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CHILDREN IN INSTITUTIONS

Many of our handicapped children still live in large institutions from early childhood. It is important that we realize that life in an institution is an artificial form of existence for children: they become estranged from the important processes of life when they live together day and night with nothing more in common than the same handicap. They have only a few adults with them who come and go at specific times, but who relax and have a good time in other surroundings. Usually it is only the child's primary needs that are satisfied, such as food, clothing, a bed, and one hopes, school or another form of pedagogic activity. All such activities school, kindergarten, workshop or hobby work - take place during the morning. Afternoons and evenings, Sundays and holidays, are long. Many sit through their childhood and, later on, youth and adult life, evening after evening, Sunday after Sunday, holiday after holiday. It would be a help to them to have books. In these institutions children and young people must go to bed earlier than normal for their ages. They should in any case be able to read in bed, or those who cannot read should be read to, or be able to look at the pictures in books.

Unfortunately, many of the staff in institutions are without knowledge of children's literature. Much experience has, however, been gained in the institutions which use books as part of daily life. Often the local librarians contact the institutions, visit the children, and invite them to the libraries. Naturally, children's books cannot compensate for the sterility of institutional life, but they can provide much needed contact and pleasure and give children an idea of life in the outside world.

Institutions for handicapped children are the opposite of integration, but by contact with libraries one can break through the massive segregation. With a varied choice of children's literature one can also prepare children for integration and a life they will meet later on.

Many children and young people stay temporarily in hospitals. In our economically developed countries road accidents increase from year to year, and many of the people injured are children and young people. Some of them will be so seriously maimed that they cannot even hold a book or turn pages. They need electric page turners or other technical reading aids. This is also the case with many spastics who have great difficulty in keeping their heads and arms still, or who cannot manage to relax completely their muscles.

Cushla, whom we met in Cushla and her books, stayed in hospitals for shorter or longer periods during her first years of life. She always had her beloved children's books with her. A stay in hospital is an especially heavy burden for children, and it is obvious that one must give them every possible feeling of security and happiness. Often they need simple and humorous books with many pictures. All of us, regardless of age, prefer lighter reading when we feel tired or unwell. Those who have a long stay in hospital need quantity of good books. They need contact and adventure just as much as medical treatment. Books are not only needed for education and intellectual stimulation, but also to present the experiences that most people have in common. Those who feel themselves different and isolated are especially in need of the experiences.

It is society's responsibility to provide the conditions that enable children and young people to grow up in as natural and ordinary surroundings as possible. Books can be relevant as a help to prepare oneself for the adult world, especially books which take up social problems, young people's attitudes to sex, and books which generally speaking elucidate our common problems. "I began to write because I believed that a person's loneliness would diminish if one knew that everybody else was just as lonely", the Swedish author Hans Peterson once said. "Really I write books so that some children will feel less lonely, and to make children and adults talk to each other." Books can be a help to start conversation and to discuss problems, especially for those who are accustomed to hiding themselves away. Books give a feeling of fellowship.