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41.
During the year Miss Smith, the Educational Psychologist,
gave five lectures to Parent-Teacher Associations, and three
informal talks to a Young Wives' Organisation.
LEA BRIDGE DAY SCHOOL.
Our contact continues with the children placed at Lea
Bridge School, and the Psychiatric Social Workers continue to
attend case conferences with the school staff, and to visit
the parents concerned.
CHILDREN UNDER 5. -
Far too few of these are still referred for consultation.
As stressed in my previous reports, work with children under 5
has definite prophylactic value, in preventing more serious
difficulties at a later stage of development.
Miss E.M. Smith, Educational Psychologist, reports as
follows:-
This year, a great deal of the psychologist's work has
been concerned with children at Special schools and in Special
classes. The majority of children at the Margaret Brearley
school have been re tested for intelligence and reading attain
ment. The selection of children for the three Special classes,
with later re assessment of I.Q. and attainment levels, and
interviews with parents, is necessarily a time consuming job,
though rewarding. Obviously those children are selected who
are in greatest need of special help, whose pace of learning
and emotional inhibitions cannot be adequately dealt with in
the normal sized class. But there remains a quite considerable
number of children in normal schools, both at Primary and
Secondary levels, who need a limited curriculum and a slower
pace. These children are handicapped equally with those who
have some diminishing of sight or hearing, though not in such
degree as to need to attend special schools. A course of
lectures to teachers on the problems of such children was
proposed during the Spring term, but this had to be abandoned
because of lack of support.
Parents, perhaps more than teachers, need to be enlight
ened on the educational problems of such handicapped children,
and I feel that a series of talks to parents (could they be
arranged) would be helpful. Parent-teacher associations often
ask for talks of this kind, but many parents who might benefit
do not attend such functions, nor has every school a P.T.A.
During the year 5 lectures were given to P.T.A. s and 3 informal
talks to a Young Wives organisation.
In general the requests for help about individual children
came from Primary schools, but during the year the psychologist
has seen children from all types of school, from Nursery to
Grammar and Technical schools.