Where should spina bifida children go to school?

Children with spina bifida who attend ordinary schools are usually found to be less severely handicapped than their PH school counterparts. This study looked at thirty-eight pairs of children born since the introduction of selective surgery and matched for chronological age, one attending an ordinary school and the other PH schools. There was no difference between the two groups for IQ, reading ability or visual motor skills, although PH school children were significantly poorer on number work. Ordinary school children were less likely to need aids for locomotion, to have valves, and to be incontinent, although, as a group, they had a lower self-concept. Results of an analysis on the main discriminating factors indicated that all but two of the PH school children exhibit similar characteristics as those successfully attending ordinary schools. This suggests that the majority of post-selection spina bifida children could be integrated into ordinary schools.