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69
SPEECH THERAPY
There are at present four full-time and two part-time Speech Therapists working in the Borough, and
during the year sessions at the various clinics have proved adequate and waiting lists have not been unmanageable.
At Vernon House Day School for maladjusted pupils, teaching conditions have not been completely
satisfactory as the Therapist has been obliged to work in a library which means that she has been subjected
to interruptions. She has found her sessions inadequate here as an increasing number of children are being
referred.
Because of this situation, and because the Woodfield Day Special School for educationally subnormal
pupils will shortly be divided into Junior and Senior Departments and housed in two separate buildings,
and the need for sessions at the new Health Centre to be opened in the Chalkhill area, it may be that
an addition of at least one Therapist to the present staff will be necessary in the future.
This will give the Woodfield Therapists an opportunity to see their patients twice weekly which
would produce quicker results with these slower children. The present Therapists would not be able to cope
with any more work than they have at present at the clinics.
In general, conditions have been satisfactory, and co-operation by Schools, Psychological Services and
Clinic Staff has been greatly appreciated.
HANDICAPPED CHILDREN AND SPECIAL SCHOOLS
blind children
At the end of 1968, there were eight blind children, all of them boys, being maintained by Brent at
residential schools for the blind. There were four children at Dorton House, Sevenoalks, one at Condover Hall,
Shropshire, one at Rushton Hall, Kettering, one at Sunshine House, Sussex, and one at Worcester College,
Worcester.
partially sighted children
Unlike the previous group of children who are all boys, the partially sighted children consist of thirteen
boys and six girls. At the end of 1968 they were placed at day schools in the Inner London Education
Authority. There are twelve boys and four girls at John Aird School, one girl at New River School and one
boy at Nansen School. One child is not at school.
deaf children
At the end of 1968, there were thirteen boys and seven girls ascertained as deaf and the majority
were placed at day schools, all outside the Brent area.
Of the twelve boys and girls at day schools, seven were at Heston School, three at Blanche Neville
School in Tottenham, and one boy and one girl at Ackmar School in the Inner London Education Authority.
There were at the end of 1968 three boys and a girl under statutory school age and attending day
Nurseries in the Brent area as handicapped children. They were seen regularly at the nursery by the Peripatetic
Teacher for the Deaf.
There were three boys and a girl in residential schools for the deaf, one boy at Nutfield Priory School,
Redhill, one boy at Larchmoor School, Bucks, and one boy and girl at the Royal School for the Deaf, Margate.
partially hearing children
We have in our ordinary schools in Brent many children who have a hearing handicap and wear a
hearing aid. These children manage in ordinary schools with the help of the Peripatetic Teachers for the Deaf
who visit the schools and give auditory training and help. The children are supervised at Neasden Audiology
Unit where they are seen by the Otologist with the Peripatetic Teacher for the Deaf present. Any evidence that
the child is not making progress is then investigated and a recommendation for a partly hearing unit made if
necessary. There is a shortage of places in these units which means waiting sometimes many months when
the child is in need of this special placement. It is hoped that Brent will be able to establish two partially hearing
classes in 1969 which will enable children to be placed immediately.
At the end of 1968 there were sixteen boys and fifteen girls ascertained as partially hearing. Twentyone
of these children were placed in Day Partially Hearing Units attached to ordinary schools in the London
Borough of Hounslow and the London Borough of Haringey, two children at Heston School and eight children
at the Blanche Neville School. One child was attending Haverstock Hill Partially Hearing Unit in the
Inner London Education Authority.
There were three children in residential schools, one at Rayners School in Penn where children have
dual handicaps, and one child was placed at the Royal School for the Deaf, Margate.
Four children who were not yet attending school were placed as handicapped children in Brent Day
Nurseries.