[Report 1944] / School Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City.

  • Leeds (England). City Council.
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1944] / School Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    unloving parents, lainily squabbles, overcrowding and the lack of the most elementary decencies of life. And it is largely from this class of problem children that many of the delinquents and neurotics of later years are derived. There are of course other factors besides home environment which tend to produce maladjusted difficult children. I hese arc mainly connected with the child’s own personality. There may be innate instability and temperamental difficulties. Again, the handling of the child in school may be at fault ; he may be being forced beyond his intellectual powers. Investigation of these matters and their correction is the province of a Child Guidance Clinic and both require the services of a specially trained and qualified staff. In Leeds the need for such a clinic as a branch of the School Medical Service, has been felt for many years, and it is hoped that its establishment in the near future will be regarded as a matter of real urgency. In this connection the need of a residential school for problem children—both for purposes of observation and treatment—should be mentioned. Mr. A. D. Sharp, F.R.C.S., for Ear, Nose and Throat cases, specialist Services Mr. G. Black, F.R.C.S. for Eye cases, and Mr. R. Broomhead, F.R.C.S., for orthopaedic cases have attended sessions at the Central Clinic to see children referred to them and have also paid regular visits to the Special Schools for Deaf, Partially Sighted and Physically Defective children. During 1944 there were four Day Schools and two Residential ,sPecial Schools for mentally defective children. The results obtained at the residential schools—One Oak and Warlbeck—were so much better than at the day schools that, if these places are no longer to be available after the war, it is hoped that residential accommodation may be arranged elsewhere. Having the children under supervision all the time instead of for the few hours they spend each day in a day school makes a very great difference to their development. Cleanliness, regular habits, good manners, and the art of living in a community can be taught in a residential school in a wav which is quite impossible in a day school The objective of making these children sell-respecting and self-supporting members of society is more likely to be attained if there is residential accommo¬ dation for the children who obviously require and would benefit from it. The number of children on roll at the end of the year in the rvaf Schl,L Deaf School at Farnley was 114. Of these 67 were totally deaf