Los Banos Rotary Club History
Psychologist Tells Of Her Work With School Children

Fathers have a bigger part to play in America's family group than just their obligation as family bread earner.
So said Mrs. Grace BuDahn, psychologist and consultant in special education for Merced county. Mrs. DuDahn held rapt and sometimes conscious-stricken attention of the fifty-plus members of the Los Banos Rotary Club here Tuesday noon as she told of her work with school children throughout the county, and the special work that is being done with "problem" and retarded children to bring them up to become honorable and useful citizens.
Declaring that Merced county and most of California is far behind eastern education in providing psychological help for children, Mrs. BuDahn said that some school systems have had the benefits of a regular psychologist for 25 years or more, while the service is still comparatively new in Merced county.
Probably caused by the nervous tension resulting from today's world, school authorities declare today at least one third of all school children are emotionally disturbed and stupid have psychological help. However, with only the psychiatrist now serving all schools in this county, this is plainly impossible and only the very exceptional case can be given study and help.

Mrs. BuDahn told briefly of the several special schools that have been established for handicapped children in the county, where special facilities and specially trained teachers are accomplishing miracles with handicapped children, many of whom are mentally as well as physically retarded.
Don't blame the schools and the teacher," she said, "if your child, is not advancing properly. Our teaching is better today than at any time in history; and so are our teaching methods. There are many causes why a presumably normal child can not learn to read and study properly—and most of these reason lie with the parents—in the home. Lack of understanding, lack of helpfulness, lack of love, and most important, lack of a true sense of security, leads to a mental and sometimes physical "block" which the child cannot overcome.

Declaring that psychology and its allied companion in the medical world, psychiatry, is a subject that people are prone to banter about without scarcely knowing its meaning, Mrs. BuDahn warned against the quack and pseudo-psychologist who oftimes do more harm than good. "A psychologist," she said, "should be chosen just as carefully as you would choose your physician or surgeon—and your first insurance of such person's ability and integrity should be sure he or she is a member of the American Psychological Association.

As to parental obligation to the child, Mrs. BuDahn emphasized that the poorest homes are often the happiest, and that love, affection and sense of security are the prime ingredients of a happy home. She urged, among many other things, that parents take the time to let their children talk, and to listen attentively. "There is no person living, child or adult," she said, "that doesn't have to have someone to talk to or confide in. as a parents, that listener is a safety post that insures a healthy, happy mind."

January 16, 1953

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