Child beyond; Tomorrow: Step by step

That child beyond by radio host the University of Texas under a grant from the Educational Television and Radio Center in cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcasters. The child does think beyond the herd and they have. Beyond the fact and the difference beyond the problem and there is a child. How can we how can we. Radio the University of Texas a series of programs devoted to the exception is problem areas of difficulty of adjustment counseling with broadcast authorities of national reputation. Men

and women who have worked with exceptional children many professional capacity. We have talked with parents who have exceptional children in their own home. Today we seek the help of a special group of people whose contributions to the welfare of our children are almost. Here as our series commentator Dr. William will tell us the nature of those contributions. Our concern is with the train and skillful allies of the exceptional child who work in the various areas of therapy. Ford is through their mastery of the techniques of special treatment at the handicapped child progresses day by day and bit by bit toward more effective living. Wherever his difficulties lie wherever his limitations are fixed it is a therapist's job to help him move on. Step by step toward other boundaries new horizons. When the diagnosis has been given when the disease has run its course. When the surgery is complete and when a child can develop to the utmost of his capacities

only with the most to subdue was effort against constant odds. It is often to the therapist that he must look to help him reach is righter tomorrow to help him reach that tomorrow step by step. The Triumphs of the therapist are under o matic to be marked only by the most minute measure. Most often they are the well-nigh imperceptible fruits of painstaking day to day tedium and repetition and a child's progress can best be seen by looking over one shoulder by gauging today in terms of how far he has come from yesterday. Nowhere is this more truly represented than in speech therapy. This will be manifest as we listen in on an evaluation conference concerning Johnny Davis when Johnny was four and a half His parents brought him to the speech and hearing clinic where he was found to have a functional articulate or

a problem. Now about a year and a half later his parents and the clinic director take a long look at what has been in an effort to say what is and what is likely to be. DAVIS I'm glad that you were able to come in this afternoon as you know we're closing the clinic next week for this summer. And I suspect that this will be about the conclusion of our dealing with Johnny Miller. So glad to be able to have this last chance to talk with you Doctor. There E.L. course. We've been terribly worried but it's been a most interesting experience for us to hasn't come to that and I think he's been you know how do you think he's going to do in school now but I'm sure he'll do very well there. He's come along very nicely with the work that we've been doing here in the clinic and I think

we're about ready to wind it up. You remember how he talked when he first came into the clinic. Guys it was a year and a half ago but I remember that that last day when we finally decided that something had to be done about Johnny's speech. We were really at each other's throats about this problem by that time. Higher. Right now I have got a thought about Johnny. All right. Thanks very much for art. Oh OK. I have come a half hour. What happened again. This teacher is Shane but she didn't exactly say that she can't get made there might be something wrong with you. There's nothing wrong much honest there's nothing wrong with Johnny but but why does any more plainly. Why can't other people just get me going you have a very difficult time and why bother trying to talk English. Just like the

other kids. Can we go back. To this thing I live far cry get really hurt. Try me again. Think about it some more can't we came to this planet. Those people over there are going to help children just like Johnny right. Let's take you to get it right once and for all. Why not. John you know I do not. That's what I despise. Right. Mr. Wiley clinician has Johnny over in the therapy room observing him. It might be well for us to talk a little bit about what concerns you. What is there about Johnny's speech that you're worried about. Well we're probably being very foolish. He just talks like a

little boy I suppose. But but it is more than that. Lucy is just a little boy and I think he talks pretty good. Mrs. Davis was worried about him and the teacher suggested we come over and. So we we're here to see if there really is something wrong. This teacher this was Mrs. Johnson was yes I am nursery school. How long has he been in this nation. Oh only about six months. Does he like it. Yes I think cell I think he does enjoy it. Yes I do. He's doing real well too. You have any other children. Yes. And of course that's another thing that worried us. His sister is is 10 and what she's always been extremely bright and she spoke very well before she was three. You said the journey was for is it. Yes and he's he's already.

