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has risen to approximately 4-.0 necessary extractions per child, i.e. almost twice the
number of teeth of school children are now lost than before the introduction of the Health
Ac to
It is hoped that the present effort to introduce legislation that will allow of the
employment of ancillary assistance in order to cope with the needs of the children, will
soon be introduced and produce results, because it would appear that the supply of Dental
Surgeons will not for many years fill the demand,
A tabular summary of the work of this service appears in Appendix 4 , on
pages 83 and 84-.
SPEECH DEFECTS. The arrangement whereby the Chief Assistant School Medical Officer
makes periodic visits to the Speech Clinic has continued. During the year 25 visits were
made, 16 to the Credon Road Clinic and 8 to the Grange Road Clinic, This latter clinic is
held once a week at the Grange Road Child Welfare Clinic, and the arrangement was made on
account of poor attendance of children at the Credon Road Clinic from schools in the
Grange Road area - Gainsborough Road, Grange Road and Star Lane.
On 13th November, 1950, the Speech Clinic was transferred from Credon Road to
Greengate Street School. A visit of inspection was made a fortnight after its opening
and the clinic was working satisfactorily. Before the end of the year further improvements
were made to the clinic, and it is now in a normal working condition.
The speech therapist has encountered a number of difficult cases and it has been
necessary to send a certain number of pupils to the Aural Specialist on account of nose and
throat conditions and partial deafness. It was necessary to send two cases to the Pyfield
Open Air School. The change to the Open Air School not only improved their general
condition, but their speech defect was also definitely improved.
Occasional cases were referred to the paediatrician and to the Child Guidance
Clinic. In the latter event it is advisable for the speech therapist to attend the case
conference. During the course of the year two girls were admitted to the Moor House Special
School, a residential school dealing with special speech defects.
There is complete co-operation between the speech clinic and the various specialist
officers. The Chief Assistant School Medical Officer acts as the liaison officer between
the speech therapist and these various specialist officers. On several occasions the
students of speech therapy, who attend this clinic, were observed at work by the Chief
Assistant School Medical Officer.
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