View report page

141
Audiology
All pupils have a routine hearing test between the ages of
six and seven years together with any other children specially referred
by head teachers and medical officers, and each school is now visited
annually by the audiometrician.
The audiology clinic is staffed by a medical officer specially
trained in this work. The services of the audiologist were previously
shared with the Surrey County Council, and the borough now have an
arrangement with the London Borough of Merton by which the services of
an audiologist are provided on a sessional basis. The audiologist is
assisted by an audiometrician and a teacher for the deaf. The latter
also visits children who are wearing hearing aids both to ensure that
maximum benefit is being obtained from the aids and to train those
children who have been newly supplied with hearing aids.
Many children are handicapped to some degree by a hearing
loss, and the health visitors examine children in their first year of
life to establish those with any hearing defect. A hearing loss may
not be apparent to the parents and the teachers, but in a large crowded
classroom with the child in an unfavourable position slow progress and
apparent retardation could so easily result from inability to hear
correctly. These children are being detected by routine school audiometry
of the six and seven year old age group. Those who fail the
test are medically examined and subsequently referred to the audiology
clinic, placed in favourable positions in class, referred to ear, nose
and throat consultants, or put under the supervision of a teacher of
the deaf, as appropriate. Parents and teachers are informed about the
hearing loss and the probable effect in school and at home.
Details of the work undertaken in schools are as follows:
Children tested - 1,595. Children who failed test - 178.
Result of investigations by school medical officers:
No significant hearing loss on clinical examination 69
No significant hearing loss, but child appears
mentally retarded 2
Hearing loss confirmed and attributed to:
(i) Catarrhal condition (with or without
inflammation of ear) 55
(ii) Old otitis media 14
(iii) Injury
(iv) Other causes 15
(v) Undetermined causes 10
Investigations:
(i) Incomplete at end of year 13
(ii) Not possible - left district or
otherwise unavailable for examination
(cont.)