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Quite apart from the question of expense, residential provision is avoided wherever
possible because of the difficulty of ensuring that the emotional, as well as the educational
and physical, requirements of the child are fully met. The responsibility for the child's
physical welfare is itself a heavy one. This applies equally to the day schools and the
function of the consultant is to give guidance in deciding upon the course to be taken
in the best interests of the child.
The aim of any special provision for the child with cerebral palsy is to enable him to
attain in his everyday life, so far as possible, the same competence as any other child. For
him, as for any other child, the attainment of competence in everyday activities demands
practice in performing those activities in a normal way, and since it is in the home and at
school that practice of everyday activities is of necessity largely carried out, it is vitally
necessary that activities practiced there should be performed in a normal way until this is
habitual. Activities currently too difficult to be performed in a normal way should be
postponed until the necessary competence has been acquired.
Thus special provision for these children, if it is to be realistically orientated, must be
so planned that those in a position to influence what the child does and the way in which
he does it, especially, parents and teachers, use this influence intelligently and consistently.
To do so, they must have an understanding of the difficulties of the individual
child. Through lectures and through the consultations between the consultant, teachers,
school nurses, Care Committee representatives, the parents and the child himself, this
understanding is being developed.
The Council, in 1943, was responsible for setting up the first special unit in this
country for children with cerebral palsy, at Queen Mary's Hospital for children,
Carshalton. As an extension of the work of that unit, the first Parents Advice Clinic for
the parents of children with cerebral palsy was started at the Lambeth Hospital. The
scheme which has been described will, it is hoped, mark a further step forward in the
provision of those special facilities necessary for children with cerebral palsy.
Physiotherapy
for the
physically
handicapped
The arrangements for physiotherapy at day schools for the physically handicapped,
described in previous reports, were continued during 1956 and negotiations with various
lospital authorities were continued with a view to extending them to other schools.
Diabetic
pupils
The Council maintains a residential hostel for diabetic pupils at Palingswick House,
Hammersmith. Children suffering from diabetes mellitus, which cannot be adequately
controlled at home and who are of such intelligence as to profit by their stay, are
admitted. The principles of control of the disease and the importance of diet are taught,
and the children are trained to make their own insulin injections and to guard against
the accidents of a diabetic life. A visiting medical officer provides day to day care and a
consultant visits regularly. The children attend local schools, the infants returning to the
hostel for lunch, the others have part school meal and part food taken with them from
the hostel.
Speech
therapy
105 sessions were held at 41 speech therapy clinics in addition to 42 sessions in
25 day schools for the educationally sub-normal, 28 sessions in 17 day schools for the
physically handicapped and 16 sessions in residential schools. During the year 1,088 pupils
(including 194 in special schools) were 'ascertained ' under the Handicapped Pupils
and School Health Service Regulations, 917 were admitted for treatment and 219 remained
on the waiting list.
475 pupils were discharged as either improved or cured and 204 pupils, most of whom
showed some improvement, ceased to attend the clinics for various reasons. The number
of children under treatment at the end of the year was 1,198.
The increased activity during the year was made possible by engaging additional
staff, the total on 31st December stood at 15 full-time speech therapists (including one
senior therapist), three part-time and eight sessional therapists.
Dr. R. E. C. Copithorne, an assistant principal medical officer, writes :
Many children with defective speech improve and achieve normal speech after a
period of a few months' attendance at a speech clinic. While this is the point to be aimed
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