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140 Annual Report of the London County Council, 1914.
Conveyance
of children
who are
physically
and mentally
defective.
Difficulties have arisen with regard to children who are so physically and mentally defective as
to render it inadvisable to allow them to travel in the school conveyances with the ordinary physically
defective children. At present many of the children who are both mentally and physically defective
are admitted temporarily to the physically defective schools for purposes of observation. It is highly
desirable that arrangements should be made for their transfer to schools for mentally defective, as soon as
their mental status has been determined. The number of these children is not likely to diminish,
but with such re-arrangement of centres as from time to time occurs, the diminution of the distance
which any child has to travel to school may slightly lessen the proportion requiring carriage by ambulance.
It will still be necessary to scrutinise each case individually as there is a tendency on the part of the parents
when the child has once been to a physically defective school to demand the use of an ambulance as a
right regardless of its necessity.
The proportion of mentally defectives is higher among children suffering from spastic paralysis,
rickets and congenital club foot, but, apart from these, it is probably no higher amongst physically
defectives than among the healthier children. Backwardness amounting to mental stagnation is very
common, and it is extremely difficult, during the first years of attendance, to determine whether these
children arc strictly mentally defective, so that observation for a considerable time is desirable. The
cases of greatest difficulty are those of spastic paralysis, many of whom are quite incapable of getting
to a mentally defective school although the nature of their affection cripples mental as well as physical
activities.
As a rule, children with combined defects should be kept in the mentally defective schools, although
some form of conveyance would be necessary. There is no objection to physically defectives with
ordinary degrees of mental defect travelling in the school ambulance with physically defectives. Cases
in which the mental defect is of a more severe nature have to be invalided, although some of them would
be suitable for residential institutions, were such available. The degree of benefit derived by children
with combined defects is even less than in the case of those crippled in one set of activities only.
Stammering
559 (419 boys, 140 girls) children in the age groups have been noted as suffering from stammering.
From time to time attention has been drawn to the need for special educational treatment of
children suffering from stammering and schemes have been drawn up for the opening of experimental
classes, but up to the present none of the schemes have reached maturity. The Council has, however,
made arrangements for the students in the training colleges to be trained in the theory and practice
of speech, and the authorities of St. Thomas's Hospital have established a " speech clinic " for the
treatment of school children suffering from defective speech including stammering, post-adenoid conditions,
rcspiratorv defects and general nervous conditions.
Classes for
the deaf and
partially
deaf.
Children noted by the teachers as partially deaf are examined at the schools or at special centres
by the school doctors, and all cases in which there is marked impairment of hearing are referred for
special investigation by Mr. Yearsley (the Council's otologist). In his examinations at the Head Office
Mr. Yearsley has seen 277 cases, with regard to which the following decisions were arrived at:—
Elementary School 20
„ „ front row 29
Partially deaf 60
Deaf 122
Mentally defective 8
Imbecile 2
Invalided 11
Exemption recommended 2
Advice given 23
277