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Abstract
Studies regarding the incidence of speech problems in general population as well as school children have not been reported so far in country on a large
sample, though there are studies regarding the incidence of hearing problems. In 1968, Dr Hegarty of New Delhi in a pilot study of the seventh standard school
going children found that 22/322 children were speech defectives and thus concluded that 7 per cent of the school-going children are speech defectives. In
1969, Mr E. P. Balakrishnan at Mysore in a study of 1000 school going children found that 15 per cent of them had speech disorders. The problemwise percentage
he gives are 6.6 per cent of them had misarticulations, 3.8 per cent of them had dysphonias, 4.5 per cent of them had stuttering. As our speech and hearing
field is growing rapidly and gaining importance there is every reason for initiating these studies which will serve many practical purposes. Towards this aim a
small beginning is made at our Institute. The institute has a screening programme for detecting the speech and hearing problems for the conservation and rehabilitation
among school children. This report is the analysis of the speech evaluation
carried out from 17 Dec. 1970 to 29 Sept. 1972 in Mysore City to find an
estimate of various speech problems in the school children which is a part of the
screening programme of the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore.