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107
HANDICAPPED PUPILS.
(Report by Dr. Mary Gilchrist.)
Under Section 34 of the Education Act, 1944, it is the duty of
the Local Education Authority to ascertain what children in their
area require special educational treatment; and the Minister of
Education has laid down, in the Handicapped Pupils Regulations,
the several categories of pupils who are considered to require such
special educational treatment. The children affected are those
considered to be Blind, Partially Sighted, Deaf, Partially Deaf,
Delicate, Diabetic, Educationally Sub-normal, Epileptic, Maladjusted,
Physically Handicapped, and Pupils suffering from
Speech Defects of a severe degree.
Many children with minor degrees of some of the above-listed
defects are able to cope with the work of the ordinary school, and
are not ascertained as Handicapped Pupils. It is not always
necessary that a child so listed should attend a Special School,
but may be taught in a special class, or given some preferential
treatment in an ordinary class—e.g., a special position near the
teacher or blackboard, to overcome defects of hearing or sight.
Delicate Pupils.
These are pupils who, by reason of impaired physical condition,
cannot without danger to their health be educated under
the normal arrangements of an ordinary school. This is the largest
group of the Handicapped Pupils, and it includes all children
recommended for Day or Residential Open Air Schools and those
who go to Convalescent Homes for periods of three months or more.
The defect is rarely of a permanent nature, but many children
suffer from recurrent attacks of the same illness, e.g., bronchitis,
asthma and upper respiratory infections, nervous and general
debility, chorea, etc. These children are frequently absent from
school, and many of them in consequence suffer educational retardation.
The anxiety produced by their school difficulties tends to
precipitate either another attack of the same illness, or a new defect.
In this type of case the special educational, as well as the physical,
environment of an open air school, with small classes and a more
elastic curriculum, proves to be of great help, and the children
overcome both their scholastic difficulties and their physical
handicap.