Child beyond; Help wanted

The child beyond produced by Radio house the University of Texas under a grant from the Educational Television and Radio Center in cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcaster. You're. The only. Child is there beyond the herd and they had you. Beyond the defect and the difference beyond the problem and its Proby there is a child. How can we how can we set him free. Radio house the University of Texas brings you the child beyond a series of recorded programs devoted to the exceptional child in our society problems areas of difficulty. The avenues of adjustment open to him in these broadcasts we have talked and will talk further with professional people whose

work is among exceptional children with authorities in the field of medicine psychology psychiatry therapist and social workers and those whose efforts are dedicated to the areas of special education. We have talked to exceptional children themselves and with parents who have an exceptional child in their own homes. But there are others whose contribution is vital to the welfare of our exceptional children. There are others whose whole hearted assistance must be enlisted if we are to help our exceptional children develop to the fullest extent of their capacity. And here is our serious commentator Dr. William G Wolfe to tell us who these others are. They're the people of the communities in which our exceptional children live. They are all the people among whom an exceptional child strives to become his own best self so that we cannot in conscience speak of these others as they are we must speak of them as we. For it is we ourselves who share the responsibility and

challenge of our exceptional children. If our children with a difference gifted or handicapped are to realize their full promise they must first find acceptance acceptance of themselves and their differences at home and beyond the home. They must find it not only in the attitudes but in the actions of all of us around them. It is not enough that we grow beyond discussed and avoidance and sentimental pity. It is not enough that we arrive at a blend of good will and objective detachment. For to accept these children is to understand their problems to see in those problems a need for help as forthrightly stated as any help wanted column in a newspaper. A community which truly accepts its gifted and handicapped children works actively to their benefit. Organizing and applying its resources in their behalf not to help our exceptional children is to hurt them and we reject our handicapped and gifted youngsters.

Reject them to their detriment and to our own. If we do not answer with constructive and visible action their unspoken plea help wanted. How best can we help these children of ours whose future depends upon the quality of the help we give them. What community resources can be created or utilized or expended to translate goodwill into concrete and valuable aid all over this country concerned communities are addressing themselves to the problems of our handicapped and gifted youngsters. What they have done can very well serve to show us what can be done from a number of these communities where vital work for exceptional children is going forward. We have asked for the story of their progress here is such a story from Rochester New York as told by Herman R. Goldberg director of the Department of Special

Education for the Rochester Board of Education. This is the story to which there may never be an end to which new chapters are being added quietly. Hopefully every day it is the story of the development of community resources for the exceptional child. But the child with a history of a physical or mental limitation which may if left untreated require that the child operate in a limited social and eventually a limited industrial Sophia. One cannot achieve outstanding results without the other's work. Hence all operations of official and voluntary agencies must be coordinated. We ask Mr Goldberg to tell us how such coordination can best be accomplished. First there must be awareness of those local state and national agencies having similar or complementary goals. Next must come knowledge of when and how they may be called upon to assist the area program. Often the Department of Special Education of the local Board of Education is not in a strategic

position to inform the public of its expanding needs. The private agency and volunteer society offer an excellent medium whereby the agencies and the public can meet. Well in just what ways we inquired again private agencies serve boards of education or are directors of special education assistance of private agencies is often valuable to boards of education in bringing their influence to the front. When amendments to existing legislation and changes in current state or local practice should be enacted. When no local or state funds are available for special cases the director of special education working in close liaison with other agencies can often arrange assistance for borderline income cases those where loans or grants are necessary or those Quest some difficulty may have arisen regarding minimum legal residence requirement which has not been established because of frequent family migration. Public and private agencies are in a position to offer many direct services which local school boards are unable to

provide. These may include meeting the demand for prosthetic appliances of all types which the family cannot afford for boarding care and in addition for helping with unusually difficult transportation problems and provision of summer camping opportunities. Finally we asked Mr Goldberg to tell us specifically of the progress in his own city of Rochester. The public schools of Rochester New York have had a 50 year heritage in providing special services for the excess. National Child and growth is still going on within the last few years. Three new Red Feather agencies have been opened in our community which help us do a better job. A hearing in speech center supplements the work done in the Board of Education here. Children of preschool age children from suburban areas and those with problems so severe that they cannot be handled in the schools program are given expert treatment and training. Cerebral Palsy Center serves many

