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10.

Specch TherApy Clinic
Miss R. Sacks, Speech Therapist, presents the following report on the work
of this c-llnlc.
"During 1950 a total of 1,225 attendances was made at the Clinic. As usual
attendance during the school holidays was apt to be poor and there was a very big
drop In attendance during the bus strike In the early part of the year.
Ninety new cases were referred for speech therapy and appointments were nade
for 00 new children to attend but only 67 of that number actually began treatment
here. (Some never attended and others were placed on the supervision list pendlnf
further investigations or to allow for spontaneous development.)
Twenty-four children were referred for discharge. Four children left the
district and one was transferred to a Speech Therapist nearer his school (the
RYDER Partially-sighted School, Stepney). Twenty-nine children ceased to attend
no reason being given and four children ceased to attend at their parents' request.
A number of children referred during the year, or in previous years, continued
to receive speech therapy at Lansbury E.S.N. School. The number of children
seen there Is not included In the total attendance figure for the year but about
ten children were seen each week during the school term.
Of the new children admitted, there were 3 with cleft palate speech, one with
retardation of speech and language due to partial deafness; 10 stammerers and 43
children with artlculatory defects (ranging from simple "lisps" to grossly distorted
speech). A few of these children had retarded language development and
some children classed as stammerers, also had artlculatory defects.
As In former years, Speech Therapy students from the West End Hospital Speech
Therapy Training School, continued to assist, both at Lansbury and at Manor Park.
Contacts with schools and with parents were kept up and some school visits
were made.
In April, a weekly Speech Therapy Session was started at the Town Hall Annexe
and another was begun In July at the Child Guidance Clinic, Shrewsbury Road.
Arrangements were also completed for a fortnightly session to take place at Storey
Street School, North Woolwich.
This means that facilities for Speech Therapy will be available over a far
greater area of the Borough than In previous years.
Ophthalmic Clinic
Mr. R.A. Morris, Ophthalmic Surgeon, attends at the Town Hall Annexe on four
sessions weekly.
We are grateful to him for the consistently high level of service bestowed
on our children and for the punctuality and kindness with which the whole of this
difficult work Is carried out.