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pupils may be referred by head teachers.
school nurses and others, These sessions
also provide facilities for the follow up of
conditions found at periodic and special
inspections. Where active treatment is required,
the pupils are referred to their own doctors
or specialist clinics as most of the work done
by the medical officer is advisory, educational
or supportive.
Ophthalmic Clinics
The vision of entrants is tested during their
first year in school and is repeated at age
seven, eleven and fifteen years, When an eye
disease, squint or defect of sight is found
parents may use the facilities of our ophthalmic
clinics where refraction is carried out by
ophthalmic surgeons, A total of 2,084 children
were seen at these clinics during the year and
spectacles were prescribed for 487 pupils.
The examination of the vision of spastic
and other children with severe physical
handicaps requires special care and an
ophthalmic surgeon visits Martindale School
for the physically handicapped approximately
once a month during term time. Some of these
pupils also need special training to make the
best use of their vision and the services of
an orthoptist are also available.
Second pairs of glasses are provided for
those children whose vision is considered
by the ophthalmic surgeon likely to suffer
damage if they were without glasses for any
period.
Orthopaedic Clinics
These clinics are staffed jointly by the
Regional Hospital Board who provide the
orthopaedic surgeons and the local authority
who employ the physiotherapists. Two clinics
are held in the borough, one at Brentford Health
Centre where Mr I D Archibald attends monthly
from West Middlesex Hospital and the other
at Hounslow Health Centre where Mr F Godsalve
Ward has attended monthly until his retirement
in March, Mr Ward was associated with Mr
Ashford at Hounslow Hospital and his work at
the Hounslow orthopaedic clinic was very much
appreciated, He has been succeeded by Mr
KingsmiIl Moore,
438 children were seen by the orthopaedic
surgeons during the year and 105 children
required treatment by physiotherapists at
council clinics. In addition to attendances
made at the Brentford and Hounslow clinics,
a physiotherapist attends Busch House
School daily to provide treatment for children
suffering from asthma, bronchitis cystic
fibrosis and other conditions,
A physiotherapist also attends twice weekly
at the Marjory Kinnon School for educationally
subnormal pupils because of the increasing
number of children with additional physical
disabilities who are admitted to this school,
Speech Therapy
The establishment of speech therapists in the
borough was increased during 1970 by 4 sessions
a week.
The deployment has remained the same with
18 sessions per week at the Martindale School
for the physically handicapped and 6 sessions
per week at the special language classes
these are termed diagnostic and developmental
and take children currently functioning below
their potential level, The children are given
specific work according to their needs planned
jointly by Dr Tyson, the teacher and the speech
therapists. There are 4 sessions at the 2 junior
training schools and 4 sessions at the Marjory
Kinnon School for educationally subnormal
children At one session two speech therapists
see children newly referred for speech therapy
in order to assess their difficulties. The
remaining sessions are spread between the
various school clinics.
Once again the speech therapists took part
in the survey of children entering school in
the year 1970-71. The 1969 survey was held in
Chiswick. and this year a survey commenced
in Heston The speech therapists were responsible
for giving the Reynell Language Development
Test, Considerable information collected in
these two surveys is being processed by Dr
Tyson and the figures are awaited with interest.
The percentage with speech defects and severely
delayed language are of particular value in
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