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SPEECH THERAPY
During the past twelve months, the speech therapy service in the London Borough of Brent has been
extended, so that there are now five therapists working on a full-time basis. This means that all the major
clinics and special schools are catered for to some degree.
Reports on Work in the Clinics
1. Kilburn, Neasden, Pound Lane and Stonebridge:—
All the above clinics make fairly adequate provision for speech therapy. The individual working
conditions could perhaps be improved in certain of them, but generally the service is well established. Long
waiting lists at Neasden and Kilburn indicate the real need for speech therapy. The predominating age range
among the patients, is five to seven years ; although a lot of pre-school children are being referred at Neasden.
Articulatory defects are prominent, as well as a fairly large group of language problems among the immigrant
children at Kilburn.
2. London Road, College Road, One Tree Hill and Stag Lane Library:—
Again a reasonably adequate service is being maintained at these clinics, where particularly good
connections are being built up with the local schools. A great many children are in need of treatment, and
a long waiting list exists at London Road Clinic. Here it is already apparent that extra sessions are needed.
But these seem impossible to arrange in view of the limited accommodation. Generally a wide variety of
disorders are treated, with emphasis on a number of stammerers. The preponderance of this difficulty within
the area seems linked with the increase in pressures and high standards among the families.
Reports from Special Schools
1. Lower Place Physically Handicapped School:—
Two speech therapists work at the school for a total of seven sessions per week. Approximately
twenty children are seen, but several of these receive two or three treatments per week. A variety of cases is
dealt with. These include delayed speech development, cleft palate, dysphasia and dyslalia. All are associated
with an accompanying physical handicap. Despite extremely good co-operation with teaching staff,
the working conditions are still inadequate; as a room is shared with the physiotherapists, whose treatment
obviously produces a lot of distractions and noise.
2. Wood field School:—
Speech therapy has been improved during the past six months since the reorganisation of the service
under one therapist. However if conditions are to be ideal, the present four sessions could be extended still
more. There is a long waiting list and a heavy case load, comprised of children with more complex problems
than merely an intellectual one. This means that they should be receiving 'three times a week' treatment,
which at the moment is impossible.
Conclusions
It appears that at the moment a fairly adequate speech therapy service is being run in Brent. Obviously,
change will have to be made in subsequent years, in order that the service shall keep in line with the apparent
increase in the need for this type of treatment. However, the therapists would like to stress that they are
particularly grateful for many facilities already provided. Regular meetings are held during school holidays,
and the recent reorganisation of programmes has resulted in a decrease in the amount of travelling during working hours.