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Within the rather large group below average, eight girls and
eight boys were found to be educationally sub-normal. These
children present a problem to the schools because of the lack of
accommodation in more suitable establishments. They are a source
of disturbance in their classes because of their inability to join in
normal work, and cause unnecessary dissipation of the energy and
time of teachers who should not be dealing with these children
needing special apparatus and techniques of teaching.
School Visits.—A new Educational Psychologist was appointed
in September, since when 42 school visits have been made, as
follows:—
Infants' Schools 7
Junior Schools 24
Secondary Schools 7
Special Schools 4
Reading retardation is still found to be the greatest cause of
backwardness among children in Primary and Secondary Schools.
There still seems to be a serious lack of suitable reading material
in the schools, due partly to publishing delays, and partly to a
lack of knowledge about reading matter and reading methods
beyond the infant level. Whenever asked, the psychologist gave
information on these matters, sometimes to Head Teachers, sometimes
to Head Teachers with a group of the staff.
Group Testing.—At the Head Teachers' requests tests were
carried out with backward groups in two primary and two secondary
schools. In all, 80 children were tested with appropriate nonverbal
tests. As a result of these tests it was possible to discover
those children whose school retardation was due to some other
cause than lack of mental ability, and who merited special or
individual teaching.
Coaching.—The psychologist (since September) has been
giving weekly coaching periods to 16 children, of whom 14 needed