OCR Text |
Show Aftermath of German Measles Epidemic Is Disaster, March of Dimes Study Shows i ' ..'.:lr;iai.llllillllll By LOUIS COOPER, M.D. Director, The Nutional Foundation-March Foundation-March of Dimes Rubella Birth Defects Evaluation Project One of this nation's worst German measles epidemics struck with devastating effect ef-fect several years ago, and today we are experiencing aftereffects that might be equally disastrous. Our study of 500 children to determine their medical problems prob-lems also brought to light their long-term non-medical needs. The study was financed by The National Foundation-March Foundation-March of Dimes in cooperation coopera-tion with New York University Univer-sity Medical Center at Bel-i Bel-i levue Hospital. Most of these children were born with one or more defects involving either sight, hearing, heart or brain caused when their mothers contracted German Ger-man measles (rubella) while pregnant during the 1964-65 epidemic of that disease. We soon found that these children needed an umbrella of care to provide physical, Dr. Louis Cooper examines one twin sister (left) born with hearing and other defects because her mother had German measles while pregnant. Second sister was apparently not affected. emotional and educational help, brought into focus at the same time and under the same roof. A hospital setting offers the best facility and experts to conduct such a program for very small children. In collaboration col-laboration with the Board of Education of the City of New York, a pilot preschool pro- fram was started at Bellevue lospital in October, 1967. Three teachers were assigned as faculty by the New York City School System and ad ditional staff were provided by the Rubella Birth Defects Evaluation Project and the New York City Department of Hospitals and Health. . New ways of learning are being tried by the team of i dividual basis. The development develop-ment of play skills, self-care, watching and listening are all important. Although the children chil-dren have multiple physical impairments, deafness or hearing hear-ing impairment come in for particular attention. Great emphasis em-phasis is placed on teaching the child to recognize and identify sounds. A music therapist has been provided by the Musicians Emergency Fund. Teachers and the children play typical kindergarten percussion instruments. in-struments. Although the children chil-dren may not hear the sounds as we do, they are extremely responsive to music. Teachers help the children know the instruments, in-struments, learn their names It is hoped that the program developed at Bellevue will work and can be copied throughout the country to meet the urgent and widespread wide-spread need to help these multihandicapped children. The National Foundation-March Foundation-March of Dimes has estimated that as a result of the 1964-65 rubella epidemic about 20,000 American babies would be born defective. Present indications indica-tions are that these figures are low. We have reason to believe that the 500 children served by our project represent only one-quarter of those in Metropolitan Metro-politan Now York City who were victims of that one epidemic. epi-demic. All these children now are ieHei3 tuiu new avenues ui hope are being explored. One teacher each was selected from the fields of special education for the d?af, the blind, and the brain injured. The teachers then selected 17 three-year-olds from nearly 60 in the study group who were receiving no educational service because of the complexity com-plexity of their handicaps. All the children had some degree of brain damage and hearing loss. Half had congenital heart disease and half had visual problems. Some have had heart surgery; others have needed eye operations. All have had many illnesses, some with frequent hospitalization. At the Bellevue Prenursery School, each teacher works first with a child on an in- Dy toucn and by sight and listen lis-ten to and feel the vibrations of the different sounds. How far the children will progress is not known. However, How-ever, each child will be given an opportunity to learn up to his full potential. Speech will come for some when they put all the training and constant drilling together. Other children chil-dren may never speak. There is a great deal we can still learn from this modest exploration ex-ploration of the education of the handicapped, but one sign of progress is the acceptance of four children from the group by other special schools for classes that began in September. Septem-ber. In their turn, other children chil-dren now on our waiting list will be able to receive training at the hospital school. reaching traditional school age. They will easily overwhelm the nation's schools for the singly handicapped deaf, blind pr brain injured. Unfortunately, Unfortunate-ly, there are only a few special schools that can teach multi-handicapped multi-handicapped children and even fewer who accept these children chil-dren at the proper age, which is as soon as the handicaps are recognized. Progress toward development develop-ment of rubella vaccine to prevent pre-vent the tragedy of rubella in pregnancy has been very rapid. rap-id. Nevertheless, it will be of no help to the thousands of handicapped handi-capped children born during the past several years. If we can learn to educate these children chil-dren properly, the lessons learned will be of great benefit to all handicapped children. |