Ear on Chicago; The Process of Adjustment: Spalding's School for handicapped Children

This is the nursery of Jesse Spalding School, which is located on Chicago's west side at the corner of Washington and Ashland. Spalding School is devoted to the education of the orthopedically handicapped children. We're going to do the story of that school today. Our guide is the principal of the school Mrs. Olive P. Bruner. As I said Mrs. Bruner we are in the nursery and the children are playing some sort of a flag game. Tell us something about these children. What are some of their handicaps? Where do they come from? Well they come from all over the west part of the city. I'm the near and our side and on the near south side. We are all physically handicapped. Some of us are cerebral palsy, some of us are polio, some of us are brittle bone cases, some of us are cardiac, some of us are a little bit of everything. Tell us a little bit about Spalding School as a sort of an introduction to our program as the children continue their game. We'll get back to that in just a moment. What is the purpose for Spalding School? The purpose

of Spalding School is to give crippled children who cannot attend a regular school and education. Do they come from all over the city? Those who are doubly handicapped come from all over the city such as those who are blind, those who are in a sight -saving department and those who are in the deaf oral department. And how many grades do you have here? We have everything from nursery through high school. Well now we'll be going through some of the other grades and talking to some of the teachers here. Well let's move over here. Is this some of the work that the children in this room have done? It looks a little old for them. No. The art work on the walls has been done for them by the high school art classes. I see. Now what about these cubicles here that contain toys and games over here? Those are covered spaces for games and toys and the children may help themselves. Whenever they wish in free play they

may also place back into the cupboards the materials from which they have taken out of it. Down at the other end of the room of course there are some other cupboards and there is a small area over there surrounded by it looks like a gate with some pictures of little rabbits on it. Is that for some special purpose over there? That's our playhouse. Oh that's your playhouse. I see inside are some chairs and some tables. Well this is very interesting to see and I'd like to listen to I think they're playing a game now. Let's listen for just a minute. It's very difficult for Bruno to move around but he is collecting four flags and taking them back to his teacher.

Bruno did get his four flags back they're very small flags. Now Mrs. Bruner we've recorded quite a good deal in here and I know we have a lot to tell at Spaulding School. I wish we had four or five half hour programs to do it in. Unfortunately we're limited to a half hour so we will have to move along. Mrs. Bruner we are now in the ultraviolet ray room and I would like to talk to somebody in here concerning that huge machine which we're standing in front of. Well perhaps you'd better meet Miss Lewis of Miss Babette Lewis who is the technician on and physical therapist on duty at this time. Miss Lewis you have a mechanism here which I'm very much interested in this is a sun machine let's call it isn't it? Yes this is a sun machine which gives the children the ultraviolet which is prescribed by the doctor. Everyone that goes through here

has orders from the doctor because there are a few cases in which it will be country indicated. Do you have a patient about ready to go through now? Yes we have a patient who is ready to go through now. In about two seconds let's do a hundred. All right and in the meantime let's you and I go up here and talk about this machine. Now first of all what are these dials up here? The dials indicate the power the amperes that are used for the machine to tell how much power is used. That's for these up here where it says amperes. And these are your controls right here these now. Control dials. Then the machine is regulated for different speeds and the children go through on a treadmill. The time ranges from one minute to two and a half minutes for the general treatments and this takes 12 weeks to go through the series. How much would one minute equal out in the sunlight? One minute equals about one hour. The machine however does not

give a sun tan that you're used to having when you're outdoors but only gives a higher light rays which is most beneficial for health. Was she ready to go through yet? All right and we'll just listen as the treadmill works. Okay she's turned the machine on now and the treadmill is beginning to work and the young lady is being prepared over at the far end. She's on her treadmill now and is on crutches. You're setting the machine for five. What does that mean? That means that she'll be she'll be on the treadmill for one minute and a quarter. I noticed that she's wearing dark glasses. Do they all wear dark glasses? Oh yes everyone wears dark glasses because of the very injurious to the eyes. Would be like looking at the sunshine directly. Do you know what particular ailment this young lady has? Yes she has infantile

paralysis. Oh I see I see the braces on her legs. How old is she? She's eight years old? She'll be through here in just about 15 or 20 seconds more. She's at least halfway through a little more than halfway through the machine right now. Allow me to describe what we can see looking inside of this violet ray machine. It's as I said a treadmill coming through it's about all about three feet wide and then to the right and to the left as we look in are the lights which provide the ultraviolet rays. There are six of them and they're very bright and that's why they wear the sun glasses. Then at the other end there are curtains and here at this end there are curtains. The little girl is just about ready to come through now. Actually I'm looking through a little window here that is that window colored? Yes the window was colored so the rays will not hurt the eyes of the technician who was

