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17
PART II SPECIALIST SERVICES
AUDIOLOGY CLINIC
Mr, J.C. Oakley, Peripatetic Teacher of the Deaf
1966 was another busy year for the Audiology Clinic; 900 children
were tested by pure tone audiometer, this included routine follow up
cases, cases referred by School Medical Officers and 359 sweep test
failures. Regular clinics were held at Lodge Road, Croydon; Parkway.
New Addington; Whytecliffe Road, Purley and Rectory Park, Sanderstead.
The pre-school children requiring auditory training, were seen
regularly in the clinic or at home and additional speech training was
given by the speech therapists. Two speech training machines were also
provided by the Corporation for loan to parents, for use in the home. A
third is expected to be provided in the near future.
58 babies were seen at the special clinic held in conjunction with
Dr. Morgan, for the early ascertainment of deafness in young babies, 7 of
these were referred to Mr. Stewart, the Corporation's Otologist. This
clinic has been very successful in diagnosing deafness in these very
young babies, enabling a hearing aid to be prescribed and auditory training
commenced with the minimum of delay.
85 children were seen by Mr. Stewart, who held regular sessions at
Lodge Road and one session at the Kingsley School Infant Unit. 11 hearing
aids were recommended, 4 of these were National Health Service
'Medresco* aids and the other 7 commercial aids paid for by the Corporation.
Commercial aids are considered necessary if the hearing loss is
very severe, or if there is a sharp perceptive loss in the higher frequencies.
The 'Medresco' aid has no automatic volume control and cannot be
tolerated by children with such a loss, as the hearing for low tones is
often normal and a general amplification of sound causes a considerable
amount of distortion and soon becomes painful.
During the year, all infant schools were visited at least once and
apart from absentees and unco-operative children (385), all children
newly admitted to school during the year were tested. Of the 5,075 children
tested, 383 (approx. 7.5%) failed the test and were referred to the
Audiology Clinic for further assessment. At the request of the respective
Head Teachers, Croydon High School and the Royal Russell School are
now being covered by this service.
Mrs. Longstaff was appointed in January as a part time audiometrician,
to replace Mrs. Margetts.
For additional statistical details, see Appendix A, Page 55.