[Report 1969] / School Medical Officer of Health, Nottingham City.

  • Nottingham (England). City Council.
Date:
1969
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1969] / School Medical Officer of Health, Nottingham City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Each infant school will be visited by one of the educational psycholo¬ gists each year. Before this visit the Head Teacher will be asked to nominate the children in their last year at the infant school who are proving to have the greatest learning problems. The children nominated by the schools are seen individually by the psychologist for a screening test of general ability. At the end of the assessments, the children are discussed with the Head Teacher and certain of them followed up in more detail. The purpose of the second interview is to carry out further individual assessments and also to have the opportunity of discussion with the parents. Reports are made to the schools and recommendations on educational guidance made. Because of present commitments the final results and conclusions are not available, but provisionally, it has been found that certain very slow learning children have been identified earlier than otherwise might have been the case. The final analysis will contain our estimate of the size of the problem within the City and the resources available to deal with the children. Remedial Teaching: Children's attendances for treatment by Remedial Teachers and Educational Psychologists .. .. 5,026 (3,227) Number of interviews with parents by Remedial Teachers 119 (136) Number of children received remedial teaching during 1969 . 305 (263) Educationally Sub-normal Assessment Clinic: Number of children ascertained during 1969 as needing special educational treatment in Day E.S.N. Special Schools . . 94 (75) Number of cases referred to Local Health Authority during 1969 as being unsuitable for education at school (Section 57(4) of the Education Act 1944) .. .. .. .. 43 (34) Number of cases reviewed under Section 57(A) and still unsuit¬ able for education at school . . 1 (2) Three medical officers normally devote one session each a week to this work. We now operate a scheme whereby nurses make a preliminary home visit on these children. This enables the doctors to have a better knowledge of any relevant social history and by the nurse explaining the purpose of the examination, a far better attendance rate is secured. Medically these children form a very heterogeneous group, the vast majority being retarded because of cultural and environmental factors. Speech Therapy: The following is a summary of the work carried out during 1969:- Number of:- Children treated by Regular Therapy 363 (401) Children treated by Clinic Supervision 333 (199) 696 (600) Children discharged 310* (353) Children supervised in Schools 1,054 (1,156) Sessions held in Clinics 864 (1,164) Sessions held in Special Schools 234 (317) Sessions spent in Ordinary Schools 33 (121) Treatments given in Clinics 3,453 (4,929) Treatments given in Special Schools 1,037 (1,600) 4,490 (6,529) Children referred by Head Teachers 317 (499) Children referred by School Medical Officers 42 (74) Children referred from other sources 59 (23) 418 (596)