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62
Number discharged 42
Number on roll at 31st December, 1958 216
Number of attendances at Speech Therapy Clinics 4,134
There has thus been during the year an increase of 53
in the number of children on the roll. This is due first
to a fall in the number of discharges following an unusually
high number in 1957; and secondly to an increase
in the number of new cases Some 95 children attended for
the first time in 1958 as compared with 71 and 76 for the
previous two years. This increase is mainly accounted for
by an expansion of the school visiting programme Groups
of children are selected by Head Teachers as possible
cases of speech defect and are seen by a Speech Therapist
at the school, Those children who are thought to require
speech therapy are given treatment at the clinics after
their parents' consent has been obtained.
The frequency of the various types of speech defect
encountered is shown below
(1) Dyslalia- Mixing or missing out of consonants 51 7
(2) Stammering13.3
(3) Developmental aphasia Delayed or absent speech 15.0
(4) Dysarthria - Defects due to disorders of the
muscles of articulation 15.0
(5) Aphasia associated with mental deficiency 3.3
(6) Disorder arising from deafness 1.7
Treatment of individual children has been given at
most of the clinics in the area and sometimes, when convenient,
at schools The playgroups for pre-school children
held at Mattock Lane and Ravenor Park Clinics have continued
to perform a valuable function in allowing young
children with speech defects to mix together under conditions
designed to promote the development of speech.
The Speech class at Stanhope Infant School which
caters for children with more severe speech defects is an
established feature of the educational facilities of the
area. It was felt that the advantages of this type of
class, believed to be the first of its kind in the country,
should be made more widely known. Accordingly a report
was drawn up by two of my Medical Officers who have been
closely associated with this project and was recently
published in "The Medical Officer". This report is reproduced
below by kind permission of the Editor.