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Ascertainment
The first essential in any such programme is early ascertainment. The
results of recent research have shown us the vulnerable groups in which to look
for deaf children. Audiometry in school children by means of the gramophone and
pure tone sweep test audiometer has become routine now in most of Great Britain.
At the same time it should not be looked upon as an instrument of case-finding of
severely deaf children. Case finding of such children should take place long
before the age of compulsory school attendance. Professor and Mrs. Ewing have
suggested a method of routine screening tests of hearing of all babies by health
visitors. This method while crude does get results though there is evidence to
show that the same results could be obtained by a more selective method of
screening those at known risk.
The audiology clinic plays a most important part in early ascertainment. By
now the example set by such clinics as that at the Royal National, Throat, Nose
and Ear Hospital, London, is well' known and it is generally agreed that an extension
of these clinics to all parts of the country is required, Their aim is the
detection of deafness in children at the earliest possible age and to give subsequent
aid to the child and his family in overcoming the handicap.
Auditory Training
The necessity for auditory training is well recognised and accepted by all.
Beyond this, however, is the great schism - at least in this country and apparently
in the United States as well. There are those who 'hold these truths to be selfevident"
- that all deaf children recognised early enough, fitted with a hearing aid
and spoken to according to the recognised methods of auditory training, will learn
to understand and reproduce spoken language without the necessity of education
in a special school. There are some who will accept virtually no qualification of
this assertion. Others reply that it is wholly false. An objective assessment of
the results of this treatment is an urgent necessity. It is possible that the happiness
and well being of some children is being sacrificed to what may be theory
rather than fact.
Prosthetics
Advances in electronics have been astonishingly rapid in recent years with
the risk of rendering expensive apparatus rapidly out of date. The cumbersome
battery aids are being replaced by transistor aids. The induction loop system
enables children to move freely about in class while still remaining in contact
with the teacher's voice.
Integration
The undoubted achievements made possible by earlier and more accurate