A follow-up study of young cerebral palsied patients Some psychological, educational and vocational aspects

Abstract.— In a follow-up study of 39 non-oligophrenic spastic adolescents and young adults it was found that 85% attended normal schools, the rest went to schools for physically or mentally handicapped. If retarded children with learning difficulties were left out of account, there were no more than 10% regular problem cases, an incidence which is very close to what is found among ordinary, non-handicapped Danish school children.-With regard to vocational career, nearly 80% were estimated to be able to obtain and remain in open employment. About one third had experienced rather pronounced vocational problems either because of physical weakness and slowness, or because of personality disturbances or intellectual retardation. Females appeared generally more content with and successful in their jobs than the males. There was an overrepresentation of clients with a mild physical handicap in the problem group, indicating that it may be difficult to occupy such a "marginal" position with its easy accs to comparison and competition with the socalled normal standards.-A close relationship was found between the data from the original psychological evaluation and the course of schooling. In contrast, there was a low agreement between the childhood reports and the follow-up employment data.