An 8 year old boy in the asylum

We have been working with a group from Ageing Well - supported by Age UK and a history club from Archway School to look at Horton Road Asylum records from Gloucester Archives.
Whilst going through the 1917 admission records the Ageing Well group found an 8 year old boy labelled as a congenital idiot. He was the only child we found amongst the records which contained all manner of other patients from 80 year old women who had been in the asylum for 30 years to soldiers returning with "shell shock" - an actual definition on one admission - to women suffering because of "love affairs" and men who had been in prison.
The 8 year old was listed as being a "congenital idiot" which made the Ageing Well group think he may have had Downs Syndrome. The Archway pupils noticed his symptoms "shouting" and being "a danger to others" because he scratched them and wondered if perhaps he had tourettes.
It's difficult to know from a basic record what the modern day diagnosis would be but it is interesting how aware both groups from different generations are of mental health problems.
Having checked further details through Ancestry online sadly the boy died at the age of 12.