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is not unusually the case, then the child attends a residential
special school. It will be seen by reference to the Handicapped
Pupils Table that 22 children were either not at school or attending
an ordinary school; of these, six were not of age to attend a
special school, i,e, seven years, but the rest were on the waiting
list for admission and in fact there has of late been some difficulty
in securing early placement of these children. The position
should be eased somewhat, however, fairly soon by the opening
of two new day special schools in Middlesex.
The Maladjusted Child
During the year the Committee on Maladjusted Children set up
by the Minister of Education issued its report which contains much
valuable guidance for those who have to deal with this problem.
Apart from the worst cases there is no great difficulty locally in
securing residential placement for maladjusted children. There
are no day schools or classes for these children but (to a large
extent) the Opportunity Classes in Tottenham subserve such a
function for the younger maladjusted children as educational
backwardness is an almost invariable symptom in such cases.
An attempt is being made in the field of prevention at the
infant welfare clinics by non-specialist medical staff. In addition
there is no doubt that additional sessions are required for
actual treatment of pre-school children by a psychiatrist.
While it is not my province to comment on the organisation
and working of the Child Guidance Centres in Tottenham and Hornsey,
the following comments by Dr. C, Phillips, the visiting psychiatrists
are of special interest:-
"On the subject of delinquency and psychological illness in
children, the contribution that bad parenthood makes towards this
social problem is, in my opinion, paramount here. There is a
good deal that is unknown of this subject, but two things are outstanding,
(l) There is a partial, and quite often complete,
failure of the parents, particularly the mother in the earliest
years, to adapt to the child's needs, so that the aggressive and
destructive impulses present in small children do not become
moderated as in healthy persons and may, in fact, be stimulated to
the point where the child's personality is destroyed by them,
(2) The parents, however, commonly have an unconscious participation
in the child's delinquent acts, that is, to put it crudely,
they get a quiet, perhaps not even realised, satisfaction at the