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[Chris Smith]

This seems to happen to me every summer and I must confess to being frustrated about it.

The summer is extremely busy for most of us, with hundreds of students pouring in from schools and colleges everywhere. Amongst this deluge I always seem to get two or three students who are suffering from one or more mental illnesses. I take them in for their placement test and do my best to work out their conversation ability.

These students may suddenly begin a sentence and subject free monologue, during which I try to interject to steer the flow. I've had students who can't keep still, with uncontrollable ticks and other obsessive behaviour. Some are clearly not talking to me, and this becomes apparent when I do speak and scare the life out of them.

My question is what to do with these people. They often come with their mothers and we have to be plain with them that their son/daughter will have difficulties fitting in to regular classes. They leave, obviously feeling a bit dejected. My advice to the manager is that the student needs special help. If they aren't seeing a doctor, then they should. As they obviously want to study English, I would like to be able to make a reasonable suggestion to them, but I don't have a clue about specialist schools that would be able to take these students.

Has anyone found they have the same experience? Any suggestions?

Chris