[Report 1919] / School Medical Officer of Health, Stockport County Borough.

  • Stockport (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1919] / School Medical Officer of Health, Stockport County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/28 (page 17)
    MENTALLY DEFECTIVE AND BACKWARD CHILDREN.* 15 mentally defective children were seen amongst the routine cases and 18 amongst the special cases. The number of mentally defective children in the area is given in Table III. In the same table are given the numbers of dull and backward children, that is children who are two, three or more years below the standard normal for their age. A considerable number of these children are by no means dull, but are backward as the result of illnesses which have necessitated absence from school, and it is for such cases that an open-air school is required. In other cases there has been late entrance into school. The difficulty in providing institutional treatment for mentally defective children continues. Although the Authority have not yet been able to provide Special Day Schools, care has been taken to record the cases suitable for attendance at such schools with a view to complying with the requirements of the Mental Deficiencv Act, 1913. The children ascertained to be incapable of receiving benefit from instruc¬ tion in a Special School or Class, have been notified to the Local Authority under the Act; but extreme difficulty has been experienced in obtaining admission of the children to suitable institutions. It is understood that, as part of the Borough of Stockport is in Cheshire and part in Lancashire, an arrangement has been made whereby Stockport will be treated as a Lancashire town for the purpose of the Mental Deficiency Act. . The Lancashire Asylums Board has, however, been able to offer very little accommodation for mentally defective children, as the Board has been compelled to defer obtaining further accommo¬ dation owing to the pressure of HAL Treasury to curtail additional expenditure. Efforts have been successful this year in obtaining admission to two insti¬ tutions for children capable of beneffting by Education at a Special School. Three boy3 and two girls have been sent away during the year. DEFECTIVE VISION. Amongst the routine cases 15*8 per cent, have defective vision. This number is large when the fact that a large number of the Entrants do not have the Vision test is taken into consideration. Amongst the Entrants 5*1 percent, suffered from 3quint, whilst the percentage amongst the Leavers was 2 15. The number of squints cured is improving, but treatment should begin before school age. If glasses are not provided, and treatment carried out before six years of age, the chances of cure are considerably less. OTHER DISEASE OR DEFECT. 6*6 per cent, of the routine cases were found to come under this heading. They include cases of thyroid enlargement, rhinitis, hernia, kidney disease, infectious diseases, etc. There were 96 cases of enlargement of the thyroid gland which required treatment. In addition to these, 54 were recorded as requiring to be kept under observation.