[Report 1952] / School Medical Officer of Health, Worcestershire / County of Worcester County Council.

  • Worcestershire (England). County Council.
Date:
1952
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1952] / School Medical Officer of Health, Worcestershire / County of Worcester County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Special schools are reluctant to admit children nearing school leaving age, and children who are first ascertained e.g. to be edu¬ cationally subnormal at 13 or 14 years of age do not stand any chance of receiving the special educational treatment which should have been given four or five years before. Children with more than one form of handicap are almost im¬ possible to “ place.” This difficulty is encountered most frequently in regard to “ spastic ” children. Their muscular disabilities are often complicated by defects of speech and intelligence. The only possible solution in several cases of this kind has been to provide speech therapy, physiotherapy, and teaching in the child’s home. This is a very expensive way of achieving what is at best, partial success. There is an urgent need for more special schools for physically handicapped children with additional defects. The following tables show the present position of the handicapped pupils of Worcestershire. (1) Blind (2) Par¬ tially sighted (3) Deaf (4) Par¬ tially Deaf (5) Delicate (6) Physi¬ cally Han¬ dicapped (7) Educa¬ tionally sub-normal (8) Mal¬ adjusted (9) Epi¬ leptic Total (i)-(9) In the calendar year ended 31st Dec. 1952 :— A. Handicapped Pupils newly placed in Special Schools or (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Boarding Homes B. Handicapped Pupils newly ascertained as requiring education at Special Schools 1 6 4 4 2 10 69 2 98 or boarding in Homes On or about December 1st, I952 :— C. Number of Handicapped Pupils from the area— (i) attending Special Schools as 4 5 4 5 1 16 85 1 4 125 (a) Day Pupils — 1 1 3 — 1 if — — 20 (b) Boarding Pupils (ii) attending indepen¬ dent schools under ar¬ rangements made by 13 9 22 10 3 17 100 3 177 the Authority (iii) boarded in Homes and not already included 1 2 2 1 6 under (i) or (ii) Total C . . 13 11 23 13 3 20 I l6 1 3 203