MALADJUSTED CHILDREN

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26186, 9 August 1950, Page 5

MALADJUSTED CHILDREN

SPECIAL FACILITIES FOR TRAINING

IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH SCHOOLS

Experience gained in Britain in the education of maladjusted children may be put to good use in New Zealand by Mr and Mrs J. Morrison, who have returned to Christchurch, after an c.b-’ sence of four years and a half. Very little was being done at present in New Zealand in any special way for the treatment of maladjusted children, said Mr Morrison, in an interview yesterday. In Britain there were special schools for children suffering from various handicaps such as blindness, deafness, or maladjustment. These maladjusted children were not delinquent or intellectually backward, but were suffering from emotional instability. They were referred to the child guidance centres by a school medical officer, teacher, parent, or clergyman. Each child was examined by a clinic’s officers; his educational capacity was assessed and his home background was investigated. His maladjustment might be found to be the result of specific backwardness in one school subject. In this case, he would be give special remedial education. In other cases, he could be sent to a dav school for maladjusted children, or, if his home conditions were completely unsatisfactory, to a boarding school. Boarding School System Mr and Mrs Morrison worked in several of these boarding schools. All such schoc Is had waiting lists, they said. This was not necessarily because the number of maladjusted children was increasing. The authorities were becoming more aware of the problem, through the machinery of the child guidance clinics. It was estimated that 1 per cent, of the total child population in Britain was in need of some sort of treatment for maladjustment. Thic estimate did not include children who were deaf, blind, delinquent, or subnormal. The success of the schools, Mr and Mrs Morrison said, depended on the skill of the teachers and on the relationship between children and teachers. It was possible to have a much more informal and friendly relationship in these schools because of the small classes. There were usually about 14 children to a teacher. .A child guidance clinic which had sent a child to a special school maintained continual contact with the child throughout his school life.

The task was one of prevention rather than cure, Mrs Morrison emphasised. It was important to detect any maladjustment while a child was very young, as the work of readjustment became much more difficult as a child grew older. The special schools preferred to take children under 10 years of age, and they usually remained there for the whole of their school life. “It is not a quick way out, or a temporary measure,” said Mrs Morrison. Prevention of Delinquency The work of these schools was very valuable .in preventing delinquency, because the children were removed f rom environments in which their maladjustment might have developed into neuroses or delinquency, or both. In some cases, if a child was considered ready to return to his home, and, if his home conditions had improved, he might return home, but this was not the usual practice. The education of these children was a comparatively recent development, even in Britain. Mr Morrison said. The oldest special school was established only about 11 years ago. Most of them were set up by independent groups, but some of the newer ones had been set up by local authorities. All were recognised by the Ministry of Education. The local education authorities paid the fees of children up to £250 a year.

In some cases, there was a legal obligation for a child to attend a certain school, but in most cases the parents could transfer the child to another school if they wished. Parents were usually co-operative in the matter, Mr Morrison added.

The clinics made every effort to send each child to tlje school which would be most suitable for him. Some of the schools had been set up as a result of efforts of independent groups to deal with “unbilletable’’ children during the Second World War. One of the schools which developed from this was the Baras School in Scotland. This school operated on a system of shared responsibilitv. but not complete setf-government. Unco-opera-tive children were dealt with bv the pupils themselves in their owrT court Mr and ’lrs Morrison are easrer to start residential work for maladjusted children in New Zealand; but at present they say they are merely ex-nlor-ng the field. Mr Morrison has a diploma of social studies from Sydney . University, and Mrs Morrison graduated M.A. from Canterbury University College, and is also a trained teacher.