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26
In a number of Junior Schools in both districts group tests
of intelligence and attainment were carried out with 426 children.
The most interesting feature revealed by these tests was the
noticeable degree of under-functioning among children of superior
intelligence, in every school concerned.
During the summer term a Student Psychologist came to the
Clinic for a (practice) period of practical work. She visited various
schools and did tests under supervision.
A course of lectures given by the Psychologist on "The
Problems of Backwardness," was well attended by teachers from
a wide radius. It should be recorded that the majority of these
teachers work in Infant and Junior Schools. More informal
lectures and talks have been given to Parent-Teacher Associations
and other interested groups.
(k) Pædiatric Clinic.—The Clinic was continued under the
clinical charge of Dr. Elchon Hinden, Paediatrician to Whipps Cross
Hospital, who reports as follows:—
The work at the Clinic has followed the lines of the first
year's work. The great bulk of the children were referred by
the Medical Staff of the Health Services. The number of new
patients seen was 93, roughly equally divided between school- and
pre-school children. It is noteworthy that the general physique
and nutrition of the children was very good ; patients were more
often referred for obesity than for leanness.
The majority of the patients were suffering from 'cold' complaints,
disorders of growth and development, or from behaviour
disturbances. The commonest single ailment was enuresis; the
usual acute infections of childhood were conspicuous by their
absence. This is as it should be; plainly a clinic which meets
only once a fortnight is no place for the treatment of urgent disease.
In general, the pattern of disease in childhood is changing.
Infections as a whole are becoming much less frequent; not only
the non-specific catarrhal infections, but the acute exanthemata and
their complications are much less important than they were. Even
rheumatic heart disease and tuberculosis have become relatively
rare complaints in childhood. This means that more and more
time of the preventive services is taken up with development and
behaviour. It must be admitted at once that disturbances in these
fields are much less understood than the ordinary medicine and
surgery of childhood, and in the absence of precise knowledge
there is a danger that doctors may promise more than they can
perform, so forfeiting the confidence of the public. With regard
to behaviour, every parent wants to bring up his child in his own
image; there is no generally-accepted standard of what constitutes
a 'good citizen,' and often the pediatrician finds he is being asked
questions in the fields of ethics, education and philosophy, which