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The incidence of partial sightedness for special educational provision remains
fairly constant at 0.33 per 1,000 registered pupils. There is close liaison between the
Chief Assistant School Medical Officer and the Ophthalmologist on this subject,
DEAF AND PARTIALLY DEAF PUPILS. A deaf child is defined as one who has no hearing
or whose hearing is so defective that it requires education by methods used for deaf
children without naturally acquired speech or language. A deaf child must be educated at
a special school unless the Minister determines otherwise. In all the schools for the
deaf the oral system of speech and lip reading is used. Those children who have enough
hearing make full use of group hearing-aid apparatus in specially equipped classrooms and
are supplied with individual hearing-aids for personal use. The normal curriculum is
followed as far as possible but with particular stress on lip reading and language
development. Some of our children with the highest academic ability go at the age of
twelve to a voluntary special school, The Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf, Newbury,
which is the only one of its kind in the country.
A partially deaf child is one who has some naturally acquired speech and language
but whose hearing is so defective that it requires for its education special arrangements
or facilities though not necessarily all the educational methods used for deaf children.
This includes lip reading and training in the use of individual hearing-aids. Occasionally
some of these partially deaf pupils return to ordinary schools and are able to work with
other children, provided they are placed in a favourable position in the classroom and
continue to use hearing-aids.
Lip reading is the art of reading correctly the speech of others from observation
of the movements of the mouth, face and throat. The ability to lip-read varies greatly.
Quite a number of children with defective hearing seem to acquire the skill unconsciously,
without having had any lessons, so that a severe degree of deafness can exist in such
children and remain for a long time unsuspected. They are natural lip-readers. Most
children learn to lip-read fairly readily, although one cannot say beforehand whether the
child will learn to lip-read quickly or slowly. Some children find it difficult however
hard they try although they may be quite intelligent. Tuition in lip-reading is usually
given by teachers of the deaf. One child attended the School for the Deaf weekly for
auditory training. The emphasis nowadays is on the need for early ascertainment of deafness
in young children, so that auditory training can be commenced at a time when the residual
hearing possessed by the majority of deaf children can be used to its full extent.
Figures relating to work carried out in connection with deaf and partially deaf
children during the year are set out below:-
Number ascertained during the year:
Deaf 2
Partially deaf 1
Disposal of ascertained cases:
Admitted to day special school (deaf) 1
Admitted to residential special school (deaf) 1
Admitted to day special school (partially deaf) 1
Number known to the Authority at the end of the year:
In residential special schools (deaf) 6
In day special school (deaf) 21
In day special school (partially deaf) 8
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