Nuffield Speech and Language Unit was an internationally recognised centre of excellence for providing intensive therapy to children with severe speech and language disorders such as

Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia Developmental verbal dyspraxia (DVD), also known as childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and developmental apraxia of speech (DAS), is a condition in which an individual has problems saying sounds, syllables and words. This is not because of muscle w ...

dysarthria Dysarthria is a speech sound disorder resulting from neurological injury of the motor component of the motor–speech system and is characterized by poor articulation of phonemes. It is a condition in which problems effectively occur with the ...

, and oral dyspraxia. The centre was located in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: Central London, N ...

and was administered by the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust in collaboration with

Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital The Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital (the RNTNEH) was a health facility on Gray's Inn Road in London. It closed in October 2019 when services transferred to the new Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals on Huntley Street, L ...

. Nuffield specialized in helping children between ages four and seven overcome difficulties caused by dyspraxia and had a capacity for fourteen students. Many of the students would not have succeeded in the mainstream education system. Nuffield was closed in 2011 after the board of trustees decided the under-capacity centre was not financially viable.

History

In 1947, Edith Whetnall established the Deafness Aid Clinic, one of the first clinics dedicated to deaf children, at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital. In 1963, a grant from the

Nuffield Foundation The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors Ltd. It aims to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation projects in education and social pol ...

made it possible to establish the Nuffield Speech and Language Unit, of which Whetnall was made the first Director. This was built at a cost of £100,000 which was promised after a presentation to

Lord Nuffield William Richard Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield (10 October 1877 – 22 August 1963), was an English motor manufacturer and philanthropist. He was the founder of Morris Motors Limited and is remembered for establishing the Nuffield Foundation, th ...

by Whetnall. Services began in 1971, initially as a boarding unit or hostel, but became a day school in 1996. Patients could be diagnosed with dyspraxia or related disorders at the Nuffield Speech and Language Centre and referred to the Unit for care and instruction. As hearing problems became diagnosed earlier through better and more sensitive screening methods, the unit's specialty or expertise expanded to include disorders of speech and language. So as not to hold the children back educationally from their peers who could attend traditional schools, the unit then included an educational curriculum so as to ease the children's eventual transition into mainstream education. Students typically spent two years in the programme at Nuffield. Between 1998 and 2003, 41% of Nuffield's students went on to attend mainstream schools, while the other 59% attended specialist schools.

Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme

In 1985, Nuffield Speech and Language Unit published the first edition of the Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme (NDP), which was meant to provide resources to therapists to diagnose and manage dispraxia and related disorders. NDP is one of the few published approaches specifically for educating and therapizing children with developmental verbal dyspraxia.

Closure

Nuffield faced closure starting in 2006 when the board of trustees decided that the unit, which served between ten and twelve students annually but had a capacity for fourteen, was not financially viable. Services were suspended in 2007 due to the lack of referrals that resulted from the potential of closure. Ealing PCT held a public consultation on the future of the Nuffield Speech and Language Unit, which closed in April 2011.Nuffield Speech and Language Unit - 25 Apr 2006 : Column 541
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuffield Speech And Language Unit Defunct special schools in England Defunct schools in the London Borough of Ealing