children each year who need the preparatory program in order to be eligible for public school placement. And most recently the community has set up another resource for the exceptional child. Here at our daycare center for handicapped children those with severely retarded mental development are trained in certain personal and service tasks not being prepared for better participation as citizens of the community. But the development of community resources such as these did not come easily. The needs had to be explored. Possible sources of support were investigated and finally many official and voluntary agencies had to be convinced that they were needed who had to be convinced who helped who saw to it that these facilities were provided and supported. Well first support came from officials from the Health Bureau the division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Board of Education. Next the Medical School of the university saw the value in terms of research and training

for physicians and technicians and pitched in and helped. Finally other community groups such as the junior league quota club the Rochester guilds the crippled children junior AIDS for the handicapped the Lions the rotary in the CONUS groups saw their roles in providing additional help in special areas. And finally when all this interest was assembled officials of the community test and study committees of the Council of social agencies needed to be assured that there were sufficient children that could profit from these programs and that support would be forthcoming. These additional community services did not come easily nor will they come easily to any community. You have got to go out to gain the support and get them started. It is a matter of communication of telling the need. Somehow we seem to spend so much for useless things and we read so much about human destruction that I am sure that when all agencies in a

community pull together they can do something right in their own hometown for the child. Often we find that that aid for our exceptional children is not so much a matter of creating new resources as of exploring and utilizing to the full. Those already available to us. This is substantiated by experiences in Cincinnati Ohio. As that experience is outlined for us by Mr. Godfrey Stevens administrative supervisor of special education for the Cincinnati public schools I think I might illustrate it with some episodes and interesting stories of things that have been done in the Cincinnati Ohio public schools. The Lions Club for example has in the last several years provided a number of

scholarships for teachers who are interested in educating the blind. More recently the Quai want to club is given a number of individual typewriters to be the personal property for use of young blind people in our high schools so that they can better do their schoolwork. They counsel for the aid of a deaf child as a group of people who are specifically interested in the problems of a deaf child and they have conducted a very interesting and spectacular campaign of teacher recruitment and teacher training. The hospitals clinics and treatment centers in each community offer excellent services to handicapped children that school administrators are to explore. The Children's Hospital is a good illustration of an institution providing a wide variety of services both clinical services and diagnostic services for handicapped children. The Speech and Hearing Center is a Community Chest agency which provides for a wide variety of special

services for individuals with speech handicaps and hearing handicaps. The fitting of hearing aids for example is one of their very well-developed services that render almost invaluable service to the Cincinnati public schools. An interesting group of women belonging to Ruth lives have for about two years been giving hearing aids to children in the Cincinnati public schools virtually free of charge. This equipment is incidentally encouraged and maintained by the Council for the aid to the deaf child that I discussed a little earlier. And when a child is given a hearing aid he is also given assurance that batteries and repairs to the equipment will be provided during the lifetime of the equipment. The Council of Jewish women a few years ago got interested in providing talking books. Talking Book as a way by which stories are read on records by people ably trained in this particular activity and they are given free of

charge to the blind children so that they may enjoy the same kinds of stories that other young children could enjoy if they could only see to read. The Cincinnati Association for the Blind a few years ago became interested in the special problems of young blind children and encourage the development of a nursery school facility. There is no nursery school for us so when he became an intimate part of the public school system within the year and is now a recognized service to children under the ages of school age. Oh usually about four or five. Another important resource that I think should be explored in each community is the local university or nearby colleges and training institutions. We have found that our own university has become an important part of the service to handicapped children by encouraging teachers to consider training in the education of handicapped children and have also provided excellent consultation service. I think I should mention too the role of the national health agencies and serving

handicapped children many of whom have local resources that can be brought to bear directly on the problems of the handicapped. More recently the American Foundation for the blind conducted a study of the services to our blind children so that we were able to modify the services to the point where the best kind of educational experience could be provided. The National Society for the Prevention of blindness studied our services to the partially seeing child and consequently we have modernized our facilities to the point that young children with severe visual impairment can be educated just as well as a child whose vision is quite normal. There can be little doubt that such reports from our large city school systems are encouraging. But they leave unanswered in many ways the questions of those who must cope with the problems of exceptional children in smaller communities or or rule areas. A county in California found itself face to face with these problems how it worked toward their solution is

told to us by Mr. Francis W. Doyle chief of the Bureau of Special Education for the Department of Education of the state of California. Here is a go. Parents of exceptional children and state and local school officials became concerned about the lack of special education facilities for the many children living in Sacramento County. The office of the county superintendent of schools as a coordinated agent Callie workshop of city county state and national school officials and representatives of such private and official organizations and agencies as a county health department mental health society. Parent Teachers organization Crippled Children Society and the Sacramento Association for retarded children. For the purpose of studying ways and means of providing educational facilities for exceptional pupils

