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(3) Special Care Unit
With the object of accommodating 12 very severely retarded
children suffering from other handicaps, this unit, at first sight,
would appear to meet the needs of the parent rather than the
child. However, while the value of the unit to the parent should
not be underrated, the service is not to be considered as merely
one of child-minding. On the contrary, it must be, and indeed
it is, a training unit in as much as the children are being helped
towards greater independence.
On admission at the age of 5 or 6 years, some children are
still bottle-fed and much skilled and patient teaching is required
to assist them to surmount the physical handicaps which make
self-help so difficult. A great sense of achievement is felt when
a previously helpless child begins to spoon-feed itself.
Of all the groups this one, perhaps more than any other,
needs to be taught leisure-hour activities in order that the many
hours spent by its members in wheel chairs at home may, in
fact, be those of leisure and not of boring and deleterious idleness.
It may well be that many children in this unit will never be able
to undertake employment even under sheltered conditions but their
lives can be made less irksome if as a result of training, they can
occupy themselves and are able to engage in a modicum of selfhelp.
It is fundamental to the success of the centre that every effort
be made to create a stimulating and happy atmosphere, an environment
within which children are given the best of opportunities
to assimilate and adjust.