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Pre-school children 561
Attending Infant and Junior Schools 141
Attending Senior Schools 150
Total 852
Reason for referral of new cases:-
For diagnosis
195
Known to be deaf, examination before
admission to Blanche Nevile School
5
Immigrants to Borough known to be deaf
2
Partially hearing, advice as to placement
7
Auditory training
10
"At risk"
127
Transfer from hospital out-patients departments
8
Advice as to placement where deafness might
be the cause of backwardness
5
Total
359
62 of the above referrals were from other boroughs.
Audiometric and Vision Screening
Audiometry
Routine audiometric screening is carried out by three full-time trained audiometrician/vision testers.
Vision screening in schools by the Keystone apparatus is now combined with audiometric screening
from junior school upwards. Combined testing has not been found to be practicable or time saving
at infant school level. The audiometricians are also closely associated with the Audiology Unit.
Audiometric screening is carried out twice in infants schools - in the first and last year; once in
junior school and twice in secondary schools - in the first and last years. The standard for
passing screening tests is set purposely high, and a high proportion of those who fail are found to
respond to simple corrective measures. The percentage of children who failed in "special" tests
continued to be high because these children had either been referred especially because deafness
was suspected or were already under treatment.
Special sessions continued to be held during the school holidays at school clinics at which an
audiometrician was present with the medical officer, for the further investigation of these failures.
Technique of Audiometry
A senior audiometrician reports:-
"Routine hearing tests in schools are carried out by means of a portable audiometer (AmplivoxJ.
This gives pure tones from 125 cycles per second to 8,000 c.p.s.. the range of speech frequencies.
A sweep test at 20 decibels in all frequencies is carried out separately in both ears, the child
indicating only when he/she has heard the noise.
If all frequencies at this level are not heard, the child concerned is re-visited at the school between
7 and 10 days later. This waiting period gives a child whose hearing loss is due to a cold, time
to improve. If. however, the loss persists, a graph is completed and the child is recorded for
further investigation. A further hearing test is then given at a local clinic with a medical officer
present to examine the child and obtain family history.
Children with a persistent hearing loss are then referred to the Audiology Unit where more stringent
and technical tests are carried out on a Peters Clinical Audiometer in a sound proof room".
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