Sacramento County citizens could readily see that there were a great many children in the county who were in need of special services of many different kinds and they began to do something about providing the necessary services. Just exactly what is being done Mr Doyle. Would you mind telling us first. One of the centrally located school districts is building on the grounds of one of its regular elementary schools and 18 Room special school with modern facilities and equipment to educate all children within a transportable distance of the district who are deaf severely hard of hearing blind partially seeing crippled and severely retarded. Second large school districts within the county are developing special class programs for educating all retarded children remedial classes for pupils with speech defects in moderate hearing losses

and special curricular being developed for gifted children. Third the Red Cross is furnishing transportation for crippled children to swim in the pool made available by the Elks Club. The Crippled Children Society pays for the services of a physical therapist for certain cerebral palsy pupils who must remain at home for a special committee of the community Welfare Council has been named to study problems other than educational presented by exceptional children. Five scholarships to persons designed to prepare as teachers of exceptional children are being made available by private clubs and organizations. 6. A workshop for post-adolescent retarded boys and girls for purposes of socialization recreation and work experience is being established by the Sacramento Association for retarded children. It is recognized as Sacramento county's efforts on behalf of exceptional children

were enhanced by the availability of already existing agencies. But it is believed that any community group regardless of size can through a concerted effort and effective planning improve conditions for Exceptional Children. Thank you very much Mr. Francis W. Doyle. Now communities differ in size and character. They differ in their needs and in the nature and scope of their human and material resources but they share an urgency to help those of their youngsters who need special help. And there may be aspects of community planning that would prove mutually beneficial together. Dr. Darrell Mae is coordinator of the Florida center of clinical services at the University of Florida in Gainesville. And our series commentator Dr. Williams of explore this common ground.

Dr. Mays we certainly feel very fortunate to have you serve as a guest on this series of programs. And I'm hoping that it would be possible for us to state for five things that would be common to all communities. Some things that our listeners to can take and use in planning for the exceptional child. Let's start off on that idea if you have no objection Dr. Mays and try to list a few of these things what would be number one. Well I think number one in any community would be the matter of public relations the matter of the people in the SCU the people with programs for. The severely retarded or for children with cerebral palsy the program sponsored by the community agencies and others to get together and discuss the ways and means that that specific community can do the best job in the way that will be done in one community may be a little different than the way it will be done another community less recommand that the public relations be done before we start the program rather than starting a program and then spending so much time undoing rather than doing.

Yes that's a good point because in undoing we upset the family we upset the child we upset the community don't we. We are all of those and also may keep others from getting programs that could help. It's a good point. How about number two. Well I believe the second point we should make would be relate to the need. Surveying all of the facilities and all of the personnel in the community that might contribute to the programs that we're going to establish such as your doctors medical doctors your psychologist your physical therapist your occupational therapist. What hospital facilities you might have. All of the various things in the community that that are there now some people say we can't get people that are so busy in professional life to relate to these programs but I am convinced we can if we let them relate to professional problems and not ask them to relate to problems of whether it should be a bingo game or whether it should be a cake sale to raise funds to put a new floor down in the center can very quickly turn them turn them from the program as an expert. All right number three now what would you think number three would be number three it seems to me is the need of

those programs that are established from private funds and from community agency programs to recognize that much of their program must relate to demonstrating needs and that programs will eventually many of them will eventually be taken over by tax supported funds. So that a program that today is a fine program might in five years be taken over by the public schools or some other state agency will have approval creational the training and vocational training. Well there's not much use in all of these programs we're talking about especially with the very severely physically and mentally retarded. Unless we open some more doors and open some entirely new doors to employment for these people brings up another point. And as for the number for the employability of these people is that already has and I think we're all talking about that we'd better think not of the kinds of employability we've had but rather maybe employment in the home employment and sheltered workshop environments. Individuals with cerebral palsy perhaps can't stand to stay in an assembly line with keeping up but they can

