View report page

40
In September 1966 the Partially Hearing Unit at Kingsley Junior
School was opened and I am grateful to Mr. R.H. Lindsell (Teacher of the
Deaf, Mr. W.L. Davies) for the following report.
PARTIALLY HEARING UNIT, KINGSLEY JUNIOR SCHOOL
The initial intake of five deaf children may be small, but it forms a
very interesting group of three boys and two immigrant girls who vary
considerably in age, ability, speech and deafness. The average hearing
losses of the group range from 32 decibels to a suspected profoundly deaf
9 year old girl with a possible average loss of 100+ decibels. One boy
with a 78 decibel loss has the additional handicaps of a right spastic
hemiplegia and nervous stammer.
The Unit is accommodated in a soundrtreated room fitted with
Amplivox group teaching aid, loop induction system and sound level
meters. Other equipment includes a portable speech trainer with mat, and
audiometer. A tape recorder, radio and record player are also to be
provided.
The children have settled down well and are making progress. They
integrate for play and meals and their hearing friends are encouraged to
visit the Unit daily. Integration with hearing classes for selected pupils
and subjects is desirable and is an important aim of the Unit, but not the
principal aim. Far reaching damage can be done if a deaf child is integrated
before he has sufficient confidence and basic understanding. With
this in mind, it may be said that the first aim of the Unit is to try to
create a favourable environment in which the children can feel secure
and happy. Only when this has been achieved can they be helped to gain
real confidence on which a firm foundation for a good language structure
can be built.
The pre-eminent importance of spoken and written language for the
deaf child cannot be overemphasised and this all-important over-riding
theme is the main aim of all the activities in the Unit Language and
speech comprised the whole field of teaching the child to understand, and
to be understood.
Close collaboration between school and parents is obviously desiirable.
Parents will be encouraged to visit the Unit as frequently as
possible so that they may help at home with the work that is going on,
speech training in particular.