On the Value of Sleeping on the Living Room Floor

On the Value Sleepingof

on the Floor in the Living Room

By Rick Rader, MD. FAAIDD, FAADM

Sylvia Lowe (circa 1932)

Regular readers of HELEN: The Journal of Human Exceptionality are probably familiar with the most notable and renowned leaders and champions of the decades’ old disability rights movement. But like all movements, there are the boots on the ground that have demonstrated their commitment and dedication without asking or receiving any notoriety. They are truly the unsung heroes who have paved the way by practice and example.

This is the story of Sylvia Lowe told by her son, Vern Lowe. Ms. Lowe provided respite care before the idea was ever promoted. She used her intuitive sense of empathy, compassion and sacrifice to open both her home and her heart to the disability community. Her son, Vern, recounts how he was (at times) made to feel like a second-class citizen, and eventually understood the purpose, value and honor of sleeping on a “camp bed” in the living room.

Ms. Lowe’s work contributed to the mission of Mencap, one of England’s earliest and most respected disability programs. Its history is reminiscent of many of the earliest parent-driven groups in America.

In 1946, Judy Fryd, a mother of a child with intellectual disabilities (known as “learning disabilities”) formed “The National Association of Parents of Backward Children.” She wrote to “Nursery World” magazine inviting other parents to contact her. Many wrote back to Judy expressing their anger and sorrow at the lack of services for their children.

In 1955, the association changed its name to “The National Society for Mentally-Handicapped Children” and opened its first project, the Orchard Dene short-stay residential home. In 1958, the National Society launched a ground-breaking project called the Brooklands Experiment. This compared the progress of children with a learning disability who lived in a hospital with a group of children who were moved to a small family environment and cared for using educational activities modeled on those in “ordinary” nurseries.

After two years, the children in the home-like environment showed marked improvements in social, emotional and verbal skills. The success of the experiment was published around the world. Since that time, Mencap has made a significant contribution to the progressive and humanistic models practiced in the United Kingdom and around the world.