watching the child. Could I have your name? Lucy. Lucy how old are you? Eight. Do you like it in that machine? You like it all right. You didn't get a suntan. You were in there for a minute and a half. That's over an hour out in the sun. Did you know that? No they can't hear you if you just shake your head. Yes. Okay well thank you very much. Well now Mrs. Bruner I think it's time for us to move on. Where is our next location? Let's go back in here into one of the physical therapy booze. All right fine. Actual work on the one of the children. Now we are going to talk to Mrs. Dorothy O 'Hara a physical therapist here at Spaulding School and we're standing in a small room where she provides treatment for one of the young lads here. Tell us something about this boy Mrs. O 'Hara. Well herbie is a cerebral palsy nine years old and a condition he has had since birth. He has progressed very rapidly

considering the initial involvement. How long has Herbie been here at Spaulding? Nursery. He entered at nursery. Now what about some of the physical therapy that you go through here with Herbie? Now for example this morning I understand you were telling us that you are practicing walking. That's right. He is supposed to learn to balance without aid and at present time we are working just holding the head and Herbie has strengthened his trunk muscles and legs quite a bit in the last two months. What about the treatment on the table that you were mentioning? Well that the treatment on the table is mainly for sitting and developing more individual muscle groups and learning to balance in any hand and knee position different positions and for a coordinated exercise. Mrs. O 'Hara could we see you go through with the exercise that you're doing this morning? No not on the table

whatever you're doing this morning. That's your walking exercise I believe. Herbie is strapped into a small cart for wheels on it and it's what is it? A walker? I see. Are you going to take Herbie out of the walker now? Herbie out and the doctor has wanted Herbie to try and learn to walk with a cane and before he can walk with a cane he has to have a fair amount of balance. Herbie you did a very good job and I think Mrs. Bruner has some candy for you. Oh he doesn't like it. Oh he doesn't like candy. Oh first boy I ever saw that didn't like candy. Well Herbie's doing quite well isn't he? Yes he's doing very well. I'm very pleased with his progress. Well thank you very much Mrs. O 'Hara for talking to us. Now Mrs. Bruner where are we going now? We're going over to the Whirlpool bath

and watch a treatment in the Whirlpool. Good I'll go right along with you then. Now we're in the Whirlpool room where they have a small bathtub here and there's going to be a Whirlpool in a minute and we're going to talk to Mrs. Ruth Dunham. Mrs. Dunham you have a young lad in the Whirlpool ready for some treatment. Tell us something about him. Herbie just entered school this fall. He has leg perthes and the doctor of course has him walking on crutches with no weight bearing on the particular hip involved but the doctor doesn't want any antrophy of this affected leg while it's resting while it's getting well. So we have exercises particularly for the knee where permitted exercises also in the hip when we're in the water. No exercises when he's out of the water. Does he also go into the large pool? Oh yes he does and in the large pool he's permitted in the only place he's permitted to stand on his feet because the water and the buoyancy of the water prevents weight bearing so that there isn't any damage at that hip. We're going to go in and take a look at that large

pool but first of all I wonder if you'd mind go ahead with the exercise and we'll watch. He can use his quadriceps muscles in his knees here while the Whirlpool gives him the heat. Just to turn the Whirlpool on fast gush of water came out of a spout down there at the bottom of the pool and is rushing up towards Bobby's left leg. Straighten the knee. He lifts it up against the gravity. Now when we're in our booth he does this exercise with an iron boot and controlling the so that there's nothing that happens at the hip. How many pounds are you taking now with your 25 pounds? He is the best worker I have. He's increased the weight to each month since he entered school and I know that the doctor will be pleased that there's no atrophy of the knee muscles. What's the greater you in Bobby? 5D. Did you start out here at spalling school or did you come here

after you had this particular ailment? I came after I had the ailment. How long ago was that? Nine months ago. Nine months ago. Bobby's coming along all right. He's doing very well. This is one of the most difficult problems for young boys because they don't have pain after they take the weight off that leg and their impulse is to use those legs like any normal boy but this is a superior child. He is very cooperative and he never puts weight on the leg except with a doctor's permission in the swimming pool. What's this dial over here? The needle points to a hundred. We have the temperature at a hundred today. In some cases of course we have to have hotter water but he doesn't need the more intense heat. Well that's the temperature of the water. Yes for if a child had a rheumatic fever and that we needed the heat to alay the pain then we would have a hotter in some cases a hundred and five degrees.

