Am Experiment in the Education of Retarded Children in a Rural Comnty
Paper to be read on Friday afternoon, 26th April.
- Aythor:
Tipper, B.Sc.,
Director of Education, Westmorland.
The modest experiment which we have been making in Westmor- and was the outcome of a conversation with Miss Fox four years ago. In common with other rural counties we had been facing the problem of the dull and backward (including mentally deficient) child, and found it an extremely difficult one to solve. Our conditions in Westmorland are probably exceptional, for though many other counties have certain areas where the population is very scattered, that condition applies to practically the whole of our County. The fact that we have a school population of 5,200 children in average attendance amongst 110 schools will illustrate the sparseness of our population. It is further emphasized by the fact that we have 69 schools with under 50 in average attendance.
There are no centres in which it would be possible satisfactorily t0 organise a day school or class, and at the time when I discussed the Matter with Miss Fox we had already come to the conclusion that a residential school was quite out of the question. We had, therefore, some means of dealing with dull and backward children in e ordinary schools or to shelve the problem altogether. Our experience had already shown us that there are certain child- ren who cannot be dealt with in the elementary school under any cir- cumstances, either because they are a constantly disturbing element or their influence is directly harmful.
On the other hand we had evidence that the number of such child- ren is small and is apt to be exaggerated, and that by far the greater proportion of dull and backward children are a difficulty in the school solely because their progress (if any) is so very slow and they do not respond to the ordinary methods used in the school. The question therefore arose as to whether it would be possible to deal with these children in their own schools and whether an experiment could be tried which would test this possibility. In the end we decided to try the following method : ?
To have one of our supply teachers specially trained for the pur- pose, and to employ her for part of her time in visiting the schools where there were dull and backward children in order to assist the teachers in devising and adapting methods for dealing with such children.
Fortunately, one of our supply teachers who had had extensive experience with infants, had worked also with children of the type that we were considering, so that with a comparatively small amount of further training she was able to carry out what we had in mind. Fortunately, also, the experiment appealed to her very strongly; she entered into it with enthusiasm and spared neither time nor energy in the endeavour to make it a success. We started with the following aims: ?
First to ascertain the extent of our problem, then to choose certain children representative of its different aspects and test the effect of selected methods in dealing with them.
Our investigations showed 450 retarded children in the Westmor- land elementary schools?that is, say, 7^% of the school population ?and it is a matter of interest that 360 of these were born during the war years. Of the 450, 133 are classified as dull and backward, and 39 as mentally defective, the remainder being retarded through some removable cause. Of the 39, five were regarded as unsuitable for re- tention in the elementary schools.
In considering these figures the character of the County requires to be kept in mind. Many children from the remoter parts of the County are 6 or 7 before they come to school, and quite a considerable number of these have an extremely limited vocabulary when they do enter. They hear very little ordinary conversation at home; there are often no books of any kind; and such children may give an impression of stupidity which is not borne out by later experience.
In investigating the 450 children mentioned, the following points were taken into consideration, besides the ordinary records of the school:?The School Medical Officer’s Report, a special report by the Head Teacher, and the family history. The children were tested by the Binet Simon Tests, Burt’s Scholastic Tests, Graded Reasoning Tests, and Performance Tests.
The whole of the 133 children, as well as the 39, were classified as far as possible. The members of this Conference will not need reminding that such classifications are at best only a convenience. It will be appreciated by all who have to deal with small schools that it was necessary to demonstrate not only the possibility of dealing with the children by special methods in their own schools, but also to show that it can be done without imposing too great a strain upon the teacher, or interfering with the progress of the other scholars, and this in schools where there would be only two, or even one, teacher. At first we selected children solely from schools where the Head I eacher was completely in sympathy, but found it impossible to adhere strictly to this policy without spreading the experiment over too wide an area and killing it by cost of travelling.
In consequence of this we did deal with some children in schools where the Head Teacher was extremely doubtful about the whole Matter, and in one way this has been a distinct advantage. On the whole, however, we have found the teachers extremely sympathetic, vcry anxious to keep these children in the schools and to do everything that they could for them.
We have, however, found that there is considerable difficulty in pealing with an occasional child on individual lines if individual work !s n?t the rule in the school or the class, as this tends to isolate the child ln question from his fellows. It has to be remembered also that in a school where the staff is not too generous it is a great deal to ask that a teacher shall give a large amount of time and thought to the problem ?f one child.
The Scheme has been too short a time in operation to warrant us ln drawing any really definite conclusions, but the following quotation from the Report issued to my Committee last year gives our conclusions 50 far as we feel justified in drawing them : ?
. the interim report before the Committee, I wish to point out that I at1 dllxlous n?t to claim that we have yet found an answer to the pressing problem ‘ l*?ent facing Education Committees in all rural areas, viz., that of finding a tli, S(,actory way of dealing with educationally and mentally retarded children in oP unty Schools. The report made at such an early date is made solely with the wl^rh giving an account of the work done, so that the Committee may decide jk’thej- are justified in continuing their experimental scheme.
?’lowing the report of 1927, it was decided to select a number of problem child- i and confine the year’s work to them in an endeavour to find (1) whether the u’ l)erimental scheme was workable, (2) whether is was of value, and (3) how far ,.e hiethods eventually evolved could be carried out by the ordinary staff of the in? Twelve children were at first selected, but the number was subsequently creased to twenty. The selection of children depended wholly on the geographical positions of their schools. Fortunately, in the schools selected were children of f-y varying types, and the schools themselves were representative of all types unci in the County. We can, therefore, assume that we have encountered, in this mall group, most of the difficulties we are likely to come up against as the work lb extended.
