View report page

110
Speech Therapy
1971 has been an eventful year for the speech therapy service.
There were further changes of staff, with one full time
therapist leaving in December, another in June, and a part time
therapist who had lived and worked in the borough for several years,
leaving in September to move to another district.
During the course of the year the establishment has been
increased by one full time and one part time therapist. The part time
post was to allow for five sessions a week at the Kingston Adult Training
Centre, thereby making it possible for trainees leaving Dysart School to
attend the Adult Training Centre to continue their treatment if necessary,
and to provide speech therapy for other adults who had never had the
opportunity to receive treatment in the past. The therapists in these
centres are concerned with both defective articulation and with the
development and use of speech and language.
The speech therapy unit at Buckland Infants School was opened
in April, with the admission of five children needing frequent treatment
to ensure good progress and to overcome the various educational difficulties
which so often accompany speech defects. There is a full time teacher,
and daily speech therapy. The teacher and the therapists work in close
co-operation.
Before the opening of this unit an advisers panel was formed,
consisting of a senior medical officer, a consultant psychiatrist, an
educational psychologist, a psychiatric social worker, a head teacher,
a senior administrative assistant from the Education Department, and the
senior speech therapist.
This panel selects the children for admission and advises
wherever necessary with their treatment. The social worker holds a
parents meeting once a month and also consults with and advises the staff
of the unit wherever there are social or emotional problems.
By December there were ten children in the class, two of whom
had improved sufficiently to return to their own schools. One was
subsequently found to be unsuitable.
The following tables show the work undertaken by speech
therapists at the various centres, with 1970 figures for comparison: