Southeast Profile; Handicapped Children

<v Marian Endicott>I don't know if I would term it suc-success or on success. <v Marian Endicott>It's a mo-more of a matter that it has been very helpful to me <v Marian Endicott>to know how to go about teaching Clark to do things <v Marian Endicott>um with a normal child they just, you know, automatically pace themselves and they <v Marian Endicott>automatically learn to crawl and to walk and to chew and to, you know, <v Marian Endicott>all the self-help things that that have to be taught to Clark. <v Marian Endicott>And so it's helpful to me to have a professional person backing me up to <v Marian Endicott>say, okay, we've been long enough at this level that <v Marian Endicott>we need to to try some sort of a different stimulus, perhaps, or a <v Marian Endicott>different approach to teach Clark to do these things. <v Marian Endicott>So to that degree, it's I think it's been very successful. <v Marion Endicott>The last thing that a handicapped child needs is pity. <v Marion Endicott>There has to be compassion and understanding. <v Marion Endicott>Obviously, but there has to be compassion and understanding for everybody. <v Man>So I think we in medicine and in education have to find <v Man>that middle of the road way to go forward, but certainly as <v Man>a concept, it's it's had immeasurable benefits. <v Ann Symons>He's just like every other little boy. <v Ann Symons>The co-the type of handicapped and condition that Joel has, down syndrome, <v Ann Symons>is one that causes mental retardation. <v Joan Jordan>They uh tried unsuccessfully many times to put his his limbs in. <v Joan Jordan>His problem is in multiple dislocation of his major joints.

<v Ken Moss>Children with mild to moderate handicaps, <v Ken Moss>physical or mental, the milestones are still there. <v Robert Roark>In Alaska, we are in the implementation stages of addressing public law 94-142, <v Robert Roark>which says that all handicapped children are entitled to an education. <v Robert Roark>Out of almost 100,000 school children in the state of Alaska, <v Robert Roark>over 3 percent have a disability or handicap of some type. <v Robert Roark>We are fortunate to have a St. Jude Center, which offers integrative mainstreaming <v Robert Roark>services to preschool youngsters through their education program and infant learning <v Robert Roark>program and a respite program. <v Robert Roark>When a child reaches kindergarten age, he or she is then mainstreamed into the regular <v Robert Roark>classroom with certain special services, depending on the disability. <v Robert Roark>It hasn't been that long since most handicapped children were shut in. <v Robert Roark>The eyes of a community, did not often see the handicapped to know that it existed. <v Robert Roark>Through mainstreaming, all of this will change. <v Robert Roark>Parents, other family members, and the general public at large play a vital role in <v Robert Roark>helping the child. Any child to build an adequate self-concept. <v Robert Roark>This is important for all children, but it is crucial for the handicapped. <v John Symons>Cosmetically, I don't think Joel has necessarily a <v John Symons>visible handicapped. <v John Symons>He is visibly down syndrome, but I don't think that's <v John Symons>a handicapping condition in itself. Some people-. <v Ann Symons>Well sure it's a handicapping condition. It's- it's you know, it's I mean, it's a <v Ann Symons>syndrome,. <v John Symons>The visual? <v Ann Symons>Well, people who look at Joel. <v Ann Symons>I mean, I don't know. People don't generally react. <v Ann Symons>You know, in that kind of situation, they don't come up and say, oh, look, you have a <v Ann Symons>retarded child. But I think that that down syndrome is such a common handicapping <v Ann Symons>condition and that people know that it's a condition with which mental retardation <v Ann Symons>is associated, that they many people, by looking at Joel, <v Ann Symons>know that he is is handicapped. <v Robert Roark>The Symons, Ann and John, were probably better prepared than most to raise a child <v Robert Roark>with a disability. John served as the coordinator of Pupil Personnel Services, which <v Robert Roark>oversees all special education in the Boral's schools and served on the Governor's <v Robert Roark>Council for the Handicapped and Gifted. <v Robert Roark>But when Joel was born Down Syndrome, what was their reaction? <v John Symons>When we first heard about it uh I <v John Symons>can't believe the amount of rage and anger, and <v John Symons>how come us that was in me.

<v John Symons>And part of it may have been due that <v John Symons>I'm a trained special education teacher. <v John Symons>I've been working with handicapped youngsters for years and years. <v John Symons>How come me? And then someone would come up and say, well, if a handicapped youngster has <v John Symons>to be born, how lucky it is that he's born to <v John Symons>a family that knows. <v John Symons>Uh, that was a very painful period of time and the <v John Symons>counseling and the mental health and the outside kinds of help <v John Symons>that was available then as opposed to now. <v John Symons>Well, let me rephrase it. I don't think there was as much as there is now. <v Ann Symons>We know we're you know, we're 4 years, 4 1/2 years removed from the situation. <v Ann Symons>And it's it's no longer painful the way it was when Joel was born. <v Ann Symons>You know, nobody I think nobody wants to have a handicapped child. <v Ann Symons>But, you know, when you when you choose to become a parent, you <v Ann Symons>know, nobody gives you any guarantees about what kind of courage you're gonna be dealt. <v Ann Symons>And you just have to accept that responsibility, or look for alternatives. <v Ann Symons>You know, in some cases, perhaps an institution is an alternative. <v Ann Symons>In Joel's case, an institution would be a very inappropriate placement for a <v Ann Symons>child like Joel. <v Robert Roark>How can society's apprehensions be replaced with acceptance toward handicapped children <v Robert Roark>or adults. <v Ann Symons>I think by showing that people who have handicaps, you know, <v Ann Symons>can function and live and do the same kind of things that other people <v Ann Symons>do, rather than, you know, if a person is able <v Ann Symons>to live in their community, they should stay in their community. <v Ann Symons>If they can live with their parents, they shouldn't be. <v Ann Symons>They should live with their parents and do that. <v Ann Symons>And just I think that, you know, the more you can show <v Ann Symons>the normalcy of the situation, I think the more people will accept. <v John Symons>And I think people are being far more acceting now than they used to be. No, that <v John Symons>stays on the table Joel. Far more accepting <v John Symons>in the sense that when I grew up, <v John Symons>I knew of one downs youngster, and I know we had more but <v John Symons>where they were, I don't know. <v John Symons>Some church basement somewhere. <v John Symons>And now kids and people who have handicaps or are <v John Symons>coming out of the closet and becoming more and more productive citizens. <v Robert Roark>What about Joel's future? Have you thought about what's going to happen down the road? <v Robert Roark>Where do we go from here? <v Ann Symons>We really haven't got to that point where we have you know, it's it's still too <v Ann Symons>far into the future, for us, really, to know what his skills are going

<v Ann Symons>to be, what his interests are. Because if he's like us, if he's going to <v Ann Symons>go into the work world and spend the rest of his life doing something, we want it to be <v Ann Symons>something that he likes doing and that interests him. <v John Symons>There there's no reason why uh Joel needs to be subsidized <v John Symons>as much as youngsters with downs have been in the past. <v John Symons>I shared with you some information about the Tektronix <v John Symons>program in Portland, where youngsters <v John Symons>who have Down's youngsters, adults, young adults who have Down's <v John Symons>syndrome and other kinds of handicapping conditions being paid full union wages <v John Symons>and being faster on piecework <v John Symons>than their, quote, normal peers. <v John Symons>And it's a job that they can do that they enjoy and something <v John Symons>that perhaps would that you and I could not do <v John Symons>day after day, eight hours a day. <v John Symons>And they enjoy it and they know they're good,. <v Ann Symons>They're steady, hardworkers. <v John Symons>They're steady, hard workers who know they're good. <v John Symons>That's right. You are good. <v Robert Roark>Joel has greatly benefited from a law that says that all children have a right to an <v Robert Roark>education. As his father said, some children wear glasses and some have <v Robert Roark>other handicaps. But in the early ages, it does not make a difference. <v Robert Roark>Joel has been going to the St. Jude Center. It is a special education program for the <v Robert Roark>handicapped, but all children are eligible to attend. <v Robert Roark>St. Jude's is an outgrowth of Henry House, which was founded by Aletha Henry <v Robert Roark>at a time when there was no other facility available for the handicapped in Juneau. <v Aletha Henry>Well, I guess the thing that got our family going was the fact that <v Aletha Henry>we had a little boy born to us. Well, Henry was diagnosed <v Aletha Henry>severely handicapped, mentally retarded, with not uh too much <v Aletha Henry>hope of being much of anything. <v Aletha Henry>And um we had a bit of, had some previous training <v Aletha Henry>and counseling and dealing with children and a nursing back. <v Aletha Henry>I decided that perhaps I could get together with <v Aletha Henry>other people who had the same problem. <v Aletha Henry>And and to help them get something done, that child does not get that opportunity. <v Aletha Henry>If you lose the early years, you never gave them back and that child never get another <v Aletha Henry>chance to go back and learn those things that he could have learned when he was 1, 2 <v Aletha Henry>and 3. And that's the same thing with every child. <v Aletha Henry>If you deprive learning to a small child who is normal, <v Aletha Henry>he's never the same. If he doesn't get the stimulation that he needs when he's a baby and

<v Aletha Henry>when he's a toddler, and then when he's a preschooler, he does very poorly in school <v Aletha Henry>and does poorly in school continually. <v Robert Roark>Ken Moss explains how we can help ourselves. <v Ken Moss>Sometimes more helpful than almost any organization or anything else, if you can refer a <v Ken Moss>patient to another parent who's who's had a similar thing <v Ken Moss>in their, in their home and their family. <v Ken Moss>It's often very helpful. I've used this in different situations, uh <v Ken Moss>people do share experiences together, happy and sad ones, <v Ken Moss>and find that in the case of well, in the case of severe injuries <v Ken Moss>of children or if there's been a loss of a child uh or in <v Ken Moss>this case, speaking of the handicapped child, if there has <v Ken Moss>been a family who has had a handicapped child and thus had learned to cope with the <v Ken Moss>situation there. <v Ken Moss>They're often the best source of help to someone who comes up with the situation <v Ken Moss>themselves and uses several times to use my patients as consultants. <v Ken Moss>And they they've been very good about that. <v Ken Moss>We also have the March of Dimes clinic, which sends a geneticist and <v Ken Moss>this morphologies people who are specialist in etiquettes and <v Ken Moss>children and adults. They've been coming about two or three times a year since <v Ken Moss>1971. <v Robert Roark>Different disabilities manifest themselves in different ways where a physical handicap <v Robert Roark>may be more visible, it is also more likely to allow the individual to continue to make <v Robert Roark>progress as they get older. <v John Jordan>I'm not I'm not sure. I think this is probably going to happen anytime <v John Jordan>in a similar situation that people are more curious and anything else. <v John Jordan>And. <v Joan Jordan>I think it's a curiosity. It's not a. <v John Jordan>Small kids are the greatest thing in the world, you know, because they all come right out <v John Jordan>and ask, what's wrong? What happened to you? <v John Jordan>What'd you do? How'd you break yourself? Questions like that? <v John Jordan>And I think maybe that's something that helps kind of helps a family get over it. <v John Jordan>You learn to develop a real sense of humor about it. <v John Jordan>And uh, but as far as the attitude of people, <v John Jordan>it's mainly curiosity, and I don't think that's really going to change. <v Joan Jordan>I think it's always gonna be there. I think it's just that we have to learn to cope with <v Joan Jordan>the curiosity and he has to learn to cope, too. <v Joan Jordan>It's never been a problem for him because he's never known anything else. <v Joan Jordan>But I think the older the older kids and, and <v Joan Jordan>we felt it more than anything.

<v Robert Roark>John and Joan Jordan already had two children when Sean was born with Larson syndrome. <v Robert Roark>Did it affect the way they live their life? <v John Jordan>Yes, I think so, I think it's a it's been an attitude problem, adjustment <v John Jordan>type situation that we've all had to had to face uh I <v John Jordan>remember here not too long ago, my son making the comment that, he's <v John Jordan>finally becoming known as Scott Jordan. <v John Jordan>That's my older son and not Sean's brother. <v John Jordan>So as you say, Sean, Sean does stand out. <v John Jordan>People people do tend to remember him, but it's it's a little bit of an adjustment we've <v John Jordan>all had to go through. <v Robert Roark>Has the concept of mainstreaming been an effective one with Sean in the local school <v Robert Roark>district? <v John Jordan>Absolutely. I think so. <v John Jordan>It's the exposure that, you know, the the kids accept Sean, <v John Jordan>just like they do the other children, especially children who've been mainstreamed, and <v John Jordan>that I think that's a. <v John Jordan>They're not treated as some sort of an oddity. <v John Jordan>Kids accept him, they know him and they do accept him. <v John Jordan>And for that reason, I'm wholeheartedly in <v John Jordan>favor of it. I think it's really going to help. <v Joan Jordan>Once they got over the curiosity. That's the one thing I guess really neat about him <v Joan Jordan>continuing on in his education in the same school and with all of his friends. <v Joan Jordan>Once they've got over the curiosity of what is crutches for. <v Joan Jordan>In fact, in kindergarten, I had to get two sets of crutches, one for <v Joan Jordan>the class, so they wouldn't keep taking his away from him and one for him. <v Joan Jordan>[laughs] So once they got over the <v Joan Jordan>curiosity of of him and crutches, they just treated like any other child. <v Joan Jordan>And except that I think in the beginning they tried to help him quite a bit. <v Joan Jordan>And they found out that he can do most of the things himself with just a little bit of <v Joan Jordan>help. I think a lot of his development I was thinking today, a lot of his <v Joan Jordan>development I think has to do with the kids and the fact that they kept comparing him to <v Joan Jordan>other children. And they when they compared him, they thought, well, Sean can sit up. <v Joan Jordan>I mean, if this other child can sit up, Sean can sit up. <v Joan Jordan>And so they had him sitting up byy the time he was six months old, which I probably <v Joan Jordan>wouldn't have tried myself. <v Joan Jordan>Scotty had him walking when he was, and it was through his <v Joan Jordan>him picking him up and saying, you're going to walk and let's do use the crutches <v Joan Jordan>and Scotty's actually the one that had him walking. <v Joan Jordan>And he was saying, you know, that if he's gonna do it, you're gonna do it.

<v Joan Jordan>I think they had a lot to do with it. <v John Jordan>We try to encourage him, we don't come right out and tell him that there's anything <v John Jordan>he can't do. If he wants to try something within limits, I think he knows his own <v John Jordan>physical limits. But if he wants to try something climbing, trees, skiing, whatever. <v John Jordan>We tell him to go for. [music] [Song: Mona Ray by Leo Kottke] <v Robert Roark>What else can we do to further integrate Sean into the life that you and I live <v Robert Roark>or that anyone else lives. Is there anything else that can be done? <v John Jordan>As I see it, I think probably the biggest problem has been one of attitude acceptance by <v John Jordan>the by the general public. <v John Jordan>Once they've learned that children like Sean and other handicapped <v John Jordan>children are able to. To cope on a day to day basis, just like other children, <v John Jordan>and they do accept a lot. I think that's the biggest thing. <v John Jordan>It's just an attitude thing. Sean has always had a pretty healthy attitude about his own <v John Jordan>his own problems. It's not-it's not been a hang up with him and so why should it be with <v John Jordan>his friends? And so he does get along quite well. <v Joan Jordan>He hasn't had a lot of people to to compare <v Joan Jordan>himself to, though. We went up to- he had the opportunity to go up to the Special <v Joan Jordan>Olympics and he saw, you know, children there with all kinds of physical handicaps. <v Joan Jordan>And he could see that- compare himself and find out he wasn't really <v Joan Jordan>as bad as some of the other kids that were coping. <v Robert Roark>Mainstreaming of the handicap to be in compliance with public law 94-142 <v Robert Roark>is the most obvious effect of bringing about a changing public attitude toward a variety <v Robert Roark>of disabilities. The children and families learned to take the disability for granted <v Robert Roark>and go about their lives as they would normally. <v Robert Roark>There's a great amount of therapeutic value in knowing that the child is progressing <v Robert Roark>academically with children in his or her regular classes. <v Robert Roark>Dave Thomas is the director of Pupil Personnel Services for the Borough, which oversees <v Robert Roark>all special education classes. <v Dave Thomas>Basically what happens is anyone can make a referral or start the process <v Dave Thomas>on a student. Once a referrals made, the school district then <v Dave Thomas>observe a child within the classroom talks to the parents who then have to <v Dave Thomas>get parent permission to do any type of testing concerning the student. <v Dave Thomas>From there, we developed what we call an IEP or individualized educational <v Dave Thomas>plan for the student. We sit down with the parents, talk to them about it, tell them

<v Dave Thomas>what we're gonna do within the classroom, how much time they're going to be in the <v Dave Thomas>special ed classroom. These types of things and develop long range goals, <v Dave Thomas>short term objectives for the student. <v Dave Thomas>And then again, the parent has to give us the okay before we can even begin working with <v Dave Thomas>the student. And then each year we have to do what we call an annual review <v Dave Thomas>or update his program on a yearly basis. <v Dave Thomas>I think the most important aspect of the student, a handicapped <v Dave Thomas>child going into the regular classroom is the attitude that the <v Dave Thomas>regular classroom teacher has toward handicapped students. <v Dave Thomas>If they're accepting I think most of the kids will relate <v Dave Thomas>to what the teacher and how she reacts to kids and to the handicapping condition. <v Dave Thomas>I think it also depends on what the handicap is. <v Dave Thomas>If you have a boy who's in a wheelchair, for an example, I think the kids will <v Dave Thomas>actually respond better to that type of situation and they'll act <v Dave Thomas>more as as little guardians to- to the kid pushing him around <v Dave Thomas>the school, these types of things. <v Dave Thomas>I think again, though, I think the teacher really has a lot to do with it, and a lot of <v Dave Thomas>teachers are not aware of how to deal with handicaps and the handicapped <v Dave Thomas>condition. I think that's where the school district here in Juneau needs to do some work, <v Dave Thomas>some training. In-service training is in the areas of handicapping <v Dave Thomas>conditions, what regular classroom teachers can do. <v Warren Endicott>But they tell us in Clark's case that he was not uh <v Warren Endicott>hurt on as far as his intelligence level goes. <v Warren Endicott>So it's all motor area and it's just a question of how much he can develop <v Warren Endicott>his hearing, as Mary Ann said earlier, has improved a great deal. <v Warren Endicott>Just in the last two or four months has he been able to roll completely <v Warren Endicott>over and get across the floor and now he jams himself up under a couch or <v Warren Endicott>just gets himself in trouble now. But so he is he is improving all <v Warren Endicott>along and we really don't know how far he will improve. <v Warren Endicott>Neither does anybody else. <v Marian Endicott>I think that, you know, I have problems <v Marian Endicott>with know, just developing a line of communication with Clark <v Marian Endicott>to to know, you know, at some point how much he does understand. <v Marian Endicott>That'll make it easier for me to try to evaluate or reevaluate how far <v Marian Endicott>he's going to get. <v Robert Roark>When Warren and Marian Endicott had a son a little over two years ago. <v Robert Roark>He was a fine, healthy child.

<v Robert Roark>It was only at age four months that Clark contracted a virus that sent his temperature <v Robert Roark>to 107 degrees and dehydrated much of his body fluids. <v Robert Roark>Marion, Clark's mother, as well as a member of the Governor's Council for the Handicapped <v Robert Roark>and Gifted, explains what was the effect of the virus. <v Marian Endicott>He became fatally ill <v Marian Endicott>was like within a 24 hour period and he dehydrated <v Marian Endicott>and lost about 10 percent of his body fluid and had a real high <v Marian Endicott>fever. And that's what caused the brain damage to take place. <v Marian Endicott>Was the lack of circulation of blood, oxygen to the brain during that time period. <v Warren Endicott>I think it's pretty difficult work were Clark was a very <v Warren Endicott>normal baby. And then in a period of -from <v Warren Endicott>being very healthy, I'd say within 36 hours, maybe 48 hours, we're in Seattle <v Warren Endicott>and didn't know if he was even going to live for oh better <v Warren Endicott>than a week. <v Warren Endicott>And it still continues today that you don't know just how much he's going to be able to <v Warren Endicott>improve or what just what is in store for him in the future, but he has <v Warren Endicott>made a number of improvements. They're slow but <v Warren Endicott>we certainly noticed them. <v Robert Roark>Through the St. Jude's Center, the intercoms have been able to benefit from a number of <v Robert Roark>different services. There is physical therapy, a respite service to provide <v Robert Roark>short term relief for both parents and child. <v Robert Roark>And then infant learning program where a specialist comes to the home to work with the <v Robert Roark>child. Beth Siemon showed how the infant learning program works with Clark <v Robert Roark>Endicott. <v Beth Siemon>What I do, is the purpose of me coming to the home every week is to support them <v Beth Siemon>in the program, as well as to see the progress that <v Beth Siemon>the kids are making so that I can establish some new goals when they have met the goals <v Beth Siemon>that were already set up. <v Beth Siemon>One other thing that can do with the ball <v Beth Siemon>is to help Clark to experience some weight <v Beth Siemon>on his legs. Do some bouncing on his legs. <v Beth Siemon>You don't mind that, do ya? <v Beth Siemon>Eventually, I'd like to see him push and he has done that <v Beth Siemon>a couple of times before. This is just to give him the experience that this is <v Beth Siemon>what his legs are for is somee weight bearing. <v Beth Siemon>Good boy. Yeah. Good boy. <v Robert Roark>Respite allows the parents to leave the child at St. Jude's overnight, providing both <v Robert Roark>with time away from each other. <v Marian Endicott>We need to have a break from him and he needs more specifically to have a break for me. <v Marian Endicott>Clark can't be isolated to the family and home environment.

