Identifying the ‘subnormal’ child in an age of expansion of special schooling and child science in the Netherlands (c.1945-1965)

Between c.1945 and 1965 across the West special education has grown and differentiated substantially. In the Netherlands this expansion ran parallel to the academic recognition and rapid development of the study of learning disabilities. How are these two processes related? This article argues that in this country child science and special education have mutually stimulated each other’s growth and development. The creation of new categories of special-needs children brought about a climate in which the study of learning disabilities and their treatment could flourish. This, in turn, produced f... Mehr ...