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Cerebral Palsy Unit
The Cerebral Palsy Unit associated with Vale Road School for Physically Handicapped Children Is
a centre to which mothers are referred for advice and children for treatment, as soon as a diagnosis of
cerebral palsy has been made. Dr. William Dunham, the consultant in charge of the Unit, attends once a
week. A physiotherapist and an occupational therapist are attached to the School, and give treatment
under the direction of the visiting consultant. A speech therapist is also available to give treatment in
suitable cases.
I am grateful to Mr. A.J. Ives, the headmaster of the school, and to his staff, for their continued
co-operation during the year with the medical staff. It is no easy task to reconcile the educational needs
of the children with their need for medical treatment, particularly when accommodation Is so inadequate.
Of theelght new cases seenduring 1965, six were Haringey children and two were from the London
Borough of Enfield. Five of these children were under five years and three were over five years old.
The recommendations made in respect of the new cases were as follows:-
Recommended admission to Vale Road Special School 3
Recommended admission to an ordinary school 1
Referred for further investigation of intellectual ability 4
I am indebted to Dr. William Dunham for the following report:-
"Life at a normal school can be strenuous, and to bring the benefits of a school education- social
as well as educational - to physically handicapped children, special arrangements are necessary. It is
one of the advantages offered by the Schools for Physically Handicapped Children that, in them, demands
are reduced so as to be within the capability of most of the children concerned. Other advantages are
the increased medical and nursing provision, reduction In the sizes of classes, and, in many cases, the
availability where required of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. Orthoptics may
also be available. These schools can thus serve children with a variety of handicaps.
Of those who attend schools for physically handicapped children,children with cerebral palsy-the
so-called "spastics"-form a considerable proportion. These children find itabnormally difficult to learn
todoeven the ordinary activities of every-day life, and they find it even more difficult to do these things
properly. Training byatherapist is therefore usually provided in order tohelp overcome these difficulties.
At the Vale Road P.H. School, Harringay, where these children at present account for 28 of the total of
90 pupils, they have for a number of years received particular attention, being provided with their own
visiting Consultant and their own specially trained Therapist. As the Therapist works actually in the
school, she isabletoprovidethis treatment without causing the child to waste valuable time in travelling
to and from a treatment clinic.
But, as well as finding it abnormally difficult to learn to do things properly, these children inevitably
find that their first successful attempts are slow and of short duration, calling for their close attention,
and it is obviously unlikely that they will practise the things they have learned in their therapy sessions
at other times unless they are adequately supervised. Yet unless they practise their therapy is largely
wasted, for it is constant practise which develops ease of performance and endurance, and it is only the
habitual adoption of normal postures which can prevent the development of deformity. For this reason it
is essential that the furniture they use shall be chosen so as to make it as easy as possible for them to
achieve normal posture and activity. And for this reason the collaboration of everyone concerned with
the children is required. At the Vale Road School teachers and attendants combine with the parents to
help the therapist guide the child into establishing normal habits of posture and movement. The system
is not one of restriction of the child's activity, but of helping him to do the best of which he is capable.
It should obviously be adopted as soon as the child's difficulties are realised. For this reason an Advice
Clinic for the parents of children with cerebral palsy of under school age is held at the school, and
through this the child can receive much useful training even before he reaches school age.
The school receives many visitors, and plays a valuable part in the training of personnel in many
branches of the Welfare State. On the Education side, organised visits have been made during the past
year by Students from the Trent Park Training College, the Staff Training College for House Parents
(Highbury) National Children's Home and the Maria Grey Training College. On the medical side, visits
were made by sister Tutors from the Royal College of Nursing, by Student Nurses from the Hospital for
Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, W.C.1., the Prince of Wales's Hospital, Tottenham, and St. George's
Hospital, Hyde ParkCorner, while Student Health Visitors came from the Local Health Authority. Visits
were aIso made by Occupational Therapists in training and by Doctors attending the Course in the Diploma
of Public Health, as well as by a number of individuals.
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