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8i
additional appointments:-
(i) a full time physiotherapist
(ii) a part time speech therapist
(iii) a male attendant and handyman
Approval has also been given for the purchase of special equipment
for dealing with these children. This equipment falls into
two main groups
(i) for the use of the physiotherapist
(ii) school equipment
The school equipment includes special desks and chairs, which
will assist the children in sitting in the correct position, in encouraging
relaxation and in controlling involuntary movement.
A start is being made in the formation of this unit by ordering
adjustable relaxation chairs, two typewriters (which are of considerable
importance in teaching and training these children) and
the construction, of wooden skis for walking instruction. The
latter are being made at the Tuberculosis Workshops.
Full co-operation in the provision of a spastic unit and in
the selection of children suitable for admission is assured by the
association with the Orthopaedic service under Mr. E.Hambly, F.R.C.S.
Speech Therapy.
The number of cases referred during 1951 has kept both speech
therapists busy. Treatments have been mainly individual, with a
few small groups for stammerers.
The services of the otologist, audiometrician, educational
psychologist, physiotherapist and child psychiatrist have all, at
times, been valuable supplementary aids to treatment. Both parents
and teachers have shown appreciation of the results obtained.
The importance of speech therapy for the child suffering from
cerebral palsy has become apparent from the work at Vale Road School.
Audiometry Survey.
Following previous experience of routine audiometry testing of
the school population in Tottenham, this Area is now one of three in
Middlesex in which there is being conducted a gramophone audiometry
survey into the incidence and causes of deafness in school children.
Miss Harper, the gramophone audiometrician, commenced her survey in