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51
PUPILS SUFFERING FROM A SPEECH DEFECT
In Day Special Schools or Units - 10
The Day Special Unit for Speech Disordered Children at West Thornton
School continued to make progress during the year. It is pleasing to record
that on the third anniversary of its opening no Croydon child was attending
a residential school by reason of a speech defect. This is surely sufficient
testimony to the Education Committee's decision to provide day facilities
for these children.
Dr. Gwen Fisher, Specialist medical officer responsible for speech
disorders, comments -
"This Unit was started in January 1966 to provide education for
children with speech and communication difficulties. The time-table is
arranged so that children can have daily speech therapy, and the teacher
and speech therapists work together in close co¬operation.
The Unit is visited each term by the Consultant Neurologist, Dr. WorsterDrought,
and occasionally by Mrs. Davies¬Eysenck, Educational Psychologist,
who specialises in children with speech and communication disorders.
Eighteen different children have been in the Unit for some time since it
started three years ago. Of these, two came from John Horniman School, and
three were on the waiting list for the John Horniman or Moor House Schools.
Of the six children who have left the Unit, four have been able to go on
to ordinary Infant or Junior schools. One child was transferred to St.
Christopher's and one left the district after attending for a few weeks only.