Door to freedom (1956)

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hello I want to tell you a story you might not like it very much it it shook me a bit when I first heard it you see it's a story that brings you face to face with some of the hard Facts of Life Believe me there's plenty of hard facts in this story there it is for me the the story began at a children's party it was a birthday party and they were all dressed up for the occasion and they were putting away the cakes and the jellies there wasn't a great deal of noise but have you ever tried to speak through a mouthful of strawberry [Music] jelly I knew most of the youngsters the twin brothers from the big house the two little girls from across the street the girl with the bobbed [Music] hair then there was the other little boy Jeremy you see Jeremy was a I wonder if you know what that means it means tragedy yes tragedy something went wrong before he was born so even though he's a bright little chap he can't use his arms or his legs normally he can hardly talk I knew what the other mothers were saying poor little thing poor little Jeremy the children didn't understand they just thought that Jeremy was well just just funny his mother said it was a great shock to her when the specialist first told her about Jeremy's condition and in desperation she looked round for remedies whilst The Specialist didn't know of a complete cure he said a lot more could be done for the child now than was possible a few years ago and he impressed on her the necessity of starting treatment as early as possible and of putting her case to the National Society whose panel of experts takes tremendous care to assess accurately the needs of the children referred to them the Wilfred pickle School in the East Midlands is one of a number of special schools for spastics set up by the national Society it has 72 pupils the national Society is trying to raise funds for the development of special clinics and schools but the going is not easy thousands and thousands of spastics need help and treatment they're just aren't enough special facilities for them yet in the physiotherapy room Roger is getting those rigid muscles loosened up with exercises that spine is getting attention and this rocking back and forth teaches him balance and if you've never been able to talk this vibration exercise helps bring the vocal cords into play it is the therapist's task to bring speech to the speechless and manipulating the lips tongue and Cheeks is part of the treatment but watch those teeth well school and treatment are over for the day so it's time for play this school aims at being an ordinary normal school as far as possible with fun and laughter and tears the school sets out to create an atmosphere in which these youngsters can grow up confident and independent though some of these children cannot yet feed themselves and need the help of hous mothers the Headmaster major peda makes his tour around the tables to see that all is as it should be and he complaints everything's just dandy now for the evening wash teeth face hands neck yes especially the [Music] neck the day is over and she goes to sleep keep happy and Serene doesn't look all that different from your child does she down south in Kent there is the Thomas dearo school for older children in the age group 13 to 18 this is a secondary school where only children of good intelligence are admitted [Music] Mr Davis the Headmaster is a member of the special panel who interview and select candidates for [Music] entry the children attain a high standard of Education they nearly all know the answer that's more than I [Music] do even at the age of 16 treatment has to go on but of course Jill didn't get that vital early treatment when she was Tiny [Music] on the day the film was made Peter who but 2 years previously was a helpless discarded his cage for crutches another step towards normality when Pamela was brought to the school she had been bedridden for 15 years since birth in fact and here only a few months after she arrived and for the first time in her life she stands and takes her first lesson in [Music] Walking Mona learns to speak when she first came here she could barely speak speech therapy and training was started immediately blowing bubbles helps to direct the breath through the mouth even if the bubbles do taste horrid that's much better even chewing and sucking sweets is part of the lesson it helps to coordinate lip and jaw muscles recording Mona's voice was essential to ear training as well as for keeping a check on progress this recording of Mona's voice was taken 3 years ago you can take a top leave a and and today's recording shows how much she has improved my speech has [Music] improved good my happy school day [Music] well run waterl was one on the playing fields of eaten there's even a bigger battle going on [Music] here nature study makes up part of the schooling they found a uh well they know what they found Preston Hall was the first adult center of the national Society it's near Colchester in Essex 3 years ago at the age of 32 Mr whittam began his lessons in Walking the opportunities should have been there in childhood like this little boy at one of the society's other [Music] schools but now here he is 3 years later walking and full of confidence and what a sense of [Music] Independence Mr D is a wonderful chess player but you wouldn't think so to see him like this that's just one of the crosses a has to Bear experiments are being carried out to find the most suitable job s for badly handicapped spastics Mr bman makes baskets Mr Barnes makes stools Mr Cal Furley is quite an expert on turning standards for table lamps when he came to preed Hall he' never dressed himself indeed never even pet himself there's a lot to learn in this new field [Music] Joan Miller has a considerable talent for floral [Music] work companionship is a wonderful thing intimate friendship that blessed gift which makes even the hardest path tolerable other National society's establishments include eron Hall in Cumberland which provides for a group of children with the double handicap of physical impediment and mental backwardness the school was opened in 1957 but