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As a subsidiary of the Skin Clinic, a Wart Clinic is conducted weekly by one
of your medical officers. I regret to say that the incidence of warts did not diminish
during 1962.
Child Guidance
By special appointment at our clinics, members of the medical staff now see
children whose problem is not physical but emotional and evidenced by behaviour
problems at home and/or school.
The children are usually showing signs of emotional distress exhibited by insomnia,
nervous fears, difficult behaviour, stealing (usually of a pointless variety),
or a refusal to attend school. This last is known as school phobia and does not consist
simply of truanting in order to have a few days' holiday, but is a fear amounting
to terror of leaving home to attend school. On investigation it is rarely the school
environment that is the real cause, but some situation real or imagined in the home.
There are many such situations that tax a child's emotional strength considerably.
For example, the physical or mental illness of a parent, disharmony or the threatened
or actual break-up of a marriage or less dramatic occurrences such as the
removal to a new area or the arrival of a new baby.
In some cases full discussion of the matter with the parent and the enlistment
of the understanding assistance of the teachers enables the child to be helped over
the difficult patch, and thereafter a watching brief may be all that is necessary on
the part of the school doctor.
In other cases, however, the child is referred to the Child Guidance Clinic
either immediately or after an observation period.
In cases of school phobia in particular, early and urgent referral to Child
Guidance has been found to be the best course of action.
It should be mentioned that a physical check is made of all cases to exclude
organic cause.
The actual nmber referred to the Child Guidance Clinic was 32. These 32
cases require m ly hours of patient home visiting and treatment by the staff of
the Ilfordrd Child Guidance Clinic who always give us the greatest help in dealing
with the Psychological problems of childhood. I am convinced that the medical
profession in this district come across many other children who would benefit
from attendance but refrain from referring any but the most severe cases on
account of the delay in receiving treatment. This is not a fault of the present
child guidance Clinic, but is a question of more staff or an extension of the
Guidance service.
The Magistrates Court- opened in the old Town Hall in August 1960 - also
refer cases to the Child Guidance Clinic and some of these are Barking children.
perhaps if they had been referred at an earlier date there might not have been the
necessity to go via the Court.
I wish to thank Miss C. Helen Watt, Educational Psychologist, Ilford Child
Guidance Clinic, for the following report on "The School psychological Service
“I am glad to say that I have now had contact with almost all the schools in
Barking and I have Particularly welcomed the opportunities I have had to discuss
individual children in some detail with their head teachers and with their own
class teachers, who know the children's reactions in class from day to day and
can add detailed observations to the information given by the head teacher. This
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