[Report 1946] / School Medical Officer of Health, Rutland County.

  • Rutland (England). County Council.
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946] / School Medical Officer of Health, Rutland County. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/14 (page 3)
    Combination of soveral authorities is required for the Deaf as for the Blind. For the partially deaf education in ordinary schools should be urovided, supplemented by hearing aids and lip reading instruction given oy the speech therapist. This should bo tried for six months. The child, if improvement is unsatisfactory, should be sent to a special school. Ever^ urban authority should have an open-air school to which delicate children should bo sent for six months to two 'years', or to residential schools for children in rural areas. Diabetic children should live in hostels in close touch with‘a diabetic clinic. Teachers in the hostels must regulate the amount of sweets taken. Only a few hostels will be required for the whole country. Educational retardation is then studied. It is due, among other causes, to late and bad attendance, frequent changes of school, keeping of late hours, andH unsatisfactory school conditions which render individual attention by the teachers difficult. A child may be regarded as educationally subnormal if he or she is two years behindhand. A child 50 per cent below the average must be regarded as uneducable. On no account should such children be retained in school. Thoy should be reported to the Mental Deficiency Authority. In the larger urban areas 1 per 1000 of the children will have to be educated in special boarding schools. These schools must house at least 100 children in 5 special classes of 30 each. The intelligence quotient of these children should bo between 55 and 75. borne of those in the 70^ quotient, if stable and possessing a good home and parents, might remain in an ordiaary school. Where a special class is arranged for such children they should not bo segregated from the other children as regards the general life of the school, eating, sports, g^nnnastics, and other cultural activities, such as music. In the smaller urban or rural districts a special day school is out of the question. Boarding schools will have to be provided on the basis of 4 per 1000 registered pupils. In the small rural schools, after the mentally defective have been referred to the local authority and tho more seriously retarded children sent to boarding schools, there will remain a few,children who must be taught by the usual staff, assisted by specialists. The teachers must have special instruction. ,' . ^ • * t‘ As regards epileptics, there are already six schools in existence^- * and about two more will solve, tho question for tho whole country.” If tho intelligence of tho epileptics is below' 60- per cent they should be referred to tho Mental Deficiency Ai^thority. Maladjusted children should be given tuition by tho Psychologist for an hour or so a week. This will inspire the child with confidence. Ho may be trabsferred to another ordinary school. So far, only two authorities have established day schools for maladjusted', children. Maladjusted children may be boarded out with fpstor-parents who are carefully selected and who are inspected at regui-ar intervals by a specially appointed officer, who is usually connected with tho Child Guidance Clinic. Hostels for these children are strongly recommended. Tho children attend ordinary schools.in the neighbourhood.