<v Marian Endicott>He has to be able to be out with other children <v Marian Endicott>and to have other people give him his therapy and <v Marian Endicott>not just to be totally dependent on me. <v Marian Endicott>And that's where I exclusively. I mean, I really use the respite program. <v Robert Roark>Ya know when people come in contact with the handicapping situation they don't know <v Robert Roark>exactly how to act. They're they're apprehensive or they're happy <v Robert Roark>that this did happen to them or they're glad or there's some type of pity. <v Robert Roark>There's this type of thing isn't destructive or does it degress <v Robert Roark>Clark's progress in any way? <v Warren Endicott>The main things just take, we take Clark out with us and uh <v Warren Endicott>it is sometimes it's a little difficult to take him out, but that's probably I think the <v Warren Endicott>biggest problem with handicapped children is you tend to leave them at home because it's <v Warren Endicott>easier or because you don't, maybe you don't want somebody gawking or looking, <v Warren Endicott>you know, at him. <v Warren Endicott>Obviously, there's something wrong with Clark when you're when you have him in his chair <v Warren Endicott>going around, but he enjoys getting out. <v Marian Endicott>If there's just some some way, you know, that people could uh, you now, <v Marian Endicott>take the time to look into programs. <v Marian Endicott>Ya know, don't bother with things like a handicapped child <v Marian Endicott>until it's really brought to home and that people should at least that uh <v Marian Endicott>look at what the community is doing. <v Marian Endicott>And if there is some way that they can lend a hand, ya know. <v Marian Endicott>It doesn't necessarily have to be monetary support. <v Marian Endicott>You know, not everybody is always looking for the dime. <v Marian Endicott>Sometimes it's better to be have the time. <v Robert Roark>There is no way to predict what may be in Clark Endicott's future. <v Robert Roark>With specialized care he should continue to make progress. <v Robert Roark>His hearing has improved, and because his sight is nerve damage only, he may experience <v Robert Roark>the return of his visual faculties as well. <v Robert Roark>Success stories do happen. We have them here in Alaska. <v Robert Roark>How much of a disability is only a failure of the sensory organs, to relay the message <v Robert Roark>is still up to researchers to determine. <v Robert Roark>But we are finding out that some handicaps are preventable. <v Robert Roark>David Spence is the chief of the Section of Family Health and the Department of Health <v Robert Roark>and Social Services. <v David Spence>Over the past 20 years, we've seen a lot of improvements in <v David Spence>medical care with regard to preventing infections. <v David Spence>The classic example is rubella or German measles.

<v David Spence>This condition causes severe birth defects if <v David Spence>if the pregnant woman contracts rubella during the first third <v David Spence>of her pregnancy. Just recently, articles have come out that <v David Spence>show the true effect of smoking a pack a day, cigarettes, during pregnancy <v David Spence>is to double the risk of birth defects across the board <v David Spence>and to double the risk of a spontaneous abortion or miscarriage. <v David Spence>Now this is information that hasn't gotten out to the public with regard to smoking. <v David Spence>But I think it's going to very quickly come into public knowledge. <v David Spence>And one aspect of medical care during pregnancy is <v David Spence>to inform women the effects of the results of their smoking. <v David Spence>With respect to alcohol, again, it's been in the last five years <v David Spence>that we've been able to discover the true <v David Spence>scope of the effect of alcohol on <v David Spence>a developing baby and it's it's a it's a frightening <v David Spence>kind of statistic. <v David Spence>Heavy drinking during pregnancy gives a 50 percent risk <v David Spence>of severe birth defects and developmental problems. <v Robert Roark>So more and more handicaps are able to be prevented. <v Robert Roark>The families and specialists do all they can to prevent a handicap from becoming a <v Robert Roark>disability. The goal of mainstreaming the special child into the school is being <v Robert Roark>accomplished. It is the actual integration into society that is still to be totally <v Robert Roark>realized. But as the children now interact with each other through the schooling <v Robert Roark>process, so will they learn to accept and understand the differences that <v Robert Roark>in the past kept them apart? <v Robert Roark>It will be the children themselves that begin to see the similarities rather than the <v Robert Roark>differences. And it is just that that will make the difference. <v Robert Roark>[musical toy] [cat meowing] <v Marian Endicott>Oh, yeah. You don't want to do any more of that. <v Marian Endicott>you get more bubbles stuck? <v Marian Endicott>Have we got more bubbles stick, huh? Such <v Marian Endicott>a pretty boy.