NEW ATTEMPT TO ASSIST MALADJUSTED CHILDREN

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28013, 6 July 1956, Page 12

NEW ATTEMPT TO ASSIST MALADJUSTED CHILDREN

An experiment in special attention for children who have problems of adjustment at home or school, now in progress at Glenelg Health Camp is being closely watched by national leaders of the Education Department, the Health Department, and the New Zealand Health Camps Federation. Educationists and psychologists in the university colleges are also interested, and the novelty of the approach has also impressed overseas visitors.

The King George V Memorial Children’s Health Camps Act, 1953, contains a little-known provision that, besides children who are “ailing or undernourished,” health camps may bo used to help children who are “backward and are likely to receive benefit.”

Education and health officials today interpret “backward” to cover a very wide range of problems in children and, with the acceptance of special classes of different kinds, any stigma has been removed. Formerly such problems were not recognised and such children were left with their fellows. The benefits of reorientation in many cases have been such that little comment is now aroused by short periods of separation. The use of a health camp, in one of its normal eightweek cycles, is new. Sometimes poor physical condition reflects needs other than proper nutrition, adequate rest, regular habits, and similar provisions which are a feature of health camps. There may be stresses and strains with other members of the family, lack of affection from one or both parents, anxieties about school studies, or failure to reach adjustment with classmates.

Regular groups who pass through health camps may include some such children, who present something of a difficulty to their parents, their teachers, or themselves. These pupils usually gain physically and emotionally from a stay in health camp, even though special care for them is not normally provided. For some time it has been felt that more could be done for them.

In a group of about 30 boys now at Glenelg, there are more than the usual proportion with adjustment problems, and all the agencies interested are co-operating to try innovations? The usual school curriculum at the camp has been modified to include more physical education, art and craft, and nature study. Organised recreational work outside school hours has been stepped up. To provide for all this, increased staff has been made available.

A physical education specialist from the School of Physical Education at Otago University is in charge of the project: there is another man specialising in physical education: a woman specialist in art and craft is employed, and two other teachers assist after school hours, in addition to the regulai staff of two at the Glenelg School Other itinerant specialists under the Canterbury Education Board (in subjects such as nature study) may be called in.

Week-end activities have been extended to carefully-supervised hiking, picnicking, out-door cooking, nature-study rambles, and organised games. “Diversional-occupational therapy” is the term for such activity designed to assist the child to be as physically and mentally healthy as possible. It is said to make easier the more systematic instruction of the normal school. Observations of response are being made at first hand to see what progress can be made in making each boy happier in himself and in his relationships with those with whom he lives, works, and plays. An independent evaluation of the programme is being undertaken by an educational psychologist through on-the-spot observations and discussions and reports from the teachers and others concerned. It is admitted that accurate assessment will not be easy, especially as the boys will be at Glenelg for only eight weeks (of which four are gone); but it is hoped to keep track of the boys afterwards and assist their parents in giving them better relationships at home and school. A 1 least, it is believed that there will be indications of the effect of such innovations, even if results are not conclusive. It is not known whether the experiment will be repeated or modified.