§ Mr. Fittasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what arrangements are made for the education of children who suffer from autism or other forms of early childhood psychosis in Northern Ireland; how many such children he estimates there are in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Carter,pursuant to the reply [Official Report, 6th July 1976, Vol. 914, c. 514–15], gave the following information:
Under the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 the education and library boards are responsible for the provision of special education for all categories of handicapped children who are considered suitable for education at school. These include some children with autistic characteristics and other forms of early childhood psychosis who are receiving special educational assistance in one special unit attached to a normal primary school, in a hospital special school and in special schools. Because of the difficulty of precise definition, statistincs for these types of handicap are not available.
§ Mr. Fittasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what arrangements are made for the education of children in Northern Ireland who suffer from specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia; how many such children he estimates there are in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Carter,pursuant to the reply [Official Report, 6th July 1976, Vol. 914, c. 514–15], gave the following information:
Under the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 the education and library boards are responsible for the provision of special education for all categories of handicapped children who are considered suitable for education at school. These include children suffering from specific learning disabilities and special educational assistance for these children is provided by remedial teaching in normal schools, in units attached to normal schools and in special schools. 218W The term "specific learning disabilities" covers a wide range of problems of varying depth and it is not possible to provide meaningful statistics.
§ Mr. Fittasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what arrangements are made in Northern Ireland for the education of children who are both deaf and blind; how many such children he estimates there are in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Carter,pursuant to the reply [Official Report, 6th July 1976, Vol. 915, c. 514–5], gave the following information:
Under the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 the education and library boards are responsible for the provision of special education for all categories of handicapped children who are considered suitable for education at school. At present there are no children in Northern Ireland of school age who are both deaf and blind and who are considered suitable for education at school.
The health and social services boards are responsible for the treatment, care or training of children referred to them as unsuitable for education at school. Statistics about the number of such children who are both deaf and blind are not available.