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The Ear, Nose and Throat clinics are administered by the West Ham Group of the
Hospital Management Committee but are held on the West Ham Education Committee premises
as follows:-
HEARING OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. The methodical testing of school children by the gramophone
audiometer ceased in November 1952 when the audiometrician resigned her appointment,
but in the autumn of 1954 a school nurse was sent to one of the Divisions of the London
County Council for training, and for the last two months of 1954 and the whole of this
year has been engaged for four sessions a week in audiometric work in the schools. Her
work is being efficiently carried out and it has been found that gramophone audiometry is
well within the competence of a good school nurse.
In the early part of the year Miss A.Smart, an audiometrician, was appointed and
commenced duty on 21st February. Her work is divided between the School Health Service
and the Regional Hospital Board, giving approximately half her time to each Service.
Besides testing the children in the schools with the gramophone audiometer, the
audiometrician also attends the ear, nose and throat clinics with the audiologist, the
deaf school, the spastic unit and the audiology unit after its opening in May. Her
specialist knowledge of pure-tone testing is taken advantage of in certain of these
centres.
As mentioned in previous reports the value of the gramophone (group) test is to
ascertain the less obvious degrees of deafness which may in many cases be relieved by
simple forms of treatment, rather than for the ascertainment of children whose hearing
loss is such as to cause them to suffer educationally. In fact the audiometric surveys
in the schools very rarely bring to light children whose hearing is so defective that
they require education in a special school. The school medical officers, as for many
years past, refer any cases of suspected deafness to the aural specialist and if he
considers that there is any degree of deafness present a pure-tone audiogram is taken.
Should the audiogram confirm a loss of hearing sufficient to justify special educational
treatment the necessary steps are taken to ascertain the child as deaf or partially deaf
and appropriate action is taken.
Gramophone audiometry cannot be used for children much below eight years of age
and in my report for 1952 I mentioned that some new technical advance would be needed.
Since that time the trend has been away from gramophone audiometry to pure-tone audiometry.
The Medical Research Council's Committee on the Educational Treatment of Deafness has
recommended the adoption of the sweep-frequency method. I hope that in my next Report I
shall be able to mention, that a s'lart has been made with pure-tone screening.
Stratford School Clinic,
84, West Ham Lane, E.15.
Rosetta School Clinic,
Sophia Road, Custom House, E„l6.
Friday mornings 9 a.m. to 12 noon
Monday and Tuesday mornings
9 a.m. to 12 noon
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