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'Work has continued during 1966 on the lines
laid down and developed in 1965, when the
position of senior educational psychologist for
special schools and special units was first created.
There has been much interest in educational fields
in this appointment, the first of its kind in the
country, and it is possible that some authorities
may follow suit in the future, where special
educational provision is as geographically close
and yet comprehensive as it is in Hounslow.
In the special schools, the work of diagnosis
and assessment for purposes of educational
guidance and occasionally placement has
continued, as also has the development of pilot
research projects: this has included the further
development at Martindale School (in
collaboration with members of the University of
Surrey) of electronic equipment to help children
with visuo-motor difficulties, and a tentative
exploration (with a principal lecturer in movement
from a college of education) of assessment
of personality difficulties in deaf children by
means of movement observation.
Numerous talks and lectures were given, some
within the Borough of Hounslow to teachers or
parent-teacher groups, and some elsewhere
including lectures at an ILEA one-day conference
on the neurologically handicapped child, at a
meeting of the Society of Teachers of the Deaf,
at the University of London Institute of
Education, at the annual meeting of head
teachers and wardens of Shaftesbury Society
schools, and at the Spastics Society college at
Wallingford, Berkshire. The senior psychologist
also participated in a brains trust held at the
Nuffield Speech and Hearing Centre in
Gray's Inn Road.
A few days in the summer term were devoted
to acting as external examiner of teaching practice
for the two-year course for teachers of mentally
handicapped children conducted at Chiswick
Polytechnic. This provided a valuable opportunity
not only to observe the most up-to-date approach
to the education of severely sub-normal children,
but also (by courtesy of the supervisors) to see
many junior training schools administered by
other authorities'.
Publication by member of the staff
Body Image and Draw-a-Man Test on Cerebral
Palsy
A paper by Dr M L J Abercrombie Bartlett,
School of Architecture, University College
Hospital and Dr M C Tyson Senior Educational
Psychologist for the borough was published in
'Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology'
on 1st February 1966.
The authors, both of whom were formerly at
the Paediatric Research Unit, Guy's Hospital,
give an account of their observations made in
administering the Goodenough 'Draw-a-Man'
test to estimate the mental ages of cerebral palsied
children. They summarise their findings as
follows—
The mental ages of 24 cerebral palsied children
as estimated by the Goodenough Draw-a-Man
test were similar to those estimated from copying
simple figures. It is concluded that performance
on the Draw-a-Man test does not give evidence
of 'body-image' disorder but of a difficulty of
drawing generally.
Drawings of a man by normal children often
show peculiarities which might be regarded as
signs of physical impairment. It should not be
concluded that cerebral palsied children represent
specific physical impairments in their drawings
unless they consistently show these more
frequently than do normal children of the same
Goodenough mental age.'
The tests were made in the course of other
research at Martindale School for the Physically
Handicapped.
School Psychological Service
I am grateful to Mr B R Barnett MA for
submitting the following report-
There continues to be a close liaison and
co-operation between educational psychologists
and the school medical services. The case
conference method of dealing with children's
problems has perhaps been utilised less than one
would have hoped but this seems to be the result
of staff changes on both sides as well as the
intense pressure of work.
A working party on persistent non-attendance
was formed at the request of the Education
Committee and convened by the Chief Education
Officer. It consists of the senior representatives
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