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42
to seven more children currently attending the Infant Unit may require
admission to schools for the deaf during 1970. It may be necessary to
persuade some parents to allow their deaf children to attend residential
rather than day special schools. This situation has arisen chiefly because
an outbreak of German measles in 1962/1963 affected some pregnant women,
so that their children were born severely deaf. A sharp increase in the
demand for places in the Partially Hearing Units occurred in 1965, and these
same children are now reaching the age of admission to Junior Schools. It
will clearly be necessary to make exceptional arrangements to deal with this
temporary situation, and urgent discussions are planned to formulate specific
proposals.
Partially Hearing
Seven children were ascertained partially hearing during the year, and
six of them were admitted to appropriate day units. The energetic efforts of
recent years resulting in the creation of a complete system of special education
for the partially hearing child using day units attached to ordinary
schools have largely eliminated previous problems of long waiting lists.
Difficulties, however, still remain. Attention must now be directed towards
a clarification of objectives within the units. In the younger age groups the
inclusion of both deaf and partially hearing pupils in the same unit avoids
the need for young children to travel long distances, or for admission to residential
schools. Nevertheless, it presents great problems for the teacher,
since the needs of the two groups are not always the same. In the older age
groups other difficulties emerge, not least of which is the age spread of the
children within a single unit. An ingenious use of integration within the
school can overcome many difficulties, but may be prejudiced by other
factors. The need to accommodate the whole of the first year of Riddlesdown
Secondary School in the buildings of the former Roke School has created some
problems in the Partially Hearing Unit which is housed in the main school
buildings, and which accepts children direct from the Junior Unit. During the
year it was necessary to recommend that two partially hearing children of
eleven years should be admitted to residential special schools, and in a third
case the parents requested such a transfer, although the balance of professional
advice indicated that the child was satisfactorily placed at the
Riddlesdown Unit.
Dr. Lilian Morgan, the Senior Medical Officer, who is specially responsible
for children with hearing difficulties, comments:—
" At present there are some difficulties being experienced at these Units
as a result of a high proportion of severely deaf children in the 5-7 year age
group. There is also the problem of finding suitable schools for the future
education of this deaf group.
The Senior Unit for partially hearing pupils, which opened at Riddlesdown
County Secondary School in September 1968, provides education for older
children (11 +). There have been anticipated difficulties in the integration of