View report page

Speech Therapy.
I am indebted to Miss Joan Pollitt, Chief Speech Therapist
to the Kent Education Committee for the following
report:—
During March, 1955, the Speech Therapy Clinic was
transferred from Wrotham Road to rooms adjoining the
Murchison Avenue School and Maternity and Child Welfare
Clinic. Two Rooms are now available for use as "fulltime
"Speech Therapy Clinics. It has therefore been
possible for Mrs. Rant to work at the clinic during eight
sessions instead of two sessions as formerly, and for Miss
Beaumont to give a further four sessions each week.
Throughout the year, two students, attending Speech Therapy
Training Schools in London, have gained experience in
clinical practice by each attending for two sessions per week.
These new arrangements have had the effect of reducing
the waiting list from eighty-one at the end of 1954 to eleven
at the end of 1955; of these eleven, six are "Bexley"
children. One "Bexley" child is on the waiting list at the
Crayford Clinic.
The cases of seventy-two children, who are under the
care of the Bexley Authority, have been closed during 1955.
Sixty-one of these children have attended at the Bexley Clinic,
eight at the Sidcup Clinic and three at the Crayford Clinic.
The cases of these seventy-two children have been closed
for the following reasons:—
Satisfactory result 27
Treatment incomplete owing to parents discontinuing
appointments or owing to family leaving
the district after some progress had been made 9
Found to have improved when first seen by the
therapist 7
Reported to have improved prior to appointments
being offered or when appointments were offered 5
Investigation incomplete 2
Appointments offered but no appointments kept.
Owing to the long waiting list which was in existence
at the end of 1954, some of these cases had
been referred two or more years before appointments
were offered 22
72
60