PSYCHOLOGY OF DISABLED CHILDREN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 76, 30 March 1935, Page 14

PSYCHOLOGY OF DISABLED CHILDREN.

My attention lias been drawn to correspondence in the "Star" on the subjcct of a name for tiie home so generously given by Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. Gloria Pawlinson thinks that it would be wise to avoid the word '•'cripple" in connection with the lovely place and to choose some name which does not emphasise the difference between normally active children and the physically "handicapped" children who will live there. A name like St. Leonard's Home, for instance, would not continually draw attention to the children's disabilities and would, at the same time, be a reminder of the thought and care .of those who made St. Leonard's one of Auckland's loveliest homes. I quite agree. For the past eight years, during which I have been connected with the Post Guide movement, I have seen something of the mentality of physically "handicapped" girls, and I know that cripples (and I am one myself) do not object to the word "cripple" because it offends their own sensibilities but rather because it i s _ synonymous in most people's minds with "afflicted," and therefore inferior; pitiable. The object, I understand, of the gentlemen who are administering the gifts of Lord Nuffield, Mr. Wilson, and others inspired by the same love of children, is to encourage vocational training for those who are prevented by physical disabilities from obtaining it in the ordinary way, so that they may develop self-respect and live as nearly normal lives as possible. This object is hindered when the children arc spoken of as "poor little cripples, children from the Cripples' Home." This fact is recognised by the leaders, all over the world, of the extension branch of the Guide movement. The members of this branch are all physically "handicapped" girls—girls in institutions for the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the mentally defective, and girls known as post guides who by means of tlxe post carry on the training and other activities of guides in their own homes. Everything possible is done to avoid drawing attention to physical defects and to emphasise the ways in which the post guide, for example, may develop in herself "the highest form of womanhood of which she is capable." Stevenson's jingle is a favourite of theirs: "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings"; and they are encouraged, to realise that if one path is barred to them there arc so many ways of developing themselves that they may still find a full and useful'life. They therefore do the tests and work for the proficiency badges of 01 dinary guides with as few modifications as possible. (At least one girl lacking the use of her hands tied knots with her feet.) And even when modified the tests must not be less difficult. They had, at first, a special mauve trefoil and*distinguishing marks on their other badges, but it was recognised that such distinguishing marks were drawing attention to their weaknesses rather than their triumphs over difficulties, and all such distinguishing marks were done away with. Even the word "post" or "extension" in the titles of companies has been dropped in England, and there is nothing to tell the uninitiated that 287 th Liverpool, say. are all crippled children. All this is done, not from a self-pitying shrinking from words that imply crippledoin, but with the idea of helping to overcome the feeling of inferiority that unwise pity gives. Tliero are some poor mites who, greedy for sympathy, trade on their disabilities, but most children, when their bodies are being given all the skilful treatment that medical science can give, like to forget their diilerences from others and emphasise their similarities. When the word 'cripple" is applied to an athlete or "luny" to a healthy mind, t enormous gap between the 11.1 me and the fact is merely ludicrous, but when a child who is" strug<»lin<' against difficulties is habitually spoken about and thought of as an "inmate of a cripples' home," there is nothing humorous about'it; rather there is a feeling of superiority on the one side and failure on the other. One of the happiest experiences that Gloria herself has recently had is that of acknowledged a poet by one of the leading ciitics in London and of seeing her verses featured on a special pao-e of his magazine, although he was given no inkling of the fact that the writer was in any way on object of sympathy. It was the knowledge that most other children feel as she does, and cherish equally their independence of spirit, that made her hope St. Leonard's would not be called a crippled children's home. H. HUNTINGTON, M.A. ' Head of Post Guides.