Yes well now he is a child of course and may very well speak like a child you feel if he doesn't talk as well as other four and a half year old children do. What grade he has trouble with. Some words you can't say words like well wrong. For instance he has a great deal of difficulty with them words. But I one of our problems will be to try to find out what the reasons for Johnny's speech difficulties are if there are any. Of course this matter of trying hard is one of the things that parents have to get accustomed to. Really you when you and I talk we don't cry. Hard to talk the way we do. We do it is a matter of course and children do the same. If a child doesn't progress in his articulation patterns as he should then perhaps we ought to look into it and that will be the kind of thing that we do here. You're thinking about some sort of difficulty perhaps such as mental

retardation or hearing loss or something like that. Oh I'm sure there's nothing like that wrong with Johnny. Everything you've told me about Johnny would suggest that there isn't. We like to be sure. Yes. Yes. Well there are cases of course in which difficulties do occur due to reasons of that sort. But everything you've told me about Johnny would suggest that that probably isn't the case here. And you should know I think that most of the cases of children who come into our clinic with articulation problems they turn up to be functional problems. That is they are due to some sort of organic impairment and that means that the outlook for improvement and correction is good. And you think by the time Johnny's ready to go to school he will be able to speak plainly you know to be well and still. Do you think so and I think if you can arrange to bring Johnny in two or three times a week so that we can have the opportunity to observe him further we will certainly clear up a lot of

those things in the room who all who own. Well then you do remember Mr. Davis that those first visits to the clinic. I certainly do I remember that we were scared to death. I don't think you were very happy about coming over Mr. DAVIS. I came sort of under pressure or I was prejudiced against the idea of sending my son to a clinic like this but I certainly have gotten a different impression. Seeing all the work that goes on and the way you go about finding out what's wrong with well it's perfectly natural that you should have had doubts and that Mrs. Davies should have had concerns. Not quite I think it was worth the whole thing simply to find out what Johnny's

trouble was. How comparatively little trouble he actually did have many are relieved. Yes we are. It was quite a struggle to actually make the step to come in the first place. Well what happened in Johnny's case is typical with a lot of the children that come into the clinic a lot of what we do at the beginning is mainly along the lines of eliminating possibilities. You remember that you brought Johnny in for a psychological interview. He went through a battery of intelligence tests that turned out all right. Yes it did and we wanted to know about his hearing and so we spent some time getting him ready for and carrying him through an audio metric test of hearing and that turned out all right. And then when there were such matters as the possibility of some physical impairment and I remember that you made a special trip down to the pediatrician for a Johnny to be checked on that score. And so it all

came to me as a story of a functional articulate Tory proud. Of course what we found was that it was some of the sounds of the English sound system that were giving Johnny difficulty. I have a recording here that we made on the occasion of Johnny's first coming into the clinic about a year and a half ago would you like to hear it too. We're here. I want to say in words I want to say you have made a very. Rainy. Frame. Now that's part of the recording we made the first day that Johnny came in.

I really can't let me thank God. Do you believe he ever talked like that. I guess so but it sure is. It's amazing the difference in the way he speaks now. Now we made another recording of the same list of words today and I'd like for you to listen to that. Say the word. And you repeat the. Mirror. I mean. Do you remember about the word frog. Yes that was one that he had special special trouble with. I was reviewing notes and recordings for this interview and I came across some comments you made about that word when you first brought Johnny

in. And so I took special pains to see that we got a recording today and I'd like to compare for you a recording that we made a year and a half ago and one that we made today. I'm here to pick here. Have you ever seen one of the what is. It. Probably say that for me. And have you ever seen one. What do they do. And what's the name of it. Now that's part of the recording that we made on the first day that Johnny came in here the picture that you hear out there right it brought. Have you seen one. What's the name of it you're doing.

