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stimulation The small room attached to the
special care unit has proved most useful in helping
some of the severely handicapped children to
concentrate their efforts when helped by a teacher
on a one to one basis away from the distractions
of the Unit but the teacher chiId ratio must be
improved before it can be fully used
The increased capacity from 84 to 114 enabled
the temporary class at Colombo House Teddington
to be absorbed into the school and a number of
children from the waiting list to be admitted
Weekly excursions to the local baths for
swimming classes continued throughout the year
and all are hoping that it may be possible at some
time in the future for this school to have its own
swimming bath
Isleworth Junior Training School
The progress in the standard of teaching in this
school continued under the new supervisor Mrs
M S Moodie
Speech Therapy Report by Mrs. D E Cox
Senior Speech Therapist
In the Spring of 1968 a further session per
week was allocated at Isleworth, so that both
centres had two sessions of speech therapy per
week At the same time one therapist became
responsible for the work at both centres so as to
be in a better position to examine the whole
question of speech therapy with severely sub
normal children
A start was made at the commencement of the
Summer term in seeing every child in both training
schools for a brief assessment of speech and
language development It was decided to see all
the children in order to make comparisons and
with the possibility of finding some children whose
developmental language disability was a causative
factor on their subnormal levels of attainment.
A brief set of tasks was devised to give a guide
to their level of ability and this was found to give
sufficient information as to the prognosis for
speech therapy Spontaneous speech is encouraged
and noted during the assessment and the teacher s
opinion is also sought
Children were then selected for speech therapy
where they showed specific defects of articulation
or where their language level appeared signi
ficantly below their performance level. All others
were noted as no treatment needed or placed
on the register as under supervision when their
progress without specific help could be checked
and discussed with teaching staff At the same
time it was hoped to introduce regular home visits
to parents of children either under regular treatment
or under supervision, so that they could discuss
any problems relating to speech and language and
be advised as to management to give maximum
stimulation in this field Due to heavy case loads
and the time taken by the experimental Summer
School for Language Retarded Children few visits
were carried out in 1968 but it is hoped to visit
all parents in the coming year
The success of the methods used in group work
at the Summer School led to groups being taken in
the training school using the same approach This
was tried with a whole class and three groups of
children assessed as needing speech therapy i.e.
nursery junior and senior groups in view of the
mental ages it was thought that the junior group
would show the best progress but is was surprising
to note that the nursery children made the best
progress, thus following the normal pattern of con
ceptual growth between 3-7 years The class
session proved of interest since the whole class
could easily be held for at least half an hour but
other class activities and the speech therapists case
load made it too difficult to hold regular sessions
so their value cahnot be estimated
During 1968 some 26 children were seen regularly
between the two junior training schools while all
the children in both schools were assessed This
does not allow enough time for severe cases and
the frequency of treatment is insufficient However
progress has been shown particularly among the
younger children and it is hoped that improved method
of assessment and measurement of attainment in the
following year will show how a speech therapist s
time should be best allocated in the junior training
schools in the future
Physiotherapy - Report by Mrs J Biddle Superin
tendent Physiotherapist
Hanworth Junior Training School
A physiotherapist is in attendance at Hanworth Junior
Training School for one session each week. 3etween
8 and n children are treated at each session depend
ing on attendance Home visits are carried out during
the holidays and advice is given to parents regarding
treatment at the visits or sometimes at the school
The day of attendance is the same as that of the
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