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20
PART II SPECIALIST SERVICES
AUDIOLOGY SERVICE
Mr. J.C. Oakley, Peripatetic Teacher of the Deaf
1968 was a very busy year for the Audiology Clinic, 1,140 children
were tested by pure tone audiometer, this included routine follow-up cases,
cases referred by School Medical Officers and 525 Sweep Test Failures.
Regular clinics were held at Lodge Road; Parkway, New Addington and
Whytecliffe Road, Purley. The pre-school children requiring auditory training,
were seen regularly in the clinic or at home and in some cases, extra
speech training was given by the Speech Therapists. In addition, Speech
Training Machines were loaned to parents, for use at home.
101 children were seen either by Mr. Parsons or Mr. Stewart, the
Corporation's Consultant Otologists, who held regular sessions at Lodge
Road and Kingsley Infant and Junior Partially Hearing Units. 14
hearing aids were recommended during the year, 4 of these were National
Health Service 'Medresco' aids and the other 10, Commercial aids paid for
by the Corporation. Commercial aids are considered necessary if the hearing
loss is greater than the range covered by the 'Medresco' aid, 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 is often normal for the lower frequencies and a general
amplification of sound causes a considerable amount of distortion and may
become painful. The National Health Service is hoping to provide aids of
this kind in the near future.
60 babies were seen at the special clinic held in conjunction with Dr.
Morgan, for the early assessment of deafness in young babies, 9 of these
were referred to Mr. Parsons for further assessment. 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. Early diagnosis and the institution of auditory training,
together with a hearing aid, greatly improve the outlook for a child
with impaired hearing, particularly the more severely deaf. There was a
sharp increase in the number of severely deaf pre-school children, 8 new
cases were discovered during the year and we have been warned by Mr.
Parsons to expect a considerable number of new cases in the near future
due to the recent severe rubella epidemic.
During the year, all Infant schools were visited at least once, and
apart from absentees and unco-operative children (479), all children newly
admitted to school during the year were tested. Of the 7,118 children tested,
525 (approx. 7.4%) failed the test and were referred to the Audiology Clinic
for further assessment. We were sorry to lose Mrs. Longstaff at the end of