View report page

Such then, is the problem in general terms. A small but increasing number of
children who because of mental or physical handicap cannot enjoy a normal childhood.
The children under review in this area can be divided into four categories:
1. Severe physical handicap: including spastics, hemiplegias, poliomyelitis and
congenital heart defects.
2. Minor degrees of handicap necessitating special treatment: including cleft palate—
requiring speech therapy; mild poliomyelitis and spastics requiring physiotherapy.
3. Isolated defects including blind and deaf.
4. Mental defectives such as mongols and retarded children.
No system of classification is watertight and some of the children have dual defects—
but all of them have the same basic needs:
(a) Early training within the limits of their incapacity.
(b)Special training to overcome the defects, especially speech training and
therapy.
So far, I have emphasized the needs of the child in relation to training and companionship,
but I would like now to consider the problems of the mothers of these children
and their relations with the rest of the family.
In surveys throughout the country on special groups of handicapped children,
questions have been asked about the relationship of the handicapped child with normal
children in the family and whether or not other children are neglected because of the
presence of the handicapped child. In each of these it has been found that in over 80%
of the homes the children get on well together, but that in 30% the mother has felt that
the other children are neglected because of the additional attention she has to give to
the handicapped child, and in the few cases where there are 2 such children in a family,
i.e., 2 mongols, or as we have in a Dagenham family, 2 mentally subnormal epileptics,
the percentage is even higher.
Not only is it important for us to see that every help that the medical services can
give to these children is provided and that their training is adequate and suitable to their
needs, but we must also try to give them and their families as much help as we can; and
it is here that I feel that the Local Health Authority can provide a valuable service for
this important age group by providing nursery accommodation in the area to which as
many of these cases as are suitable may be sent for early training, systematized therapy
related to the child's special needs and, equally important, relief for the mother and
family for some part of the day from the constant care of these children.
39