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50
condition, that it was necessary to exclude him from St. Giles' School and
transfer him to a residential school for epileptic children.
The behaviour of one older boy caused such concern that the residential
school which he was attending decided to discharge him. It was
possible to make alternative arrangements for his day care in Croydon.
MALADJUSTED PUPILS
In Day Unit 17
In Day Special Schools 4
In Residential Special Schools 47
Awaiting Placement 8
Seventeen children were ascertained as maladjusted in 1969 and recommended
for admission to appropriate special schools. Reference was made
in last year's report (page 47) to the wide variations in the incidence of
maladjustment throughout the country. There has been a sharp increase in
the number of maladjusted children in the Borough who have been admitted to
special schools, but the proportion of such children in Croydon is still much
lower than that in most adjacent London Boroughs. There have been a number
of classifications of maladjustment in school children, but the one devised
by the Report of the Committee on Maladjusted Children in 1955 (The Under
wood Report) is a useful one. Classification of 71 maladjusted children in
Croydon thought to require special educational treatment showed the
ing distribution:—
Nervous Disorders - 21
Habit Disorders - 8
Behaviour Disorders - 21
Organic Disorders - 6
Psychotic Behaviour - 10
Educational Difficulties - 5
Although there is some overlap between the groups, these figures indicate
the tendency to select for special educational treatment those maladjusted
children who show behaviour disturbances in school. It should be remembered
that symptoms of maladjustment may be manifest outside school, although
there is little evidence of disturbed behaviour in the classroom. Moreover, in
some cases the quiet withdrawn child whose school progress is poor may be
even more disturbed than a child whose behaviour presents obvious problems
to the teacher in the classroom situation. All of these different groups of
maladjusted children should have an equal claim upon special educational
treatment and the tendency to identify the maladjusted child with the naughty
child must be firmly resisted.