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Children from the two special classes with hearing handicaps and other partially hearing children
in the school were supervised at Neasden Audiology Unit by the Otologist.
Four full-time physiotherapists provided treatment in the large physiotherapy department and the
adjacent hydro-therapy pool. Children who were able also visited swimming baths with the school.
The nurse who is in full attendance at the school is supported by Welfare Assistants who help with
the care of the children.
Residential Schools for Physically Handicapped Children
There are seven children placed at residential schools, one at Colney Hill School, Kent, one at Trueloves,
three at Welborn Hall, one at St. Michael's and one at Tylney Hall.
children with speech defects
Speech and communication difficulties in young children are an ever increasing problem in the
borough and many children in the special schools have this defect in association with other handicaps.
The major proportion of speech handicapped children attend ordinary schools and have speech
therapy at the local authority health clinics. At the end of 1971 there was a total of 1,036 children requiring
help with speech.
delicate and diabetic children
At the end of 1971 there were 64 children ascertained as delicate, 43 boys and 21 girls. Twenty-one
of the children are placed at day schools, at John Keats and Wood Lane in the Inner London Education
Authority, at Hazelbury School in the London Borough of Enfield and at Grove Park.
Twenty-nine children were placed at residential schools.
Two diabetic children were placed at Pailingswick Hostel in Hammersmith in 1971 and attended
ordinary school in the Inner London Education Authority.
Special education is not required for diabetic children and providing teaching staff are fully informed
about the condition there is no reason why these children should experience any difficulty or the staff any
anxiety when attending ordinary school.
Hostel accommodation is occasionally required when home conditions are poor and management of
the child's diabetes by the parents is faulty. Brent is fortunate in having a Health Visitor particularly concerned
with the diabetic patient. Her work entails attendance at the Diabetic Clinic at Central Middlesex
Hospital and help in co-ordinating the treatment recommended by the physician, by visiting the home and
in the case of children advising the mother how to carry out the physician's instructions and manage her
child's diet, and by visits to school to ensure that the staff there understand something of diabetes and in
this way avoid considerable unnecessary anxiety.