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All these children it was thought would benefit from attending a weekly, or more often, a twice
weekly play group of five children. The first stage in starting these small play groups was to
develop a good relationship with the children and create an atmosphere in which they would feel
free to express themselves as they were not previously able to do. Some of these children
develop a strong dependence upon the therapist which when managed correctly can provide a basis
for developing their emotional stability and later for gaining more confidence and independence
in their everyday dealing with adult and children alike.
Another type of child who will be known to all whose work is with children is the aggressive child.
These children may or may not benefit from a play group. Sometimes unable to cope with sharing
the therapist's attention they become too disruptive to be contained beneficially within the group.
They may however benefit from regular individual play therapy sessions when a one-to-one relationship
can be built up more quickly. They choose their own toys or play equipment or act out their
troubles through the medium of their play.
This type of treatment can take a lot of time and patience, and having worked in the nurseries for
8 months now I am conscious that the job is still in its early stages.
The percentage of children in need of some sort of attention to a greater or lesser extent is high
and makes it impossible for me to cope with them all. However. / feel encouraged by the results
even at this early stage and / am hopeful for the future of play therapy for the under-fives.

In addition a large number of children were permitted to attend on a casual basis for half or a full
day to enable the mother to keep appointments at hospital, family planning clinic or court.
Private Day Nurseries and Child Minders
Consequent upon the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968, two part-time child minder visitors
were appointed early in 1969 to deal with the increased number of registrations necessary, until
a full-time visitor could be appointed. In June 1969", Mrs. F. Lassalle was appointed as fulI time
child minder visitor, and the following is her report of the work carried out during the rest of the
year:-
"The number of visits by the child minder visitor has averaged 75 a week, the purpose of visits
being as follows:-
(a) Initial visits to assess the suitability of the prospective child minder for registration.
(b) Subsequent visits in the course of registration - necessitating in most cases three visits, in
some four or five visits.
(c) Inspections of registered minders.
(d) Investigations of allegations of child minding by unregistered persons.
(e) Visits to health centres to consult with health visitors.
There are of course a number of "no access" visits, particularly in the summer months. 158 persons
applied for registration but withdrew their applications before registration was completed, in most
cases either because the applicant was leaving the district or being rehoused; or because the child
minder visitor's recommendations were not acceptable to the applicant.
In 25 cases the child minder ceased to mind after registration, either because she left the area or
because she decided that she would be financially better off working".
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