?^t this point the following table may be of interest : ? 50 MENTAL WELFARE No. of Ages Points of interest affecting School Type of School children Yrs. Yrs. children being dealt with No. 1 … 6 teacher type … 6 … 7 to 13 … Chiefly nomadic. 2 … 5 ,, ,, … 3 … 6 to 12 … 1 dumb but not deaf; 1 lacking muscular control. 3 … 5 ,, ,, … 2 … 7 to 8 … 1 bad speech defect; 1 difficult institution child. 4 … 3 ,, ,, … 3 … 8 to 10 … Doing infant work in Senior School. 5 … 2 ,, ,, … 1 … 11 yrs. … Very bad speech defect. Temperamental. 6 … 1 ,, ,, … 1 … 11 ,, … 3rd generation illiterate?only been at school 2 years. 7 … 3 ,, ,, … 1 … 11 ,, … In five years had made no pro- gress in reading. 8 … 2 ,, ,, … 1 … 13 ,, … Epileptic fits?not frequent. 9 … 2 ,, ,, … 1 … 11 ,, … Cretin, having thyroid treatment. 10 … 3 ,, ,, … 1 … 12 ,, … Mongol?Master decided against exclusion.
In dealing with the various types, the general method of procedure was to fore- cast, with the aid of the excellent tests now in use, the probable educational or mental age of the child in the school leaving year, and then attempt to so arrange tuition that he (or she) might be doing the maximum work of which he was capable by the time he left school.
A well-graded scheme of work then became a necessity. There is at present no apparatus on the market which is entirely suitable for such a Scheme, though it has been possible to use some which can be purchased. It has, therefore, been necessary to devise apparatus which, with the above, would meet the needs of the Scheme of work which has been arranged. This has taken a very great deal of time and study, especially of modern individual methods. The Scheme, together with the examples of the various apparatus, can be seen in the Committee’s Book Store, and may be loaned for a short period to teachers interested.
The work of each child was planned and recorded so that the progress made over a given period, or at any period, could be easily verified.
I am happy to say that in every case where children have been treated over the whole period, progress has far exceeded what I had been led to hope for. Burt and Tredgold both quote the rate of the advance of the defective as being about one- third of the rate of the advance of the normal. In two cases where children of 10 and 11 years respectively had failed to progress in reading during 5 years of school life, progress has been made during the last year at the rate of the normal. The children in question work under very different conditions. No. 1 had some interests, could write, do a little arithmetic, but had no knowledge of reading, and the master assured me that he could not be taught to read. During the past year he has had the interest of a capable teacher, and has worked with ” special ” apparatus which the teacher also uses for her class work. One visit per month partly for super- vision and partly for the teaching of light woodwork, has proved sufficient. This child is one of 22 in class, and his progress during the past year has been that of normal. No. 2 is in a Senior Boys’ School where class teaching is the rule. He had no interests in school, had failed to find anything he could do?of the ” stay put ” type, he sat on a chair all day long apart, just doing nothing. He has been exceedingly difficult to rouse. Frequent visits have been necessary, sometimes two a week; altogether this boy has had three times the amount of visits given to any other child. He still mentally loafs away a great part of his time, but he has made a year’s progress in reading in one year. This, in spite of the fact that he is working in a senior school, and is unable to rely on an already busy teacher for help, but has had to depend wholly on the apparatus supplied, and the special visits. These two cases, whilst showing that progress has been possible under widely varying conditions, tend to show the impossibility of answering such a question as ” How many visits per year will it be necessary to make? ” In such a case as that of the little Cretin (No. 9 on my list) having Thyroid Treatment, the visit made once in six weeks has been of great value. The teacher accepted the child as part of her routine work, and had, before the new scheme started, obtained some wonderful results, and the work still shows steady progress. The child’s work reflects great credit on her teacher, and she is doing work in English 2 years in advance of any cretinous children I saw in special schools. …
Obviously a great deal depends upon the class organisation. Where individual work is alreadv carried on to a considerable extent, it is much more easy for a teacher to arrange for the special work required by the retarded child, and to see that the necessary apparatus is used.
Much good work had already been done in some of the larger schools, their elder defectives reading quite fluently, and here I have depended largely on the Head Teacher for advice as to how my visits would best prove beneficial. Some- times the visit has resulted in little conferences of teachers discussing individual c^ses and their treatment; at other times I have given class lessons illustrating the use of various apparatus supplied; at other times I have devoted myself wholly to the teaching of the special children and to the recording and grading of their work.
The whole of the children in the selected group are clean and well cared for, although one seems undernourished. Teachers report that conduct, with the ex.- caption of one case, is quite satisfactory, and that children are happy in their school life. In the exceptional case the child was recommended for exclusion, but the Head Teacher decided against exclusion.
Since the above was written, I have had an opportunity of con- sidering the further progress of the Scheme, and I am able to add to what is stated by the following information : ? 1 lie work has now been extended to include 28 children and 14 schools, and in addition 2 large groups for special work. The progress continues in most cases, and the children who had no knowledge of reading at the commencement of the work are now reading from Beacon Reader I. fhe exceptions are :?
. (1) A cretin, who now, after making excellent progress, seems to be at a stand- still. (2) A boy of 8 years, I.Q., 45, ineducable, who had been included in the Scheme at the request of a teacher. (3) Two Mongols?one of these was to be excluded but the master decided against exclusion. It has been possible, in four cases, for children to return to normal work after a period of special treatment. We may, I think, conclude: ? (1) That the dull and backward child can make decided progress in the elementary school where suitable methods are employed and where a teacher has the help and guidance of someone who has made a special study of the subject. (2) That the influence of the other children is generally for the good of the backward child, and it is a very rare thing indeed in rural schools to find such a child treated unfairly or unkindly by his fellows. (3) That the backward child who is making progress is very much more at home in the school than the one who is simply marking time.
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