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KINCSLEY HALL DAY CENTRE
1965 began in the nursery with the announcement that Sister Morrice would be
leaving in the early summer as she was pregnant - the news was received with both
pleasure and dismay. Pleasure as we knew that Sister dearly wanted a baby of her
own, and dismay as we had come to rely so much on her efficiency and kindness in
the nursery. In May we greeted our new Sister, Mrs. Torrington, who worked with
Sister Morrice for a month, "to learn the ropes", and has now settled down very
well amidst the staff and children.
Great excitement was engendered in the nursery in the early spring when we
were offered the gift of a portable swimming pool. This duly arrived, and after
a few weeks we began to wonder how we ever managed without it. We found it was
possible to use warm water in the pool, and thus it could be used therapeutically
for the cerebral palsied and hemiplegic children; undoubtedly great improvement
was noted in these children, and it is unfortunate that the use of the pool is
limited by the vagaries of the weather. Still, we could not have been given a
better present, unless, of course, it had been a permanent, indoor, heated pool!
The public health inspectors very kindly agreed to look after the chlorination of
the pool for us.
An increasing number of hospital and dental appointments are being organised
by the nursery, in which the child is accompanied by a member of the staff and
parents, if they are available. We have found that this assists both the hospital
and nursery since an exchange of views on the child can be made; we have also
found that by this method far fewer children miss appointments due to some family
crisis.

We are now attempting to reach a more precise and scientific method of
ascertainment of the children attending the centre. We are endeavouring to
ascertain the children physically and mentally within a few weeks of arrival at
the nursery and before discharge, using some of the more recently published tests.
These include the Ruth Griffiths Mental Scales and the physical assessment
methods used by the Sheffield Cerebral Palsy Unit, also the Mary Sheridan Hearing
and Vision Tests. These methods are necessarily lengthy and slow at present, but
a more accurate estimate of the child's progress can be made than by the mere
recording of an impression of a child, i.e. he seems to be improving, since we
know that maturation of the child tends to occur in all but hopeless cases but
the rate of maturation is a guide to the child's future possibilities. Using the
new methods, six children have been mentally assessed and five physically
assessed. This does not imply, of course, that the normal examination of all the
children has not taken place, but that the new methods of assessment have been
added to the old in these cases.
Attendance at Kingsley Hall has continued to be excellent. Despite the very
severe winter and poor summer the average attendance was 16 per day.
The number of children admitted was 15, and discharged 13, and one child
died in Oldchurch Hospital in December.
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