already the children have learned the give and take of normal life [Music] at the Hawksworth Hall assessment and Diagnostic Center the national Society has recognized the need for a center for the treatment observation and testing of handicapped children to discover just how much they can do and learn [Music] observation is made of each child's reaction to Social and habit training to letters and numbers expression in finger painting craft work mind music and movement and forms of creative [Music] activity accurate assessment may take as long as a year thereafter arrangements are made for them to receive the most ample education and training their capable of Hawksworth Hall like most of the society's residential centers was the first of its kind in the world and is still the only one and near warington but in the adjoining County of chesher is darbury Hall opened in the summer of 1959 for 25 men when the money and enough experience are available it will be expanded to take as many women as well the Kum Farm Center for adolescent in s provides for the more heavily handicapped youths and girls who through treatment organized work and the stimulus of community life are being given the means of making themselves a new existence at weekends parents and relatives are encouraged to visit the center either to spend the day or to take the handicapped member of the family for an outing before coming to Kum farm this girl might never have known the joy of walking without Aid into the arms of her happy Parents space for training is inadequate this Old Barn will be converted as soon as the money can be found into extensions for the cramp speech therapy and physiotherapy departments the majority of youngsters here are those confined to wheelchairs but there are some who can successfully be trained for or paid work these can transfer to sherrard's training center in harer which was opened by the National Plastic Society in 1957 this is a sheltered workshop and Training Center in which the society is training the not too heavily handicapped plastic and indeed some with severe handicaps to take a place in Industry many of the lightly handicapped Plastics particular in times of Full Employment can find work without special additional treatment however because many spastics on reaching School Leaving age have never had to fend for themselves they are not ready to go straight to work without further training and Special Care in the selection of suitable employment for them this applies particularly to those whose education has been sketchy and fitful and largely conducted at home many have to learn how to live in a community and work without a specific job necessarily in View and this socialization is an important part in the training offered at sherard in conditions approximating to those of an ordinary Workshop they are taught for example light engineering and in fact already undertake contracts for the supply of components for local manufacturers drilling holes for instance for electrical parts [Music] and testing the finished work by gauge the opportunities of contributing to production and especially of assisting in the earning capacity of the Workshop open up for the spastics new and exciting Vistas for useful service where previously they had been thought to be Misfits and unemployable in a highly competitive world the Assembly of 500 amp welding rod holders for a national manufacturer of electrical accessories was another contract still another contract is the making of racks with tin containers for assembly benches in the light engineering field some of these spastics are proving themselves to be competent workers and as they continue continue to gain confidence in themselves many of them will be able to hold their own in open industry in spite of their handicaps David Edward seen talking to an instructor hopes soon to be working in an assembly plant in dande and near his own home in The Woodworking section the trainees are given the opportunity of earning towards their keep with patient training they are proving their capacity to handle electric drills or electrically driven swords in the making of compair belt boards for a television manufacturer and under the guidance of qualified instructors they're given a thorough grounding in carpentry making poers for the domestic fireplace is another of their accomplishment hello they found another use for them I thought they'd cop [Music] it printing jobs for outside customers are also undertaken by the trainees and many people have been very helpful in encouraging the development of this type of work at the center the aim of the society is as far as possible to place these young people in Industry preferably in their Hometown as soon as their training is complete failing that more sheltered workshops will need to be developed to cater for an expanding group of employable citizens who up till recently have been condemned to a life of uselessness and dependence on others there is only one Training Center like this so far others are needed and the society hopes soon to have a workshop for a number of trained spastics whose handicap is so severe that they will always need sheltered work and a sheltered home collection boxes for the national Society are made here the men making the plastic figures and the girls completing the decorating yes please help spastics many of these trainees at sherrard's training center are already working in factories at a well-known chemical laboratory Donald hton is on the research [Music] stop in a large factory making water heaters Nicholas Buck takes his place beside a normal factory worker [Music] a star's Organization for spastics was formed in 1955 to assist the work of the society the organization was made up of top names in the entertainment World under the chairmanship of Vera Lind the president is the Countess of Westland the Stars organization has been raising funds for the provision of a holiday home for children by the Sea and bought Coral court at Beck Hill on sea this was opened in the summer of [Music] 1959 to find out more about spastics I visited the headquarters of the national Society in London and was greeted outside by The Familiar figure of Christine