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Children with hearing defects attending ordinary schools and partially-hearing pre-school children
Arrangements are made for the regular supervision of these children, many of whom wear hearing aids.
For this purpose, there are two peripatetic teachers of the deaf who work in close co-operation with Dr.
Fisch-one covering the London Borough of Haringey, the other the area outside Haringey served by the
Audiology Unit. The peripatetic teachers also pay regular visits to pre-school age deaf and partiallyhearing
children in their homes, for supervision and training.
Audiometry
Routineaudiometric testing of school children iscarried out by two full-time trained audiometricians.
Children who are due for periodic medical inspections at the ages of five, eight and eleven, first have an
audiogram. Those children who fail audiometry have a full audiograph prepared whi"ch is made available
to the school medical officer when the inspection is made. In this way the school medical officer is
able to discuss with the head teacher the child's school progress, to arrange a seating position in class
favourable for hearing and to follow up with any other investigations necessary. The standards for
passing audiometry are set purposely high, and of the 595 children failing first routine tests in 1965, a
very high proportion were found to respond to simple measures or not to need treatment. As would be
expected, the percentage failing 'special'tests was high, because these children had either been referred
specially because deafness was suspected or were already under treatment.
The tables below give the numbers and results of audiometry tests during 1965:-
Maintained Primary and Secondary School Population of the Borough 33060
(excluding Suntrap Residential School)