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took place at Chiswick Polytechnic.
A striking change in social outlook and in attitudes
is our increasing interest in and concern for the
handicapped. Attention is being focused on the
importance of diagnosis and assessment of the child's
condition as early as possible and the provision of
suitable facilities to help him to reach his full potential.
The importance of the role which social and
environmental factors play in the development of the
handicapped child is becoming increasingly recognised.
Even a severely sub-normal child can make
quite remarkable progress if he is brought up in an
environment specially devised for his care and
guidance, but there is still a shortage of these special
units, especially for the youngest children. Meantime
the admission of a small number of handicapped
children to an ordinary day nursery has proved to be
most beneficial to them and their progress has been
most rewarding. This day care enables the link with
the child's home to be maintained—an important
point in the care of any child, but particularly so in
the care of these children. Continuing guidance and
education of the parents is possible—an important
aspect of the work of the staffs of these nurseries. It
is pleasing to report that the former Middlesex
County Council was one of the earliest local
authorities to make provision for the admission of
handicapped young children to day nurseries. In 1959
the Middlesex County Council arranged for the
admission of deaf, partially-sighted, maladjusted and
children of deaf and dumb mothers, in a proportion
of not more than 15 per cent of the approved number
of children in each day nursery. In February 1965
this provision was extended to suitable physically
handicapped children under the age of two years and
to suitable mentally handicapped children under the
age of three years for whom absence from the home
environment was considered advisable.
Handicapped children are entitled to special education
under the 1944 Education Act from the age of
two years, although in practice they are normally
admitted to school between the ages of three and
four years. One of the reasons for this is the difficulty
in completing the assessment of a child with multiple
handicaps in the younger age group. As assessment
must be as comprehensive as possible the child must
be examined for his physical ability, mental ability,
his hearing, his vision and his speech development.
Only after all these factors are considered can any
recommendation be made about his future management
and schooling. In a nursery, motor activity,
speech, social and emotional behaviour in the play
situation can be observed over a period of time, with
the obvious advantage this has over the periodic recall
system. Besides there is an optimum time for learning
certain skills, and most basic skills are learnt within
the first five years of life (feeding, talking, walking
etc). It is also true to say that some handicapped
children have to be taught certain basic skills which
a normal child would learn for himself. The nursery
staff, because of the comprehensive training they have
undergone with regard to children under five years,
their sound background knowledge of normal development
in all its stages and the sense of vocation and
love of children, which is theirs in good measure, are
extremely well fitted to this task and to making
progress reports, extremely useful to the specialists
in charge of these children. Mothers of the children
profit too, not only from the periodic relief given from
the strain of caring for a handicapped child, but also
from the experience and help of others in constructively
helping their children and the two-way informal
discussion of progress or problems as they arise. It
is, I am sure, also true that if some of these children
had been left at home without the guidance that can
be given by the trained staff in a nursery, they would
not have proved suitable for admission to school at
five years of age.
Nurseries and Child Minders Regulation Act
Under this Act any person undertaking the care of
three or more children, away from their homes, must
be registered with the local authority. Similarly, any
premises used as day nurseries must also be registered.
The following were registered at the end of the year—
Private Day Nurseries—six with accommodation for
182 children
Child Minders—18 approved for the care of 174
children
Regular visits are made by health visitors and
occasional visits by medical officers to inspect
premises and equipment, to check the number of
children in attendance and to assess the general
standard of care. The local authority has no control
over the fees charged.
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