turn out perhaps a third as much. And so there's all kinds of possibilities of employment that we haven't touched very much yet. But in order to do a complete job we would have to have specialists that brings up the problem of recruitment. Would you feel that might be another problem that would be added to this list. Well this whole business of trying to rehabilitate more people and get them into employability. We are proposing through the federal government to rehabilitate 200000 by 160 instead of 60000 a year as we have been means a whole lot of personnel of all kinds physical therapist occupational therapist social workers speech and hearing therapist rehabilitation counselors as well as various medical personnel in various areas. All of these we must have more and more of them and the only way we're going to get them is for the community to accept this responsibility. IF community X needs more physical therapist needs more speech therapist they're going to have to help the boys and girls in that community to see the potentials for training in these areas and help them perhaps in many instances to get off to get the

training and then they will come back to that community. Wherever we turn we find new evidence of the responsibility with which Dr. Maizes charged us for the development of adequate community resources to help our exceptional children. In every case must be sparked by enthusiastic and determined citizens in the community. That is true in Rochester and Cincinnati and Sacramento County in Gainesville and it's true in Chicago as Dr. Francis Mullen assistant superintendent in charge of special education for the Chicago Public Schools makes plain farsighted man and determined women over the years have prodded the school board have seemed to the building of our world famous schools for the crippled and for the pretty delinquent. Our extensive classes for the blind the deaf the mentally retarded are prospects now for strengthening and extending those services would be small indeed without a continuation of that community interest.

A dramatic example on a nationwide scale is the interest in the trainable mentally handicapped. We just spread like wildfire in recent years but educable mentally handicapped children on the other hand present a less spectacular perhaps a less appealing picture yet a greater social and educational challenge both in numbers and in hope for a successful life adjustment. Chicago has had special classes for this group for more than 50 years. A program today of almost 300 teachers and 5000 mentally handicapped pupils. But it is a program of many problems. Little glamour. Some neglect. These classes are all too often housed in left over rooms with a minimum of equipment and attention and understanding. Therefore five years ago we entered all go called a first meeting of a council on the edge of a mentally

handicapped or selected group of interested persons from medicine social work teacher training women's clubs parents and teachers a medical subcommittee of that group has pushed for physical examination for all pupils placed in special classes. The same subcommittee has arranged for two intensive medical studies each of which brought service to all the young graded pupils into selective schools through volunteer medical service. Another subcommittee this one on vocational guidance has brought the schools into close contact with existing community agencies including the Jewish Vocational service the rehabilitation unit of the welfare department. They are not a vocational rehabilitation service. Illinois State Employment Service with resulting education and elimination both to the local branches of those agencies and to the local schools. The parent teacher association is another resource working vigorously for exceptional

children today under enthusiastic state and city leadership. In Chicago most of the 400 local parent teacher association and practically all the districts and councils now have an elected exceptional child chairman PTA is in more fortunate districts have adopted special education centers in slum areas and have brought warm personal support as well as material gifts. We are working closely with the Chicago hearing society the Chicago Heart Association the young epilepsy league on particular projects that will help exceptional children. A Woman's Club transcribes endless hours of Braille work for our children in the blind classes. Exceptional Children pull at the hearts of all interest the name is always present. Sometimes vibrant sometimes dormant in the community where that interest is alive. The schools have a responsibility for

seeing that it is channeled where it is dormant. The schools have a greater responsibility to awaken and unleash the latent community energy which can ensure to every exceptional child his birthright of full opportunity. Examples of progress made in developing community resources to help our exceptional children certainly are not wanting. They can be found in sufficient number to to reveal an encouraging outlook for our children of special need. They serve to show us how much can be done by those communities who take seriously their responsibilities to all their children. But they do not reach all our exceptional children. They do not fill the whole need much much more must be done if we are to credit ourselves with having answered the unspoken plea of our handicapped and gifted youngsters.

Help wanted help wanted a discussion of developing community resources brought to you by radio House the University of Texas as the 11th of a special series of programs titled The child beyond. These recorded broadcasts are devoted to the exceptional children in our society. Their problems their areas of difficulty and the avenues of adjustment open to them. Our series commentator is Dr. William Gee will help wanted was prepared for broadcast by Jack Summerfield from a script by the darling twins with special music by Eleanor Paige. Adkins with Project Coordinator. Your announcer will capture. The child beyond was produced by Radio hosts of the University of Texas under a grant from the Educational Television and Radio Center. This program is distributed by the National Association of educational. Loop.

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