Can I put my hand in there just to feel how that gush of water feels? Certainly that's only air that's mixed with the water. But it's certainly a rapid movement I just stuck my hand down in there. A very gentle massage action. The movement is almost complete throughout the entire water down there especially right along Bobby's knee and towards his right hip there. Wow thank you very much Mrs. Dunham for showing us what you're doing here. Bobby's treatment is about over isn't it? Yes it's time for him now to go back to his room. Alright fine thank you Bobby. You love him. Now we talked about the large pool but Mrs. Bruner we're quickly running out of time and we've got a lot to talk about yet. Suppose we just mention the large pool and what it does. You tell us. We have a very large warm water swimming pool which is used for both therapeutic and recreational facilities. Perhaps you'd like to know that swimming

is one of our real sports. Many of us can swim when we can't run we can't do anything else but sit in the wheelchair but we can get into the water and swim. Mrs. Bruner where are the students from and how do they get to spawning school? Our high school pupils come from all over the city and some of them come from the outline districts and suburbs. We come to school by bus the high school covering the whole city the elementary school covering our own geographical area cover of which is the near north side the near south side the complete west side from the lake to the city limits. Well then your bus has to go a lot of different directions when they pick up the children. We spread out all over just like a fan. Well now Mrs. Bruner we've talked a great deal about taking care of the physical needs of the students. Suppose we go over to the kindergarten and see something about taking care of the metal needs. Well this is a very interesting room Mr. Hill and you will enjoy the small children a great deal. We do practically all the things that they do in

a regular kindergarten. Only we have to do them on our own level of ability. If we can't run maybe we can sit in a wheelchair and have a wheelchair pushed around. If we can't throw a ball maybe we can push it with our foot. We do everything in the way in which we can do it including our abilities, both mental and physical. Now one thing I wanted to ask you I wanted to ask you this you I know you have many physically handicapped students here because I've seen them but do you have also mentally handicapped? Only if they are first physically handicapped. Oh I see they have to have they have to be first physically handicapped and then secondly be mentally handicapped but and by mentally handicapped I mean they have to be educationable. We do not take care of the children who are physically handicapped that are not educationable. I see all right fine

let's go now I'm not sure that you could recognize just exactly what the children were saying there. This is not the kindergarten we said that we were coming into the kindergarten but the kindergarten children are in this room. They're having lunch at the moment and that was great. I guess this is a daily practice isn't it? Indeed this is Mr. Hill. Now why what what is the purpose of having the young girl over there on the loudspeaker do you have a different one every day? Every day it's a different boy or a different girl who leads the grace. It's only about five minutes or six minutes after 11 at the moment according to the clock on the wall up there isn't this a little early for lunch? But you see Mr. Hill we have to have three lunch periods. Oh I see what's next? The next is the high school group

and then later on the older elementary group. Mrs. Bruner we didn't have a chance to go into the kindergarten. Suppose you tell us what goes on in there. We do practically all the things that kindergarten children do. According to our abilities both physical and educational. Mostly playing games. We play games we sing we paint we tell stories we do dramatizations the only thing we can't do is go outside to play and snowy weather which we would love to do. Well I'd love to go in there will they be going back after a while right after lunch? They go back to have a nap period after lunch because you must remember these children get up early to come to school. Many of them are on the bus at seven o 'clock. There is also a high school here and we haven't had time even to tell the story of the high school and as I understand it's the only high school for handicapped children in Chicago. You're right in fact there are only two other high schools in the United States like this one in Los Angeles

one in Philadelphia. We have fewer in the high school than we do in the elementary school but we're proud of that because that means that we have rehabilitated these youngsters to the point where there are only about one fourth that need to go to a high school here. When I assume from what you said that the purpose is not so much graduation from this school but to get them back into another school. That's right. Do a normal school. And to a normal school where they can take part in their own community school activities. Do the children have to pay tuition for this school? Nothing. Everything is given to them free except lunch for which they pay 25 cents just as they do in any lunchroom in Chicago. Well I would assume they would have to seek admission or who passes on their admission. The doctor sends us word our sense word downtown rather that this particular child needs the services of a crippled children's school. You must remember that we are the only

elementary school. There are three others the Burbank the Christopher and the new Jane A. Neal School. Yes. Mrs. Bruner one thing I must confess when I first came out here or started to come out here I hadn't seen the school or at least if I did I didn't pay much attention to the building and it surprised me that it was such a large area. I thought it would be a smaller school but since you tell me that you have 800 students well it would have to be quite large. Indeed it does and we cover practically all phases of high school education as well as elementary. Shops, kindergarten, nursery, regular schools, the ungraded groups, the blind, the deaf, the sight saving and in the high school the shops and the regular classroom work, arts and music and so far. And when you stop to think that you also have to take care of them physically as well as mentally that obviously you need a lot of room. We do need a lot of room and our physical therapy department is a

large department. Mrs. Bruner we are just about out of time and I want to thank you very much for allowing us to tour this much of the building and seeing what occurs here. And that's the story of spawning school and this is Hill Hill speaking. Sounds complicated to us but I suppose it's rather simple when it gets into your fellow's imaginations. After considerable training and experience it is, it becomes quite...

