Acute rheumatism in children in its relation to heart disease.

Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Acute rheumatism in children in its relation to heart disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in it is usually found suitable accommodation for dormitories, a dining-room and play-rooms. Certain advantages accrue from the fact that the school is residential. As the question of distance or accessibility need not be considered, the site can be chosen with stricter regard to suitability of position and healthiness of surroundings. The school may be situated in the heart of the country or at the sea- side. The children are under stricter regime, and are not returned every night to unfavourable sleeping quarters and domestic environment, which too frequently is the case with those in attendance at the day open air school. Nevertheless, the ordinary residential open air school, like the day open air school, is not altogether suitable for the rheumatic child. They combine the liveliness of the ordinary convalescent home with certain characteristics of the day open air school which are not suitable for him. Special Schools for Physically Defective Children. Special schools for physically defective children provide education for those who through chronic disease or severe deformity are unable to obtain proper benefit from attendance at the ordinary public elementary school. The types of children selected for admission are those suffering from non-active tuberculosis of the bones or joints, paralysis due to various causes, the most important of which is poliomyelitis, severe deformities, usually congenital or due to rickets, and finally cases of severe heart disease or chorea. Every child must be medically examined prior to admission to the special school and a certificate given to the effect that the child is by reason of physical defect incapable of receiving proper benefit from instruction in an ordinary public elementary school, but is not incapable by reason of, such defect of receiving proper benefit from instruction in a special school. The curriculum of the special school provides instruction in elementary subjects and in manual training. It is designed to stimulate the child’s interest in life, and in some instances to train him in a vocation which he can follow in spite of his disability, Further special consideration is given to the needs of the child who, through prolonged absence from school, is retarded. Instruction is for the large part individual. Authorities are empowered to maintain children in the special school until the expiry of their 16th year, and there is accordingly opportunity to develop manual instruction along vocational lines. As children may live at some distance from the school, arrangements are made for the conveyance of the children by ambulance. A mid-day meal should be provided. This not only overcomes the difficulty of frequent transport between home and school, but provides the children with a suitable and well-balanced. dietary, which may be regarded as an important adjunct in the. treatment of their condition.