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Educational Psychologist receives and " screens " the cases referred
by the schools, these large numbers of poorly endowed children
should not reach us. The number in 1945 reflects the extent of the
problem experienced by the teachers and shows the need for a fulltime
Educational Psychologist to help the schools with the problems
of classification and special provision for children of less than
normal promise.
Leaving out of account the children referred because of backwardness,
about one-third of the children seen have been judged
to be in need of some form of treatment in the Centre. This is in
agreement with the findings in other Child Guidance Centres.
Twelve cases were closed in 1945 and of those 11 benefited considerably
from their attendance at the Centre. In one case only
was treatment broken off at a time when, in our judgment, the child
could profitably have continued.
Clinic Staff.—Dr. Scott and his team left us at the end of the
summer; a new Psychiatrist took over in October and other
workers were subsequently added, two, however, only in the capacity
of locum tenentes until the end of the year. A permanent
Psychiatric Social Worker and Play Therapist had been appointed
by the end of the year, so that there is the expectation of stability
and continuity in 1946.
The Psychiatrist has been giving two 2-hourly sessions per
week and the Play Therapist 2 sessions of 2f hours. The Psychiatric
Social Worker is the only full time member of the team. Arrangements
are in hand to increase the amount of time available for play
Therapy and the appointment of the Educational Psychologist
will concentrate the work of the Centre on the diagnosis and treatment
of children exhibiting disturbances and abnormalities of
behaviour.
Table II. Symptoms.
The most striking fact about the symptoms for which children
were referred to the Clinic is the number of those referred on account
of backwardness, to which reference has just been made.
Apart from this, the most frequent symptom is " difficulty
in management at home," closely followed by " difficulty in management
at school." This is perhaps accounted for by the terminology
used, as the description may cover a multitude of symptoms.
Next in order of frequency comes enuresis, closely followed by
delinquency (which includes lying and pilfering).
Table III. Intelligence Quotients.
The average I.Q. is much lower than that usually found
among referrals to Child Guidance Centres, and indicates to what
degree the distribution is weighted by the number of " backward "
children referred. Of the 44 children seen who had I.Q.'s of under