[Report 1967] / School Medical Officer of Health, Counties of Perth & Kinross.

  • Perthshire (Scotland). County Council.
Date:
1967
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1967] / School Medical Officer of Health, Counties of Perth & Kinross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Although there would appear to be an increase in the number of handicapped children, in fact only 53 of the children discharged as mentally handicapped were first referrals. The others were children who were re-assessed to determine whether their placement was still correct or to verify proposed placement. PROBLEMS TREATED. Table 7 Educational Retardation 60 Enuresis 40 Anti-Social Behaviour 24 Theft 19 Nervousness 14 School Refusal 13 Perceptual Difficulties 12 Physical Symptoms 10 Truancy 10 Speech Defects 9 Encopresis 9 Sex Offences 3 There has been an increase in the number of children seen for educational reasons by the Educational Psychologists. Of the 60 children who were helped educationally, twelve had perceptual difficulties, two had changed school frequently, six had a history of frequent absences throughout their school career, and five came from very unstimulating environments. Contrary to popular belief that child guidance cases come from broken homes, we find that only a few have unusual backgrounds. Only four children came from homes where parents were separated or divorced, only seven came from homes where one or both parents had had psychiatric treatment, and there was only one unsettled drifting family, five were in care or had been in care. This is a very small proportion of the 415 children seen. CHILD GUIDANCE CLASS. 10 children have attended the Child Guidance Class this session. (c) SPEECH THERAPY. At the beginning of the session another Speech Therapist was appointed and the clinics, which had, of necessity, been closed at Coupar Angus and Dunblane because of shortage of staff, were reopened and a whole day service to Glebe School was provided. The clinics at Kinross, Milnathort, Blairgowrie and Crieff on a fortnightly basis last year, were once more operated weekly. In addition, outlying County schools were visited in an advisory capacity. OUTLINE OF WORK. 320 names were entered in the Case Book during the course of the year. 140 of this number have now been discharged, leaving 180 cases to be carried forward to the new session. There are 62 names currently on our waiting list. These comprise 27 City children and 35 County names. There has been a steady list of referrals during the year. These were received from County and City School Medical Officers, Head Teachers, Class Teachers, General Practitioners, School and District Nurses and Parents. Below is a table of the various categories of defect treated during the year. Table l Stammer bo Defective Articulation 193 Retarded Speech Development 37 Cleft Palate 8 Vocal Disorders 7 Stammer and Defective Articulation 4 Defective Articulation resulting from defective hearing Spastic Dysarthria 3 320