My research paper will be looking at the lives of children with mental and physical disabilities, and the changing attitudes towards these children and their treatment. This paper will focus mainly on the time period of the late 1960’s to 1970’s, in which the idea of how children were to be treated, both those with and without disabilities, evolved. Exploring various sources, this paper will argue how changes in public opinion led to a better focus on the welfare of children, and better understanding of, and handling for, those who were mentally and physically ill and disabled. This research paper will also look at the transition of youth out of freak shows, and the subsequent end of freak shows, the push for proper medical attention and family subsidization for those with disabled children, and the growth of formal institutions. There will also be a focus on the difference in how children and adults are treated, as well as an emphasis on the changing public idea of proper treatment. The main question this paper will be trying to answer is how does the relationship between the changes in how children with mental or physical illnesses and disabilities are cared for, and the social shifts and pushes regarding a child’s well being, are related, and how the latter was the ultimate catalyst for change.

         This research paper will begin with the end of freak shows, in which many mentally and physically disabled children were employed. Freak shows, which were often a part of carnivals, circuses and road shows, would display people of all ages that had something obviously “off” about them, but interesting enough that people would come to see and marvel at what ever disfigurement or natural born phenomenon they had been born with, or developed. To further explore this topic, stories of some of the children that had been employed by freak shows will be used, such as that in the case of five year old Pookie, The Monkey Girl. Pookie’s performance in Ontario in 1973 had her crawl on stage for the audience, this performance horrified the public, and ignited a series of calls to end childhood performances in freak shows, and freak shows in general. While freak shows had previously been popular attractions, and had been going on for a few decades before, a sudden shift in public opinion brought them to an end. Canadians began to question their ethics, and declared that putting disabled children into these shows was in no way ethical, and was in fact a form of childhood cruelty. Only a year before, an article in the Daily Mail in London, England had made the same remarks, stating that freak shows were a question of humanity, and that all exhibitions showing such “indecent material” should be banned. Freak shows soon came to their end following the outcry Pookie’s performance caused. When questioned as to why her mother would consent for her daughter to do such a thing, her mother defended herself stating it was the only way to care for Pookie, as she was a single mother with little in the way of income, and Pookie’s paid performances helped to whole family stay out of poverty. Her mother also brought up how a lack of government assistance for her disabled child only furthered this situation. The effects of family poverty on the families of disabled and ill children is further discussed and supported by an article by Morton Beiser, Feng Hou, Ilene Hyman, and Michel Tousignant, “Poverty, family process, and the mental health of immigrant children in Canada”. This article states that family poverty has the ability to harm a child’s wellbeing and development, and increase mental health issues. It further states that economic disadvantage is seen to lead to ineffective parenting, intrafamilial hostilities, parental psychopathology, and single parent families, all of which contribute can to mental health issues in children. This research paper will therefore explore the relationship between poverty, wellbeing, and the ways disadvantaged families found to support themselves and care for their children who were mentally ill or physically disabled. Another idea that will be discussed in this paper is why and how public opinions changed about the best way to care for a child. Another article by John Bullen, “Hidden Workers: Child Labour and the Family Economy in Late Nineteenth-Century Urban Ontario”, helps to articulate how childhood, and what was best for a child’s growth, mentally and physically, was reconsidered towards the end of the nineteenth century. There was a push for children to go to school and achieve proper education in order to better themselves, and open up more opportunities in their futures. Though families, especially middle and lower class, had need for the children at home, or at least outside of school, for work and household upkeep, there was a quick shift in the attitude as where a child should be spending their time. Both the government and the Canadian public decided a child’s place was no longer working for the family or in the home, but at school. They were to be getting an education, not a job. This change was caused by a few factors, such as a parents want for their children to improve in life, the general want for a better educated society, and the governments want for proper, uniform teachings across the nation. The whole country came to focus on what they could do to ensure the country’s children were being properly looked after and cared for. It was this same shifting attitude that led to the end of children in freak shows and the shift towards different methods of caring for disabled children. Governments began to put into place ways for which these children could be assisted, such as through the passing of legislations such as the “Mental Deficiency Act” of 1913, and “Elementary Education/ Defective and Epileptic Children Act” of 1914, which helped to protect disabled children, and allow them into the community. Other acts, such as the United Nations “Declaration fo the Rights of The Child” in 1959, helped to protect children around the world from all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation. This act gave children rights to education and play, and protected them from child labour, or any other forms of employment before an appropriate age. This act also protected the mentally and physically disabled children stating, “The child who is physically or socially handicapped shall be given the special treatment, education, and care required by his particular condition”. This research paper will delve further into the ways these children were then treated. Much evidence, such as “Insanity, philanthropy and emigration: dealing with insane children in late-nineteenth-century north-west England” from the History Of Psychiatry by Steven J. Taylor, displays the treatment of children was often thought of as the job of the family. Despite changing values and opinions of the care for mental and physically handicapped children, their treatment was seen as a domestic issue. Childrens asylums were seen as last resort, though it is still seen that, while they were few in number, children were routinely admitted to mental institutions. Often the diagnosis for children was that they were “idiots or imbeciles”, and did not have anything related to lunacy. These diagnosis would equate to modern day learning disorders, but at the time were considered incurable, and so children institutionalized with this were considered low priority.   Further evidence for this is found in the article, “Living Circumstances of Children and Adults with Mental Retardation or Developmental Disabilities in the United States, Canada, England and Wales, and Australia”, by  David Braddock, Eric Emerson, David Felce, and Roger J. Stancliffe,  who correlated the relationship between age and institutionalization. Their findings state that as one ages, they are more likely to be put in an institution, with adults most commonly being in formal institutions, and children rarely being put in, and instead being treated at home. It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that specialized care started to develop for society’s disadvantaged, and not until that last few decades that a growth in community and popularization of medical institutions and medical care appeared, resulting in the placement of all disabled people’s, adults and children, into institutions when needed.