The name of it I've forgotten. I really had to. It's amazing how much difference there really is in these. Well Mr. images debuts in the year and a half that you and Johnny have been with us. Johnny has been seen by as you know a great many different people a great many different individuals working together to try to understand his problems and to design a program of therapy that would be appropriate for I suppose you may have thought when you first brought Johnny here that whatever was going to be done with him would be done right here in the clinic. Well that we understood. Our parents find out I think that there isn't any such thing as a child with a speech problem and nothing else. So that all of the aspects of his problem can be dealt with just in the clinic. It usually does take a team to do that sort of thing. But it's all been a very successful thing where Johnnie was concerned and it's a credit to you I think as to how well you cooperated with all that we've

asked you to do. There's one thing though. Is he going to need further training or will these slip back into his. Childish habits are going to go on now. What can we do to help them. But you want to remember Mr. Davis that while there has been a big change in the way Johnny talks now and the way he talked a year and a half ago he still is a child just six years old and there are some infant child things about his speech perhaps even yet maybe you notice every once in a while some words that he may say not exactly properly these things crop up. You do want to remember this that his speech is about as good as speech of a six year old child needs to be and that his classroom teacher will be very understanding about that when he starts to school next September. Do you know about the program in special education here in town. You know or in school you me. Oh yes. Oh no we don't.

There is a program of special education here and there are speech therapists that visit all of the different schools and they will visit this one the one that Johnny will go to. And if it's felt that there is anything about his speech that continues to need help they'll check on it and provide him with the special assistance that he needs and see that his classroom teacher does that kind of thing that she needs to help. Oh that's wonderful Let me ask you this do you think we should speak to his his first teacher in the fall about this so that she can be aware. Of this of his former problem and say in that way you'll be getting acquainted with her anyway and I certainly would mention this along with other things we'll send along a record to the classroom teacher of the work we've done with Johnny here and we'll keep be keeping an eye on him too. Johnny Davis is progress toward his goal of a normal functional speech of a child ready to enter the first grade was not made in one big step. It was made in many

tiny steps over a year and a half period with the help of a great many people. That is the way therapy works for Exceptional Children. And the first step the decisive one must be taken for them as in the end it was taken for Johnnie by parents who recognize the need for competent professional help. That parents do not always approach the problem so directly is evident as our series commentator Dr. William Wolfe discusses this aspect of therapeutic treatment with Mr. Godfrey Stevens administrative supervisor of special education for the Cincinnati public schools whose special interest is parent education. One of the problems that I've seen Steve is the parent being very rigid and not accepting the diagnosis as given them by the physician and the therapeutic staff but rather they go shopping around to hear what they want to hear. That's a big problem in my feelings. What would you react.

I've had many similar experiences and seen hundreds and hundreds of parents in clinics in and out of situations. They very frequently just shop from one doctor to another frequently to one chiropractor or tea leaf reader looking for an answer to a problem they particularly would like to hear is you sad. Very often they get poor advice very often they get good advice and it probably doesn't matter too much they aren't yet ready and willing to take good sound advice. So one of the very important problems I think were the professional workers faced with and I was I think one of the problems that the parent must soon come to accept is that he must learn to sort out those kinds of services and those kinds of information which will be of value to him ultimately the professional worker I think needs to be patient. He needs to know that the parent will need to grow and his understanding of the seriousness of this problem. And then there will come a time when he is ready to accept a good solid advice of a confident professional worker that will bring about an improved. Condition of the

child's problem. Important as it is for parents to recognize their child's problem in order that they may deal with it objectively and intelligently it is equally important that they take care not to create a handicap for their child where none exists. Among the most insistent demands upon the speech therapists time and skill is that made by the large body of our children who stutter. In a special statement recorded for the child to be on one of the foremost speech correction authorities in the nation discusses the influence contributing to this demand. Dr. Wendell Johnson professor of speech pathology and psychology at the State University of Iowa. It's only children and adults in you know States. Her work could be brought together. There would be more than a million of them and they would make a city somewhat larger than St. Louis picture regarding them however is very hopeful. And. We have not found that there is any. Physical reason for stuttering.

