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Except for the two cases of high-frequency deafness in this
school, the 11 other children with defective hearing due to various
causes were mentally retarded irrespective of their hearing loss.
They were backward, not because of their ear trouble, but in
addition to their ear trouble. They have all been included in the
above report. Nevertheless, the proportion of children with ear
trouble seems to be higher than in the ordinary school.
Conclusions.
The survey appears to be worth doing, but all but ten of
these children were known to have had treatment or to require
treatment for ear defects. The few cases of acute otitis media
would eventually have had treatment either at the clinic or from
their private medical attendants.
One good point about the survey is that it keeps all the School
Health Service team aware of the progress that those cases are
making, and the "follow-up" work perhaps is improved to that
extent.
It is obviously impossible to do this, of course, every year in
each area; but it might be of some use to do one year group in
each district, and so "screen" the children at least once in their
school life—say at the age of 10 years.
There are no children in any primary or secondary school
unable to benefit from education because of defective hearing.
One in a secondary school has a hearing aid; but, as she manages
so well, she is not considered to be partially deaf.