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Some excellent work is being done in the Secondary Schools in helping these
children where staffing conditions make it possible to form small classes or to
provide a teacher to take children out of their classes several times a week for
extra help with their reading in very small groups. Even so there are some unfortunate
children who have very little help because there are not enough facilities
for remedial teaching. Also some of those who are having help and making progress
could probably make much faster progress if they had more frequent or more intensive
remedial help.
In all there were eleven children with reading ages under seven in the age
group I tested and there were twenty more with reading ages between 7 and 8 years.
A very few of these children were of low intelligence and were near the borderline
for placement in a special school for educationally sub-normal children. Many of
them however showed evidence in the intelligence test of a potential ability which
was within the average or low average range and would be suitable for and responsive
to intensive remedial teaching. The percentage of children who need this type
of help is small but each individual learning problem is severe and I feel that
there is a fairly small but acute need for special remedial teaching facilities for
Secondary age children in the borough to which children could be referred from the
Secondary Schools if necessary.
During the year five children have attended the Child Guidance Clinic for
remedial teaching for an hour once a week. Four are of Secondary School age and
one is a Junior School child.
The junior child is a very suitable one for this once-weekly help as the problern
is mainly one of influencing his attitude to reading and overcoming the enormous
resistance to reading which has been built up as a result of his emotional
problems.
His reading improves more by his attitude and feelings being discussed and
understood than by actual teaching and as his attitude improves he becomes more
receptive and can learn better in School.
One of the Secondary School children has been unfortunate enough to go through
hisSecondary School career with nothing but once-weekly help here as there have
been no school facilities available for teaching him to read at his age. He is just
beginning to learn lore quickly, but it is almost too late as he leaves school at
Easter 1963 and he definitely could have been much further on the road to becoming
a literate adult if the right kind of remedial teaching service had been available for
him.
The three other Secondary Schoolchildren are very much better off as they are
having extra help with reading at school two or three times a week, as well as once
a week here; this combined approach works much better and they are responding,
but I think they really need daily intensive help rather than short spells a few times
Summary
New cases tested individually 52
Children tested by group test in survey 88
Follow-up for Clinic 29
Follow-up for School 36
Remedial Education 5
Referrals to Child Guidance Clinic 6
39