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projecting future needs for speech therapy.
A further project has been undertaken by
the speech therapists using the same language
test, assisting the education department in
evaluating the role of the nursery school in
the development of language. All entrants to
Cranford Infants School are to be tested over
a long-term period. We are grateful to Mrs
Barfield and her staff who have given every
assistance with this work.
The new building at 3ath Road has brought
great benefits to the speech therapy service.
One of the two adjoining sound proofed rooms
is provided with equipment and toys and used as
a play-room, while the other, designated as a
shared room for audiometry and the senior
speech therapist, is used for interviewing
parents at assessment sessions,, A happy and
relaxed atmosphere is created for the investigation
of children's speech difficulties.
At the height of the summer two speech
therapists left the borough the early marriage
rate in the profession once more taking it's
toll! This is always an unfortunate time for
recruitment and there were delays in bringing
the establishment up to strength which resulted
in the closure of some school clinics and to
the central assessment clinic being held at
Bath Road, Although this occupies two speech
therapists they are able to see children under
ideal conditions. The child's abilities in speech
and language are assessed, its speech is
recorded and parents are advised of the type of
help needed. An outline plan of treatment can
also be suggested to the therapist who will
treat the child.
The speech therapists at Martindale continue
to work as part of a harmonious team in developing
their work in the school. During the year,
afternoon meetings for the mothers of out-patients
and nursery age children were started, one
being held each holiday. These were informal
and gave parents opportunities to air their
difficulties with their children's speech and
language, when questions could be asked and
answered not only by the speech therapists but
also by shared experience.
At the Marjory Kinnon School the excellent
work being done in the junior school was
halted by the speech therapist leaving at the
end of the summer term, and it was found
impossible to staff the sessions adequately
during the second six months of the year.
There is little doubt of the need for a
full time speech therapist at the school and
it is hoped that this can be arranged when the
new building is completed.
Screening of pre-school children in Heston July/
August/September 1970 Dr Moya C Tyson BA BSc
(Econ) PhD.
The Chiswick pre-school survey of 1969
(see Annual Report 1969) attempted to
provide not only a useful service to parents
of children about to start in infant schools
or in nursery or reception classes, but also
some valuable information about general
levels of hearing, language and motor
development in a farily large population of
predominantly four to five year olds. However,
there were reasons why the results, although
interesting, required checking by comparison
with another large sample of four to five year
olds. First of all the response by parents to
the offer of a developmental check had been
approximately 60% therefore without other
information it could be argued that this 60%
was not typical of the whole population of
the area. and that if everyone had taken up
the offered appointments, a greater or lesser
proportion of children with difficulties might
have been discovered in the remaining 40%
although it was conjectured that because
many names on the lists were from Health
Visitors records dating back to the infancy
of these children, and there is thought to be
a fair amount of mobility in this part of London,
it was possible that some of the children
offered appointments were no longer in fact
in the area thus reducing the 40% non attendance
figure (Head Teachers' lists covered a large
number of the young children who would
definitely be in Chiswick infant schools in
September),
Secondly, pre-school or nursery experience
had been shown to be quite an important factor
in good language development, and it was
important to see whether this finding held for
another area of the Borough. Lastly, it would
be useful to discover in another area whether
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