borough of Barnet has an establishment
of five speech therapists who work within the school health service at clinics and
special schools in the district.
The speech therapists are responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of speech
and language disorders. These may arise from organic or emotional problems resulting
in the inability of the patient to communicate either adequately or intelligibly.
The therapists however cannot concentrate all their attention on the treatment of
the specific speech disorder alone, and must look for all the possible causes of speech
defect, be they psychological or physiological. The abilities of the patient in all
language concepts must be assessed before an adequate diagnosis can be reached,
advice to parents proffered and the correct treatment implemented. While the therapists
are themselves capable of dealing with most aspects of such an assessment, to obtain
a complete assessment they must of course rely on colleagues in other departments, such
as the Educational Psychologists, for help in respect of their own specialties. The
therapists are indeed grateful for the co-operation they have always received from these
departments. i
The age of the children seen in the speech therapy clinics ranges from three years
to school leaving age although the majority of children who receive regular treatment
are between the ages of five and seven years. Some may, however, be referred as
early as two and a half years old, if there is any cause for concern. Indeed, therapists
would prefer referrals at an early age, not necessarily for the purposes of
regular therapy but to give advice and guidance to parents thus alleviating any anxiety
and avoiding the possibility of lengthy treatment in the future.
116