The chance of their lives (1952)

[Music] h [Music] no no it's no good there's plenty of fun around but it's not for him his legs are useless it's good to see this little girl smile but at least she can [Music] walk [Music] there's no smile here she has never walked and who look after her when her devoted parents have [Music] gone this young man wants a job the chance to earn a living [Music] well would you employ him would you gamble on a fellow who looks willing but well what job could you give him that lad is a so was the little boy floundering in the playground and the little girl who could just walk and the woman who couldn't maybe you've never heard of it but there are 30,000 spastics in Great Britain and they're not getting much help when that little boy and girl grow up there won't be jobs for them the world will be full of shut doors unless well unless a lot of things happen but let's start at the beginning let's have a look at the strange and sad business of why a is a let's have a doctor explain it [Music] these two children are typical cases of paralysis the other name for it is cereal py it's got many forms and they are all of them difficult to help Jean this little dark-haired girl is a true her limbs are stiff and work very slowly these children like all spastics have never known what normal movement is their limbs just don't obey their minds unless they get proper treatment they get worse as they grow older so it is tremendously important to begin as soon as possible usually the trouble can be diagnosed by the time the baby is a year old the parents can help considerably by carrying on treatment at home let's be quite clear about it the work is hard and long there just isn't any magic wand you can wave over spastics there isn't any quick brilliant cure only years of patience and hard work and kindness can turn a helpless child into a capable human being young Judith now is the athetoid type she has very little control over her limbs they jump about in spite of anything she can do you see the cause of the trouble is has damaged the brain tissues in the part of the brain that controls movement it's caused either a birth or very soon after it I want to make it quite plain it is not the fault of either of the parents the aim of treatment is to make the best of the undamaged parts it has mostly to be done in special clinics but there are so few of these that only one child in 10 gets proper treatment what happens to the other nine well they grow up obviously they should be at school physically they have to start from scratch they can't pick up the tricks of living like everyone else they have to be taught the simplest most natural things Tau to walk and talk to dress and talk to eat yes lots of them even have to learn to eat but not alone in one way they're like all other children they need the stimulus and companionship of school life some of them a few get it plus the treatment they [Music] need the happiest days of your life well of course Richard and and Ian are at St Margaret's the first special school for set up in Britain it started in 1946 the head mistress can tell us about it we don't think of St Margaret's as a school for sick children we just have rather special problems our children are taught all the normal school subjects and also modeling painting and and designing all the things that give them a chance to express their individuality and their talents because they are talented many of them some of those who can't write in the ordinary way use typewriters to make their work legible for the little ones the teaching is Elementary but all the same they are beginning to learn [Music] e at intervals during the day they're taken to their treatment it has to be constant and regular because the important thing is the gradual and continuous process of building up the correct pattern of movements as they have to learn so many of the simple activities of the body that normal people take for granted even the control of lips tongue and pallet has to be learned so that the child can speak the exercises are many and varied the mirror on the ceiling shows this little girl how she's getting on our children get every encouragement to use their limbs as early as they can because life is ahead of them so we give them calipers and special boots such a new strange thing is walking these skis give him confidence he has a firm base and something to hold on to more work for those young legs and even with calipers it's possible and fun those tricycles are one of the really great assets for the handicapped children play and treatment and hope all in one some can ride but others have to watch for a Time here's Christine with her C ERS on again going to have another shot at the walking lesson when she first came to the school she couldn't even stand up now she can move her own legs now she can very nearly walk a little step or two it's not much but it's a Triumph every week a little step forward yes they start from the beginning how do you eat when you can't hold a spoon you learn stage by stage and how do you dress when a simple business like pushing a button through a button hole is full of heartbreaking confusing effort well you learn and one day you can do it for those who have even got to learn how to talk there is speech therapy when the child first arrives she makes a record she makes more of them at intervals not just for the therapists to study but to encourage the child and show her how she's getting on in this Troublesome art of words when rosalin came 3 years ago this was her recording h [Music] now she's having her latest disc played back to her listen to this now will you say these after me I am going out I am going out good go and get it for me go and get it home thank you Rodman confidence that's needed more than almost anything they're going to fall sometimes so they learn how to do it without getting hurt and how to get up again confidence the self reliance that helps them to move around under their own power however slowly without without any help moving for themselves and bound by progress to play as other children do but at carefully cheres and games that will not interfere with their treatment or make their troubles [Music] worth [Music] yes this is their chance but at present very few children get it and even these lucky ones have to leave us when they are 14 or 15 what happens then here is our country and here is the problem England and Wales have about 10,000 children and not nearly enough special schools you can see them on the map here just a handful of schools they cannot possibly take the thousands of children who should go to them perhaps I can put it better this way way here are the existing schools this is what there ought to be if every child is to get the best chance and when those that get in have to leave well in all the country there is only one special school where the treatment can be carried on one school perhaps one child in a thousand can make it here is that school it takes pup of up to 21 years old it's only been going for 18 months but it has had its successes already the pupils are getting a real grip on life this school was opened by Miss Meo she is a herself there is an understanding and a sympathy between Miss maker and her pupils which is a tremendous advantage the whole emphasis is on normality that's to say the education is ordinary education by qualified teachers of the kind the pupils would get in an ordinary [Music] school but of course it is the body that is still the main trouble those insecure muscles have to continue their education steadily regularly always and all the time spastics often get on well with work that takes them out of doors useful constructive work like horiculture or raising of poetry or pigs [Music] so here at puckle Hill there is the chance the help and the encouragement to become useful citizens but puckle Hill is alone puckle Hill is small for every thousand that want to come and need to come there is room for one well that's the situation for some reason none of us understands these children have been pitched into a world with only half a Birthright we've just seen what they can do if they can get into a place that can and give them hope and opportunity for a decent future but as things are only the odd one or two ever get that chance but what about all those others something must be done and done quickly there are two ways of getting a special school or clinic going either you can set it up with private money or you can get the local authority to do it frankly it doesn't matter who does the job just so long as someone does it quickly which is it going to be for all these spastics an existence in the Twilight or the chance and the only chance of their [Music] lives of