ABSTRACT
There are no clear figures on the numbers of children who might have been deemed to have ‘learning difficulties’ before the 1944 educational reforms led to a new system of special educational provision. However, in 1929 the Wood Committee1 had estimated that no more than one-sixth of educable feeble-minded children were actually attending special schools and that the numbers meeting the criteria of feeble-mindedness (and therefore eligible for placement in special schools at that time) were only a fraction of the actual number who might benefit from special schooling. It is certainly the case that many children with severe learning difficulties received no schooling at all. It is also apparent that many children entering the ordinary school system would not be defined as having learning difficulties until later in their lives when an expanding apparatus of professional decision-making and institutional care drew in many new clients.
