Children who can never go to school : some suggestions on home training.

  • MIND (Mental health association)
Date:
September 1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Children who can never go to school : some suggestions on home training. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    GO TO SCHOOL Some Suggestions on Home Training HEN a mother is first told that a child of hers is “mentally defective” and that it is unlikely he will ever be able to go to school, she sometimes seeks to mitigate the blow by refusing to face up to it and by making herself believe that the diagnosis is a mistaken one. She clings to the idea that the trouble is due merely to “ backwardness” which will, in course of time, disappear and be outgrown. She cannot bring herself to take any steps to provide the special training that is needed, for to do so would be an admission of the child’s true condition, and she thrusts the whole problem into the background of her consciousness in the vain hope that it will solve itself. Meanwhile precious time is wasted and with the passing of unproductive years, the child’s disability grows and deepens and he becomes an increasing burden to himself and the community. The wise parent, on the other hand, adopts a very differ- ent attitude. Putting aside her natural shrinking from a realisation of the child’s condition and refusing to indulge in self-pity, she faces up to the challenge which has been pre- sented to her and bravely determines that however difficult her task may be, she will carry it out in faith and patience. She therefore resolves to learn, from those who have had the necessary special experience, how best the little one can be helped and loses no time in beginning the training which she recognises to be his urgent need.* In this way she will not only ensure his happiness and help him to attain to such fulfil- ment as is possible for him, but she will make his care and training far easier if later on he has to be sent to a Home. To such a parent this pamphlet is offered, in the hope that it may bring encouragement and help. It is not possible in a few pages to explain in detail every- thing that goes to the efficient training of a defective child, but the most important points may be indicated as follows :— (1) He will need to be taught all the things, such as walking, feeding ‘himself, etc., which other children teach themselves. * See appendix I, page 5.
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