[Report 1940] / School Medical Officer of Health, Chesterfield.

  • Chesterfield (England). Council.
Date:
1940
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1940] / School Medical Officer of Health, Chesterfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/22 (page 13)
    An interesting fact which has emerged from our statistics is that the average intelligence quotient of the children treated works out at exactly 100—^irrefutable evidence, if any were needed, that we do not deal with mental defectives. Another point of considerable interest is that only 20 of our cases came into the category of dull children : i.e. children with an in- telligence quotient between 70 and 90. It has usually been found that this class of children produces a higher percentage of behaviour disorders, and in particular delinquencies, than any other. This has generally been attributed to the fact that these children are liable to suffer from discouragement and humiliation as a result of their scholastic failure, particularly when they are required to compete in class with children of normal or superior intelligence. The fact that we have been called upon to deal with behaviour disorders in such a com- paratively small number of dull children suggests that the reorganisation of the educational system in Chesterfield, and the special measures taken to cope with the problem of the dull child, have had a most beneficial effect. It will be noted that 12 types of treatment are available at the Centre^—psychiatric interview, educational help, play therapy, admission to the Open Air School, or a combination of any of these. Where intellectual, emotional and physical factors are so often combined in the production of behaviour disorders, it is of great value to be able to approach a case from several directions. Admission to the Open Air School not only secures an improvement in the child's physical con- dition, and makes him easily available for treatment when re- quired, but also enables observation to be kept on him at work and play, and through the co-operation of the school staff en- ables special measures to be taken to deal with emotional or educational difficulties. A behaviour disorder, no matter what form it takes, is almost invariably a reaction of the child to its environment. In dealing with the case, two courses are open : one may attempt to modify the environment or even change it; one may one may treat the child directly, and through play therapy endeavour to discover what his emotional difficulties really are and enable him to rid himself of them. The former course is often the simpler and the swifter, but though the results are apparently good, one has not necessarily solved the child's personal problem. In many cases, one may have only post- poned the trouble instead of removing it. In a war-time world in which environments are liable to deteriorate rather than improve and when in any case it may be difficult, if not im- possible, to modify them ; the wiser course—if the longer and