We have not found chartering is a sign or a symptom of some fundamental personality Mela just. What the scientific findings do tend very strongly to show that stuttering is a kind of trance and has written behaviors. That a child learns staggering can be prevented by parents who will make speaking for their children will be the kind of listeners there are youngsters like to talk and be the kind of. Parents who form good warm secure relationships with their children. This is a basic key to the whole problem. To form a good relationship with a child and to make speaking for him fun and

worthwhile. He should be allowed to have a normal incision has to see his own children have if he has more of these has two C's than the average interest you have then you should look outside the child for the irritant in the environment and your own policies and the parents own policies which may be causing the youngsters to grow as a player. When he talks. If the child is given sufficient attention when he talks if he receives at all times a normal amount of love and if he has a reasonably calm and pleasant home in which to do his talking the chances are very very great. He will have no such difficulty as Dockery where however valid problems have been found and must be faced.

The Helping Hands of therapy reach out from many directions. Dr. Martin Palmer director of the Institute of local PD said Wichita Kansas in a discussion with Dr. Wolfe puts it this way never has a single problem. In order to answer most of these problems a whole host of services have to be provided. If you walk down our halls with us we would show you our physical therapy department our occupational therapy department our hearing testing laboratories our psychological Department our classrooms and all the other things that go into rebuilding one of these children as close to useful citizenship AC can get. In other words it's a very comprehensive therapeutic program. There's a girl there a speech therapy and education. That's right. And all four of these are indispensable to this profession contributes a certain area of knowledge and all of them work together wherever we turn we find those who work with exceptional children stressing again and again this concerted approach by the various specialists to the several problems of a single child.

The specialized interest of any one zero post takes its place in the total picture of health for the whole child as we learn from Dr. Marguerite Abbott technical associate to the medical director of the National United Cerebral Palsy associations incorporated the present day approach and the modern therapeutic procedures which contribute to the welfare of exceptional children. Many and varied. And today the emphasis is placed on totally integrated services and clinical therapeutic areas for the patients and rehabilitation of exceptional child. The basic needs of the handicapped child whether handicapped or physically mentally or emotionally are the same as child namely a basic sense of security a sense of being wanted and belonging and the love of his family. The lack of any one of these three basic components can and does produce frustration in the exceptional child. There is initially the Kapell evaluation and appraisal by the Occupational Therapist

of the attributes as well as the limitations of the exceptional child functions and personality components. We stress to what they can do rather than what he cannot do. And the majority of special and general medical and social outings and rehabilitation centers and the occupational therapist using some techniques and methodology. Which is directed to a specific area of the body. Psychological support which is social interaction and occupational therapy activity and skills classes. Training in occupational therapy classes for the performance of the activities of daily living. In conclusion we might say that the efficacy of special therapy such as occupational therapy has proved to be an integral part of the program. In exceptional child physically emotionally and mentally.

That the physician recognizes how unnecessary such cooperation is to the exceptional child's progress is affirmed by a neurosurgeon Dr. Lewis and helper of San Antonio Texas. No one individual has any corner on the treatment of the cerebral palsy. It takes the unified work in the cerebral palsy child. First of all of the pediatrician the orthopedic surgeon the neurologist the neurosurgeon trying to learn just as the man who does eye you nose and throat work the ophthalmologist the eye specialist. It's an integration of all of these. No one individual has any corner on it and only by working together and each man looking at the child as a whole in spite of the fact that we are specialists and only looking at one part of the body. If we look only at the one part that fits our specialty we may turn out to be like

three blind men and elephant. The one grabbing the one point the trunk the tail in the air and each one giving a different expression each one correct as far as his limited observation is concerned. But let us put this whole picture together. Let's all work together. Each specialist working with each one of the therapists and I think we can accomplish for most of these individuals who are cerebral palsy. There isn't courage meant for exceptional children in this realisation of a trained and devoted team joined in common concern for the interests of a single child. There is evidence that thanks to such a team that many of our exceptional children can look forward to reaching a brighter and happier tomorrow. Step by step tomorrow step by step brought to you by radio House the University of Texas as a seventh of a special series of programs titled 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. Dr. William Wolf is our series commentator. Tomorrow step by step was prepared for broadcast by Japanese Summerfield from a script by the Durham twins. Music by Eleanor Payne was Project Coordinator. Your announcer Bill kept the child both produced by Radio host of the University of Texas under a grant from the Educational Television Radio Center. This program is distributed by the National Association of educational broadcast. This is the end taped network.