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The Director of Education co-operated with me in an enquiry into
the incidence of this defect in the various schools and quite a number of
children were found to have some defect or other of speech, mainly stammering.
The whole question of defective speech, however, will be the subject
of a report to the Education Committee, as a good deal can now be done for
these children, and the handicap of a speech defect to a young person
seeking employment needs no stressing.
FOLLOWING UP.
A notice is sent to all parents of children found to have defects,
advising them to seek treatment and where this is provided by the local
authority the parents are asked to sign a form authorising it and the
treatment is then carried out at the appropriate health centre, but where
the treatment indicated is of such a nature that it should be carried out
by a private practitioner or at hospital, advice is given to that effect.
The percentage of acceptances is very high and parents are realising
more and more the importance of early treatment. There are, however,
always a certain number who do not respond and these are followed up by
the school nurses and efforts made to persuade the parents to avail themselves
of the appropriate treatment.
Altogether 7,155 visits were made to the homes of school children;
these were not totally in connection with the following up of defects but
also included visits paid in the following up of infectious diseases, etc.
Re-examinations are also made by the School Medical Officers of all
children found to have had defccts to ascertain progress and also to discover
whether or not the appropriate treatment is being carried out, and if
not, efforts are made to convince the parents of the necessity.
ARRANGEMENTS FOR TREATMENT.
These have been dealt with under the appropriate headings under the
Findings of Medical Inspections.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
The following tables show the number of cases of infectious diseases
occurring amongst the school children.
The action taken to detect and prevent the spread of infectious
diseases is shown on page ... of this report.