[Report 1930] / School Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council.

  • Shropshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1930
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1930] / School Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/48 (page 13)
    Dull and Backward Children.-At the time of the medical inspection the teachers brW to the notice of the medical inspector all children who show signs of mental re2 L TS ln T f the^nardmmn amounts to two years or ™re a special Dull and Backward ” a d is made out, and the child is seen at each subsequent medical inspection as lone as definite retardation continues. If a child is retarded as much as three years or more he'is specially examined as a possible case of mental deficiency at the next visit of the medical ’inspecto? to the sc ool, unless the retardation is clearly attributable to some other known cause. During the year there were 626 new cases of retardation amongst the school children the degree of retardation varying from one to six years. The following analysis of the causes o? retardation is of interest m that it shows the relative importance of the various factors commonly found to account for backwardness m school children. Little can be done when the backward^ dff]susPecited mental deficiency and probably also innate dullness ; t out of 626 backward children, m 75 the retardation was found to be due to definitely remediable causes, such as lncniffiriPnmr jr xwucuidUlC Causes of No. of Degrees of retardation expressed in years. Retardation. children. 1 year 2 years 3 years 4 years 5 years 6 years Not stated. Innate Dullness Insufficiency of 494 24 307 152 10 • • ♦ 9 1 Education Mental Deficiency 48 28 7 • • 24 2 14 3 1 11 • • 8 • • 2 2 O Physical Defects 27 7 16 1 2 At T Suspected Mental • « -L Deficiency .. 13 • • 3 5 4 T No Diagnosis 10 1 5 3 T Bad Home Conditions 4 2 1 X Laziness 2 1 1 « • • • • • « • • • • • 1 • • 626 42 359 178 28 8 2 9 Pei haps the matter of most practical importance shown by these figures is the number (48) who were dull and backward apparently from insufficiency of education. The backwardness was attributed principally to late commencement of school life, and to some extent to irregular ■ attendance afterwards. Special attention is being paid to those in whom the dull and backward condition was attributed to physical defects with the object of getting these defects remedied. In addition, 786 children diagnosed as dull and backward in previous years were re-examined the findings in connection with whom were as follows of Mentally defective Doubtful cases of mental deficiency Backward, but improving Backward, but not improving Now normal 34 37 523 177 15 The examination of these backward children takes up a very considerable amount of time the Assistant School Medical Officers.