ABSTRACT
In slow-learning children there is frequently a general retardation in psychological growth but it is apparent that there are also, in some handicapped persons, marked and consistent growth variations in specific areas of functioning. The child showed gross forms of physical handicap including rickets, and also suffered from language, visual-perceptual and motor anomalies. Many children from deprived environments begin life functioning at a lower development level than other children, and over the years the discrepancy becomes more apparent. Many animals appear to show periods of development when certain stimulus-response patterns are rapidly learned and retained throughout life. Children from deprived environments show poorer functioning in verbal than in visual-perceptual areas of cognition. Most handicapped children come the way of educational authorities after the first period of growth and leave before the second period of growth. This suggests that educationalists should pay much more attention to these periods in terms of providing appropriate programs.