          This research paper will use sources like the ones used above to show the change in the lives of children who were mentally or physically disadvantaged in the mid and late-nineteenth century. The evolving regard for disabled children from a performing freak to a child in need of protection will be displayed through the changing beliefs of how children should be cared for, and the legislations, institutions, and public awareness that helped this along. In conclusion, this paper will argue the ties between society’s views and public opinion led to the improvement of childhood wellbeing and treatment, and the changing demographic of the lives of mentally or physically ill or disabled children.   

Bibliography

Beiser, Morton, Feng Hou, Ilene Hyman, and Michel Tousignant. “Poverty, family process, and the mental health of immigrant children in Canada.” American Journal Of Public Health 92, no. 2 (2002): 220-227. MEDLINE with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed October 1, 2017).

Braddock, David, Eric Emerson, David Felce, and Roger J. Stancliffe.  “Living Circumstances of Children and Adults with Mental Retardation or Developmental Disabilities in the United States, Canada, England and Wales, and Australia.” Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews 7, no. 2 (2001): 115-121. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed September 29, 2017).

Bullen, John, “Hidden Workers: Child Labour and the Family Economy in Late Nineteenth-Century Urban Ontario.” Labour/Le Travail 18 (Fall 1986): 163-187.

-“In the end the public is the censor.” Daily Mail [London, England] (20 Sept. 1972): 6-7.

Nicholas, Jane, and Lori Chambers. “In Search of Monkey Girl: Disability, Child Welfare, and the Freak Show in Ontario in the 1970s.” Journal Of Canadian Studies 50, no. 3 (2016): 639-668. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed September 30, 2017).

Taylor, Steven J. “Insanity, philanthropy and emigration: dealing with insane children in late-nineteenth-century north-west England.” History Of Psychiatry 25, no. 2 (June 2014): 224. Complementary Index, EBSCOhost (accessed September 30, 2017).

Yazarsız, Y . “Declaration of the Rights of the Child”. Milletlerarası Hukuk ve Milletlerarası Özel Hukuk Bülteni 16 (2011): 221-224

Image: Anemone, taken by Katryna Barone