childcare-50years

6
facing school leavers. There was also good rapport with voluntary
organisations, particularly those involved with people who were deaf
or had hearing difficulties. Other disabled children became the
responsibility of generalist welfare officers, although there was an
attempt to integrate other professionals, such as occupational
therapists into work with the disabled.
As noted above, children in institutions who had a disability were
unlikely to have been 'boarded-out'. Indeed, it was not until the
1970s that organisations such as Barnardo's led the way in
demonstrating that no child, including a child with severe learning
difficulties, needed to be excluded from the opportunity of
experiencing family life with foster carers.
For children who did manage to stay with their families, a lack of
suitable aids, adaptations, transport and education facilities could
add to a family's financial and emotional hardships and could involve
great sacrifice on the part of parents. Three women currently living in
a residential setting recently spoke of their experiences as severely
disabled children in the 1940s and 1950s. The names used are not the
real names of the people concerned:
• Deirdre recalled her experience as the only child of 'middle class'
parents in the 1940s. Her mother recognised her child's needs for
specialist treatment, which, at the time was only available at a
residential centre in England. Refusing to be separated from her
young daughter, she took the child to England where they stayed
for 3 and a half years. The child's father had to remain at home to
keep his job and provide financial support. To maintain herself
and the child, Deirdre's mother undertook unpaid work in
exchange for board and lodgings. When they returned to Belfast,
the child was able to attend an ordinary class in a private school
although she had limited oral speech and writing capabilities. The
private school eventually closed down and she then transferred to
the newly opened Fleming Fulton School. The child's experience of
a period of ordinary schooling was a rare occurrence for the time.
• born with cerebral palsy into a large family in the mid Ulster area,
Elaine, her mother and (when no-one could be found to look after
50 YEARS OF CHILD CARE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
142