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HANDICAPPED CHILDREN
Children Under 5 and Kingsley Hall Assessment Centre
The review continued with special emphasis on selection of children for the proposed
Handicapped Assessment Centre which was finally given Ministerial approval in August
and County Council agreement to the detailed plans and proposals in December. By
the time this report is printed Kingsley Hall Day Nursery will have closed for three
months for structural alterations and complete redecoration, staff appointed and the
first children, some of whom were recommended as many as 3 years ago, will have been
admitted.
Unfortunately, since the initial review many of the most urgent cases have had to
be dealt with in other, sometimes less satisfactory, ways where the home situation had
become intolerable. In other cases the child has given up the unequal struggle against
severe handicap and two of these children have died since the first review in 1957. Others
again have survived and are past the 5 year age limit and have been passed over to the
education and mental health services.
School Children
The table shows the number of children with classified defects in the school and
pre-school population. Children who attend normal schools but were registered as
handicapped have been seen during the year by school medical officers in minor ailment
clinics and a detailed report on each child has been submitted relating to their physical
condition and their ability to manage in the normal school.
A total of 217 children were seen at these routine follow-up examinations and the
following recommendations were made:—
(1) Doing well in normal school 149
(2) Referred for hospital check 1
(3) Referred for special schooling:—
(a) Residential 23
(b) Open Air School 2
(c) Special School for E.S.N. 4
(d) Did not attend 38
In addition, 9 special recommendations for children to see the youth employment
officer regarding employment were made.
These children are reviewed every 6 months by the medical officers and their progress
reported. Those children more severely handicapped are referred for special
educational treatment at different schools, both day and residential.
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