the society's little collector after a chat with the appealed secretary Colonel Lloyd we toured the building in the appeal section I was interested to note that among the checks and post orders coming in by mail were sixes Shillings and even Pennies from those who perhaps poor themselves felt sorry for others worse off records are kept of all those who so generously support the society in this way I was told of the society's medical research program somewhere in the United Kingdom a child is born every 8 hours yes every 8 hours £120,000 has been earmarked for the research trustees and £40,000 has already been spent on Research work being undertaken not only by the society's full-time research position and the two research fellows who are his assistants but also in Grants to EXP experts at other centers the society's medical advisory committee is responsible for a new professional journal the cerebal py bulletin and other Publications an educational advisory committee has also been formed the society turns out its own magazine and 13,000 copies are distributed monthly to parents and local authorities Miss Shirley Kean herself as bastic used to edit this but is now doing other work for the society and below a portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh president of the society are some greetings cards made by spastics inside one is a quotation from a Ministry of Education report a place to which parents must be proud to send their sons and daughters and which these severely handicapped pupils are proud to attend I was taken to the dossier cabinet where the case histories of spastics are kept case histories which were collected throughout the country by parents groups there was the case of Mary Robinson from a well-to-do family there's still no room for her in any of the special schools that was the case of Jimmy green no room for him [Music] either the three stars on the file meant that Jimmy had already been on the books for 3 years and I was told that unless we really got down to helping these children Jimmy might have to wait another 3 years before getting into a special school happily in the case of Sarah Chandler it was different she was lucky enough to find a place in craigy Park School near Cardiff school starts with Morning Bell and they're all out of bed before you can say Jack Robinson that is all except Jack Robinson but Mrs kle the principal of the school knows how to handle this situation treatment starts right away [Music] that's more than I can do here is the little boy getting the exercise and treatment that chess player should have had when he was young neck exercises help with the proper formation of words crawling on the carpet helps to bring into play those unruly limbs but sometimes it's a tough slow business in the classroom the children look up at the school motto courage to persevere these children have the courage and we must persevere to bring them a new and decent life there are all sorts of ways of teaching handicapped children [Music] and it's always fun to play with water life held little joy for Miss Thomas a until she found her own happiness as a hous mother attending the needs of the more handicapped the children are encouraged to make their own fun car for my daughter theart [Music] oh I will father for P I fear with the continual need for expansion a new school room block was added quite recently for thousands of children a glimmer of hope has appeared through the darkness a hope based on the knowledge that someone is trying to do something to Grapple with this enormous problem this young Society it only began in 1952 is doing its best it has already done rather more than scratched the surface in addition to the record you have seen of what has already been achieved there are also about 50 local centers schools workshops clinics social centers the society means to extend and to improve the work at its existing schools and centers and to widen the scope of its work especially in the fields of employment and Welfare it means to add to the sheltered workshop already mentioned and possibly develop several more in due course to provide another school for children who are backward as well as handicapped a center for children children like Jimmy Green unable to profit from ordinary schooling in the 3 hours a center for training some of the specialized staff needed for looking after spastics a new secondary school that shall be a model to the world and a college for school levers to help prepare these young people for a normal life and the society must continue its research work in the medical field and extend it to the study of the special educational problems often involved ambitious yes but vital and you can help you can help well that's just about the end of my story what are we going to do to help these kids there is a man who can tell us he's been helping the national Society ever since it began we it pickles yes just what are we going to do about it remember the case of Jimmy Green the small boy who had three small stars on his file well now JM this case has had to wait for 3 years it's likely he'll have to wait for another 3 years unless something is done about getting him into a special school where he can receive the treatment he needs in the meantime he gets worse you see it's a vicious circle the longer he has to wait the worse he gets and the worse he gets the longer it is before he benefits from the treatment we need more help more schools more treatment centers more training centers and homes for thousands of spastics you've seen something of what the society has done during its short life just wonders the money raised from the public has been wisely spent but what has been done is nothing to what needs to be done there is only one real answer more help more money we' have all kinds of people helping us already we've shop assistants big business organ organizations office staffs chair and even old age pensioners there's one thing about the people that're always willing to help those who help themselves it's a fine Spirit but we need more of it after all it could have been your child will you yes you please help fastings [Music] who would true Valor see let him come hi [Music]