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A small research project was undertaken to
investigate the possibility of pre-school screen
audiometry. A group of pre-school children were
screened for hearing loss prior to their admission
to school instead of at the end of their second
year in primary school. Mrs D Barber has written
a paper on this project which was read at the
British Society of Audiology meeting at
Southampton and is published in this report.
The Medical Research Council gave a grant to
Dr Fisch to carry out research on the relation of
parental age to the occurrence of congenital
deafness in children. This project is proceeding
well.
A conference on Deaf Children in Normal Day
Nurseries was organised by the staff of the Heston
Hearing Clinic. Some 100 persons, including day
nursery staff, medical officers and teachers of the
deaf from a wide area attended. The conference
proved to be a great success and an account of the
proceedings will be published in book form with
the help of the National Deaf Children's Society.
The two peripatetic teachers of the deaf on the
staff of the clinic found it difficult to visit children
at their homes and at schools as frequently as they
would have wished because of the large numbers
involved. An additional teacher of the deaf would
enable this work to be covered adequately.
Regular meetings of parents of all the pre-school
children trained by our teachers were held. This
is one of the important parts of parent guidance.
Parents whose children have been admitted to
school continue to attend these meetings because
they find them useful and interesting.
Routine screening for a hearing loss was continued
in the junior training schools during the year.
Routine screen audiometry was undertaken in
all primary schools as in previous years. Children
who failed routine sweep tests in school were
tested at the local clinics and then referred to the
school medical officer if this was thought necessary.
The number of tests made during the year
was:—

Children seen in the clinics for special
audiometry were referred from medical officers,
speech therapists, general practitioners and from
the school psychological service as folows: —

The audiometrician took a total of 428 ear mould
impressions during the year for use with hearing
aids. 39 Medresco (NHS) aids were issued during
the year and 274 Medresco aids were replaced or
exchanged. A number of commercial aids are
loaned to the hearing clinic by the importers or
manufacturers for trial purposes when making
decisions about a suitable aid for a child. This
facility is greatly appreciated. As a result of these
arrangements, 31 commercial body-worn aids and
29 commercial post-aural aids were recommended
for children and were purchased by education
authorities during the year.
Miss P Taber, audiology assistant, was seconded
to the Audiology Technicians Course at the
Institute of Laryngology and Otology at Gray's
Inn Road and she obtained her qualifying
diploma.
Dr Fisch was invited to lecture at the
International Audiology Congress in Mexico City
in June, at the Jubilee Conference celebrating 100
years of aural education of the deaf in the USA
at Northampton, Mass. and at the annual meeting
of the Otolaryngology Society of Norway. He also
gave a talk at the University of Oslo.
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