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SPEECH DEFECTS. Miss R.Clarke, the senior speech therapist, continued her work at the
main speech clinic; in addition two visits a week were made to the Spastic Unit. Miss A.
Clarke, the assistant speech therapist, who commenced duty in November 1954-, was occupied
mainly with the work at the Spastic Unit at the Elizabeth Fry Special School. The Spastic
Dnit provides treatment for spastic children of all ages, particularly for those under seven
years of age who are in the nursery class in the Unit. Physically handicapped pupils,
.including those with cerebral palsy, who need treatment for speech defects are also treated
at the Unit. The assistant speech therapist attends the Unit every morning and in the
afternoons spends two sessions at the main clinic, two at the branch clinic at the Grange
Road Maternity and Child Welfare Clinic, and one at the Gurney Special School where, in the
past, it has not been possible to arrange for treatment. It is important that these
educationally sub-normal children with speech defects should receive every help we can give
them: on the whole they make slow but steady progress. Students from the West End Hospital
for Nervous Diseases attend both the main clinic and the Spastic Unit.
Speech therapy tape-recording machines have been in constant use during the year at
both the main clinic and the Spastic Unit and are proving a great help in treatment. A
record of the children's progress is kept while attending the speech clinic; as a means
of demonstrating to the child his own speech pattern, and its gradual improvement during
treatment, it provides great encouragement and an incentive to steady perseverance. A
permanent record is made at the Spastic Unit of the progress of each child, by regular
recordings every half-term. The special tape-recorder is most useful in demonstrating to
parents in a most convincing fashion, exactly how much has been achieved by the patient
work of the speech therapists.
The close liaison between the speech clinics and other parts of the service, child
guidance, nose and throat, paediatric and dental, which is so essential to its success,
has continued to work smoothly under the guidance of the Chief Assistant School Medical
Officer who attends the clinics and Spastic Unit from time to time. The number of children
found suitable for speech therapy during the year was 78, and 62 were considered as no
longer in need of treatment. Speech defects of a degree sufficient to warrant speech
therapy do not commonly show themselves in very young children; and as was to be expected
the number of referrals from the maternity and child welfare department remained low, but
was higher than in the previous year. However, this year an experiment was started of
dealing with these pre-school children in a group and so far it has proved successful.
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