William M. Cruickshank

The Educational Implications of Psychological Studies of Cerebral-Palsied Children

oDRING the past 20 years considerable psychological research has been completed dealing with groups of individuals diagnosed with different types of cerebro-cortical damage. Heinz Werner, Alfred Strauss, and their associates have extensively examined the psychopathology of exogenous mentally retarded children (12, 14, 16, 17) Strauss and Lehtinen (13), on the basis of such research have made specific suggestions regarding the education of children with brain injury. Halstead (8) has intensively investigated the psychological functions of adults with brain pathology. Similarly, Machover (11), Cotton (1), Goldstein (7), and more recently, Dolphin and Cruickshank (3, 4, 5, 6), have contributed to further analysis of this problem. The latter authors have been concerned specifically with the psychological characteristics of children with various types of cerebral palsy. The education of the child with cerebral palsy is particularly important. At the present time increasing interest is being shown toward this group of children thruout the country, and in many communities educational and treatment centers are being established. Both in the new centers which are developing and in the older and longer established centers, the education of children with cerebral palsy is considered in much the same light as is education for physically normal children. Teachers and supervisors typically employ the same technics for developing communicative arts and number concepts used with children who do not have basic neuro-physical disorders. In effect, no discrimination in educational methodology has been made between those children who have cerebral palsy and those not so handicapped. In the light of the research which has been completed, this situation places many cerebral-palsied children at a great disadvantage. Actually, it is here being suggested that many of the methods, materials, and technics used in the education of normal children may operate to hinder the learning process in a large proportion of children with cerebral palsy. To fully understand the learning process of the child with cerebral palsy it is necessary first to examine certain of his psychological characteristics. Five major factors must be kept in mind, altho all may not operate with equal importance in the learning process as it is being considered here, that is in terms of abstract learning involved in those aspects of school instruction typically considered of an academic nature and including the three Rs. These factors include the characteristics of (a) forced responsiveness to stimuli, (b) perseveration, (c) dissociation, (d) disinhibition, and (e) disturbances of the figure-background relationship.

Adjustment of Physically Handicapped Adolescent Youth

IT is recognized that the adolescent years present problems which are largely peculiar to this period of life, or at least are encountered at this period in greater intensity for the first time. Enhanced strivings for independence combined with the fear of being alone, the unknown consequences of increased self-reliance, heightened sexual drive in the face of recently learned social taboos, half truths, and pure fiction, and a fuller realization of the desirable activities permitted adults which are beyond the range of acceptable adolescent behavior despite rapidly maturing physical development, are only a few examples of such problems. Meeting these and other conflicts and successfully dealing with them is a necessary prerequisite for satisfactory adjustment during both this period and adulthood. Further consideration, however, must be given to those individuals who are physically handicapped, for not only are they faced with the general problems of adolescence, but their disabilities per se, present increased andI or additional barriers to be overcome. Gauging the extensiveness and ramifications of these barriers has been an extremely difficult undertaking, for differentiating general adolescent problems from special problems of the handicapped adolescent is often, for practical purposes, almost impossible because of the close inter-relatedness and interdependence of the two. The paucity of sound research in this area can at least partially be interpreted as a testimonial of such difficulty. Despite the restriction imposed by the quality of the research, Barker and others (1) point out that handicapped children often make good adjustments to both their disability and

The Multiply Handicapped Cerebral Palsied Child

S of classification do not solve problems. On the other hand, a classification system frequently makes a problem clearer so that one can see the essential elements of a complicated situation and thus take steps towards its partial or complete solution. There are few conditions found in human beings which are more complicated than that of cerebral palsy. The classification system developed in this paper attempts to give a fuller understanding-of an already complicated problem, the implications of certain types of handicap in the multiply handicapped cerebral palsied child. The staggering proportions of this problem for rehabilitation and education appear when one considers the multiplicity of variables which are possible in cerebral palsied children. This writer, realizing that there are other factors such as emotional development or maldevelopment, has considered three variables in the present classification. These are (a) the presence in the cerebral palsied child of other physical defects of whatsoever kind or degree, (b) the presence in the cerebral palsied child of retarded mental development, and (c) the presence in the cerebral palsied child of psychopathological characteristics of preception which are independent of mental retardation. Before discussing each of these three variables, it must be pointed out, .that cerebral palsy itself, without the presence of any of the three, has many variables which complicate therapeutic and educational programs. These often make it difficult to work with cerebral palsied children in groups. Cerebral palsy itself, whether athetoid, ataxic, spastic, or other, produces problems and necessitates variation in method and procedure of both therapy and education. The extent of the lesion and the location of the lesion appear to complicate the broad adjustment and learning problems of the child. These

The Role of the University in the Preparation of Personnel for the Education of Children with Impairments of Hearing and Speech

IN THE light of what is known in 1952 about the deaf, the hard of hearing, and the child with impaired speech, where is the most logical place to undertake programs to train specialists, teachers, and therapists? With a few exceptions, the preparation of the teacher of the deaf has for a long while been considered the responsibility of the residential school for the deaf child. There is no doubt that, in several instances, the residential-school training program has served an important need and has graduated some outstanding teachers of the deaf. The advent of the university and college, other than Gallaudet College, into the preparation of the teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing is of relatively recent origin. The trend, being recent and widespread, is rooted in the nature of the problem itself, the changes in the special education process involved, and in the profession of education.