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Kingsley Hall Nursery had two mentally retarded children and a child severely
retarded by a serious illness in infancy. These children have been treated with care
and patience and all have made good progress.
Goresbrook Nursery has a deaf child, and the staff have been instructed in methods
of handling her and teaching her how to use the little hearing she has, and helping her
to develop speech. The hospital is very pleased with her progress.
This small number of carefully selected handicapped children fitted quite well into
the day nurseries and benefited from association with normal children. For many cases
it was not found possible to introduce them in this way, partly because of their unsuitability
and partly because of the danger of overloading the nurseries. For this reason
we must continue to plan for the nursery for the handicapped where careful assessment
can take place and where the parent can secure help and guidance.
CLINICS
In November this year Ford Road Clinic was completely renovated and redecorated
internally at a cost of approximately £800, a great deal of thought and a burst of industry
from the borough engineer's department and their contractors who must be thanked
for completing the programme of work so quickly and efficiently so that disruption of
the maternity and child welfare and school clinics was kept within the allotted month,
during which time all sessions were transferred to Leys Clinic.
Instead of the dark brown and fawn walls and long, spine-tingling benches, the
clinic is now gaily decorated in "house and garden" colours and the waiting and treatment
rooms equipped with comfortable, bright chairs and tables. The red polish has
been replaced by springy green and blue rubber tiles and, as the photograph shows, a
light gaiety has superceded the drabness of the past.
Estimates were prepared for Becontree Clinic and it is hoped that this work will be
completed in 1959. The second photograph shows Becontree Clinic as it is now.
The work at Becontree Clinic will be a major undertaking as structural defects
were found by the surveyors so that the total estimate for the work to be done is necessarily
greater than that for the smaller clinic at Ford Road.
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