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60
years we will have the benefit of her services throughout the year and
the time between a child's first being seen in the clinic and being
taken on for treatment should be reduced. It is still a matter of
concern to us that children and their parents referred to us have
to wait such a long time.
Once children begin treatment, they continue to attend on
an average for 8 or 9 months. These periods of treatment almost
invariably include holidays either of the staff or the child, so that
the actual period of treatment is more like six months. As each
child attends for less than an hour, this expenditure of time on
modifying behaviour disorders and disturbed family relationships
of great severity cannot be regarded as excessive. I do not think
that it would be possible to reduce the amount of time devoted to
each case.
Symptoms and Problems.
The symptoms for which children were referred show few
differences from previous years. The method of classification is
that prepared by the National Association for Mental Health
many years ago and is in use in Child Guidance Clinics
throughout the country. It is a convenient classification of
the symptoms but fails to give an adequate indication of the
severity of the different problems or of the factors in the background
which contribute to the manifestation of symptoms. From our
own point of view the symptoms are less important than the
problems from which they arise. As has been stressed in other
reports, the central problem of child guidance is disturbed family
relationships. One might say that there are three classes of
disturbance :
1. The child-parent relationship is basically good but has
been adversely affected in some way.
2. The child-parent relationship is bad.
3. The child-parent relationship is non-existent (children
who have been brought up in institutions and boarded
out or placed in hospital in early life, etc.).
Special Educational (Residential) Treatment.
Twenty-four children were recommended for special educational
treatment in 1950. These recommendations did not relate
to the 178 children referred to the Centre in 1950, but to those
referred in 1950 and those brought forward from 1949. The
number so recommended amounts to just under 10%. This is
in close agreement with the figure found in other years.
A problem of very great importance is the suitable placement
of these children. They come to us nearly always as a matter