View report page

81
It is recognized that throughout the country comparatively little
help is given to the parents of the very young subnormal child and
diagnosis may be delayed by the isolation of the parents with
their problem. It is thus important to concentrate the services of
the mental health social worker on this age group. Over-protective
attitudes developing in the mother can be prevented and early
diagnosis means that the child gets every possible opportunity for
stimulation and training at the earliest age.
In the summer of 1965 the Putney Mothers' Group, which had
been in existence for three years, was disbanded as the children
had mostly reached school age and had dispersed to school or
training centre and the mothers' problems had become less acute,
but at the end of the year a new Mothers' Group was started in
the Tooting area.
Brierley Hall Club
The Parents' Association in Wandsworth started a club for
subnormal teenagers in January, 1965. The club meets fortnightly
and the Principal Mental Welfare Officer is a member of the
committee and attends the club periodically.
Training Centres
For many years the training centre service in London was
organized on a County basis by the former London County Council
which resulted in considerable interchange of trainees between
areas which shared the services available. For example, the
Wandsworth junior training centre is used by the London Borough
of Lambeth, while 40 mentally subnormal children living in
Wandsworth attend the Fulham junior training centre. As there
are no adult training centre places for men in Wandsworth at
present, our male trainees attend Clapham Industrial Training
Centre in the London Borough of Lambeth. Our Balham training
centre for women and girls of 16 years of age and over is
used by trainees from Lambeth, Westminster, Kingston-uponThames,
Chelsea and Hammersmith and it is likely to be some
years before boroughs become self-supporting for training centre
places.
Wandsworth training centre—This is a junior training centre for
boys and girls under 16 years of age and has a special nursery
group for the under-five-year-olds.
Numbers on the register fluctuated between 70 and 85 at
this training centre throughout 1965. Is was possible to admit a
few children under five, but on the whole there was a good deal of
pressure for admission into the nursery group.
The deputy supervisor started to attend a Montessori course
in the evenings, her fees being paid. It has been possible to
experiment with new methods of teaching and use of Montessori
equipment has proved valuable.