View report page

5. Child Guidance Clinic
The Educational Psychologist frequently visits schools to give
advice to teachers on the problems of children referred to her. The
majority of the problems relate to the child's educational difficulties,
but occasionally there are behaviour and emotional problems, which
require further investigation, and these cases are referred to the
Child Guidance Clinic at Walthamstow for psychiatric treatment.
This clinic serves a school population from a very wide area and
in consequence the waiting list is very long and, unless the case is
one of great urgency (and is treated accordingly), children have to
wait several months for an appointment.
6. Specialist Services
There has been no change as regards the three specialist services
namely, ophthalmic, orthopaedic and physiotherapy, provided by the
Regional Hospital Board, in conjunction with the Essex County
Council, at the School Clinic, High Road, South Woodford.
The facilities are adequate and compare very favourably with
those provided in adjacent districts.
7. Speech Therapy
This is not a specialist service, but one provided by the Essex
County Council as Local Education Authority. A speech therapist,
assisted by students from recognised Training Colleges for Speech
Therapists, are in attendance at the Woodford Clinic, four times a
week during school terms.
Every effort is made to refer children with speech defects to the
clinic at a very early age to enable treatment to commence at the
earliest possible time with a view to eradicating the defect by the
time the child is ready to enter school. With this aim in view, a new
method of treatment was introduced for the very young children
attending the Woodford Clinic. This method is known as group
speech therapy which, as its name implies, is the treatment of
children in small groups as opposed to the more general idea of
individual training. In the groups, children play with sand, water,
puzzles and other toys for most of the time, having only a few
minutes individual therapy.
The Speech Therapist is of the opinion that this method of
treating young children with retarded speech is preferable to the
child being treated solely by himself for the reasons set out in the
following extract from her report:
"At home he is different from the others in the family circle,
frequently he is frustrated and highly nervous, and the parents'
over-anxiety about his speech only increases his nervouspess and
reluctance to speak.
55