Report of the Committee on Maladjusted Children.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Maladjusted Children.
Date:
1955
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee on Maladjusted Children. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/190 (page 1)
    MALADJUSTED CHILDREN To the Right Honourable Sir David Eccles, K.C.V.O., M.P., Minister of Education INTRODUCTION SIR, 1. We were appointed in October, 1950, ‘by the then Minister of Education, the late Mr. George Tomlinson, M.P., with the following terms of reference: “To enquire into and report upon the medical, educational and social problems relating to maladjusted children, with reference to their treatment within the educational system.” 2. We have met in full committee on 57 days, and Sub-Committees have held a further 43 meetings. The list of organisations and individuals who gave oral evidence or submitted memoranda to us is in Appendix A. We have visited, individually or in small groups, a selection of the establish- ments providing treatment for maladjusted children. In addition, a number of local education authorities, and some voluntary bodies maintaining special schools, have answered questionnaires or provided information on specific points. Three local education authorities carried out for us pilot surveys on the incidence of maladjustment. 3. We are grateful to all those who have in any way helped us. We have been greatly encouraged in the performance of our task by the general concern we have found to improve facilities for investigating and treating maladjustment in children, and by the indomitable faith of those working with them. 4. Now that we have reached the end of our labours we feel bound to ask ourselves what we have achieved as a result of nearly five years’ considera- tion of the problem referred to us. Those who may have expected from us a wholly novel insight into the nature of maladjustment or new and even revolutionary ideas about the way in which it should be treated will no doubt be disappointed with what we have to say. We do not even offer a tidy plan for dealing with the problem, nor have we been able to provide accurate estimates of its size. 5. In our view it would not have been realistic to attempt anything as ambitious as this. Too little is yet known about maladjustment in children and the ways in which it can be successfully treated to make it possible to generalise or to suggest ready-made solutions ; fifteen years ago the very term “ maladjustment ” was not in common use. 6. We have therefore made a more pedestrian approach to the problem by considering, against the background of normal development, what we mean by a maladjusted child and by reviewing the arrangements at present available for treating and for preventing maladjustment. We have considered the various agencies in the field in relation to the education service, which itself occupies a central position inasmuch as it has continuous contact with the vast majority of children for ten vital years in their lives. 7. This is the first occasion on which a systematic review has been made of the various services available, and on which suggestions have been made for their proper co-ordination in the interests of the child. All are still 1 82406 hoa