Handler baggage to the gates to the waiting to the what he called it was boarding the train and after that we take the baggage and out of camp we have trucks and pick them up. Well now is there any cost to the boys? We usually charge 24 -50 for two weeks for those who can afford it and those who can afford it pay less and some don't pay anything. 24 -50 for two weeks. That includes transportation, insurance and everything else. Food, food, lodging, everything. Yes, three. And what do they do at camps? Oh my gosh got everything out. They got voting, swimming, canoeing, arts and crafts, archery. Oh a little bit of everything. Well now Mr. Nicolette how can a mother or a father, if they decide to, get their boy in one of your clubs. All they have to do is come into one of our units and we're looking on telephone directly you'll find us. Under what? Under Chicago Boys Clubs. I see, okay. And all they have to do is make out an application, fill out an application and pay. And most of our clubs charge a 50 cents a year for children under a 15 years of age, a dollar a year for boys over that. Now there was a gentleman here a little while ago that you wanted me to talk to. Oh yeah what was

his name? Mr. Shanauer, oh sure. Where is he? Mr. Nicolette's going to go around looking for Mr. Shanauer. And we want to talk to him for just a few minutes because he's connected with the boys clubs. In the meantime the ball game is still going on. You boys know what ending it is out there? It looks like the last half of this. 17th inning. Oh boys, the games are 17th inning. So last half of the sixth inning. All right, the game ought to be over before long. Where? Winner, we go for two days. You go to the winter club. Where's the winter club? Winner Camp, right? Where is that? It's a, by William's Bay. It's a chemo. Camp chemo's name of it. What are you doing the wintertime boys? We played games, we were in a craft shop and when we went to that camp we met a guy named Chuck Tanner, the baseball player in the clubs. We met him there. Well now boys, what do you do? Are you boys going to go on the trip this summer? You

going? No. This will be the first year that I ain't going four years because last year I went all summer. I kind of my mom thought there was a hostess. You were there all summer? Yeah. Most of us ain't going this year because because we lost the championship in the lowly glad years by going because then we missed our base because that's why we lost. So you're going for the championship this year? Yeah, like we won last year. Mr. Shan, how is it here right now? Mr. Harvey is the director of Midwest Boys Club. How do you do, Mr. Harvey? Could you tell us your connection with the club, Mr. Harvey? Director of the Midwest unit of the Chicago Boys Club. Oh, I see. Well tell us something about it. How do you get to get to get them organized? Get them into your clubs. Do you go out and recruit the boys? Well, we aren't in a very big set up yet. We inherited an old mansion at the corner of Sacramento in Washington and we're just finishing a new gymnasium, $200 ,000 unit. We'll be ready for this fall. This is your team out here today. So yeah, over this first four years, we're just four years old. We haven't had to go look for boys of always are there and they're pretty well filled at the club, but that's why we're expanding. Looks like you got a victory today. Well,

these boys like baseball and they're good and important concern is get more boys playing. You're going to send some boys to camp. There'll be about seven to five boys in camp this summer in one of the two week periods. Where are they going? Out to Winona and Winona Lake near Warsaw, Indiana. Well, that's nice down there, isn't it? Beautiful. I like it and always want to go back. Are you going? No, I usually visit once during summer. I bet you'd like to go. Yeah, it'd be lots of fun. I'd like to go myself, believe me. Nothing like a boys camp. I remember when I was a kid, I went to one of several years and it was a lot of fun. Oh, yeah, they have thrilling time and the cars for the kids from the crowded sections of the city. It's nice to get out and what is lots of room and the trees and the water and the interesting things to do. Okay, Mr. Harvey, thank you very much for talking to us and a lot of luck with your boys club. Thank you very much. Mr. Nicolay, it's time for us to close up shop here. We've run a completely out of time here. I'll finish for you to come out this way and

I'm looking forward to listening to hear this thing on the air and I'm sure the boys will be too. First time we ever got a hand at the end of one of these brothers. At least kids appreciate it. Well, we appreciate it too, thanks boys. All right, all right, thank you very much and that pretty much wraps up the story of the little leagues and once again, I want to thank Mr. Nicolay for allowing us to come out and telling the story. We certainly enjoyed it and actually enjoyed coming out and not only telling the story but watching a pretty good ball game. That's the story of the little leagues of Chicago and this is Hugh Hill speaking.