School for Backward Children.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4370, 6 February 1909, Page 3

School for Backward Children.

The school for backward children at Otekaike has only been in working order for a month or so, yet there are already some remarkable instances of how well directed and steady training will improve children New Zealand Times ”). One inmate, a boy of 12, could only talk gibberish. At home his mother managed to comprehend t what he meant, as a rule, but with such a handicap the boy would, of course, be an utter failure in a r >y walk of life. A few weeks at Otekaike has already given hope of recovery, fot his vocabulary, though limited, is now in good English. Persistent effort, with a clear indication to the boy that he could get very little he wanted unless ho -repeated the teacher’s words, worked the miracle. More hopeless was the case of an unfortunate boy who seemed quite unresponsive to outside impressions. He replied to nobody when admitted, and could not be induced to do or say anything, all his action being just the result of his own whim. The painstaking manager of the institution, who has had long experience with backward children, led his difficult subject to the hayfield, where the boys disported themselves. They were throwing hay over each other, but the fun could not provoke either smile or retaliation from the boy under notice. Then the manager playfully rolled his patient in the hay, and gave him an opportunity of returning the compliment. The boy threw some hay over him ; he had become responsive to outside impressions for the first time in his life. This simple indication of improved observation and spirits has been quietly encouraged, and. the probability is that a boy once doomed to be one of life’s failures will after all become useful to himself and to the community.”