DEFECTIVE HEARING

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 15, 17 July 1929, Page 11

DEFECTIVE HEARING

HELPING SCHOOL CHILDREN

Steps taken by the Education Department to assist school children who suffer from partial deafness were outlined at a meeting of the Education Board today.

_ The Education Department wrote stating that there was every reason to believe that there were in the schools numbers o£ children who were retarded on account of whole or partial deafness or on account of speech defects, and who w.-ld benefit by a course of training in the special classes for the hard-of-hear-ing- and speech defectives held in the Thorndon School. The board was asked to bring the classes to the notice o£ headmasters.

Mr. G. T. London commended the proposal, but said that in some cases the teachers did not articulate as well as they might. An expressive mouth was comprehensible to children who suffered from' bad hearing.

Mr. A. C. Blake referred to transportation difficulites, and said that some parents could not see their way to send lhoir children by tram, especially where tho pupils were of tender age. The matter was an important one, and lie thought that perhaps more than one teacher should bo employed. The secretary stated that a civcuhu- had been sent to the schools oE Greater Wellington within easy distance of the Thorndon School.

The secretary's action in circularising the schools was approved.