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94
Of those who left the district:—
1 was very much improved.
1 was much improved.
3 were improved.
It will be noticed that in no case is there no sign of improvement
and that eleven of the eighteen who attended regularly fall into the
classes of "much improved" and "very much improved." So
satisfactory are the results that no qualms were felt at leaving
these children without further formal work in the special class.
An important feature of the year's work has been the enthusiastic
co-operation of teachers in the elementary schools, who have
assisted in giving special treatment to the children, thus supplementing
the two weekly attendances at the Centre. This treatment
will be continued in 1933, so that the children, though no longer
attending the class, will have a certain amount of instruction.
They will also be kept under medical supervision.
There seems to be no constant relation between the duration
of treatment and the degree of improvement, a finding which is
borne out by the experience of other authorities. As will be seen
from the table below, some children have shown marked improvement
almost as soon as they entered the class and have progressed
steadily. Others have only slightly improved after many months of
work and progress erratically, sometimes promising well and then
suddenly relapsing. Co-operation by parents and the help of
teachers in the child's day school, now, fortunately, more readily
available, are valuable adjuncts to the special teacher's work.
Intelligent co-operation by the child, though sometimes of great
worth is, on the whole, less valuable, since too much determination
and too full realisation of the defect in an intelligent child may
have exactly the opposite effect to that desired. In the child,
the possession of the right temperament is the most important
thing and this is infrequent, since such a child is rarely a stammerer
in the first place.
The treatment by relaxation is virtually an attempt to alter
the temperament of the child and its first principle runs counter
to the essential liveliness of childhood. Once the habit of physical
and mental relaxation is inculcated, the stammer is almost