Table Of ContentMaking Leisure Provision for
People with Profound Learning
and Multiple Disabilities
Making Leisure
Provision for People
vvith Profound Learning
and Multiple
Disabilities
Edited by
]. Hogg
Director, White Top Centre and White Top Research Unit,
University of Dundee, UK
and
J. Cavet
Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences,
University of Staffordshire, UK
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B. V.
First edition 1995
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1995
Originally published by Chapman & Hall New York in 1995
Typeset in 10/12pt Palatino by Mews Photosetting, Beckenham, Kent
ISBN 978-0-412-41150-2 ISBN 978-1-4899-4487-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-4487-0
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Contents
Contributors vii
Foreword viii
Part One Present Provision and Needs 1
1 Sources of information about the leisure of people
with profound and multiple disabilities 3
Judith Cavet
2 The ecology of leisure provision: contexts and
engagement 36
James Hogg
3 Leisure provision in Europe 49
Judith Cavet
Part Two Environments and Activities 65
4 Multisensory environments 67
Judith Cavet and Helen Mount
5 Physical activities 86
Mark Leach and Howard Bailey
6 Task-orientated enjoyment 97
Freda Abbro
7 Gardening: a multisensory experience 113
Loretto Lambe
8 Art, drama and music 131
Helen Mount
9 Holidays and outings 160
Loretto Lambe and Helen Mount
vi Contents
10 Play materials 178
Carol Ouvry and Suzie Mitchell
11 Microtechnology 197
Nick Pronger
12 Aromatherapy 212
Helen Sanderson
Part Three Leisure Training for Parents, Carers
and Volunteers 227
13 Leisure workshops for parents and carers 229
Loretto Lambe and Helen Mount
14 The development of a leisure resource training
pack for those working with people with
profound and multiple disabilities 243
Loretto Lambe
Author index 257
Subject index 261
Contributors
Freda Abbro, Parent and educator of people with learning disabilities,
Banstead, Surrey
Howard Bailey, Manager, The Spastics Society Recreation Services,
Nottingham
Judith Cavet, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Dept. of Sociology,
University of Staffordshire
Professor James Hogg, Director, White Top Research Unit and Centre,
Dept. of Social Work, University of Dundee
Loretto Lambe, PAM15 Projects Director, White Top Research Unit,
University of Dundee
Mark Leach, Pro-motion officer, The Spastics Society, London
Suzie Mitchell, Educational Psychologist, Borough of Camden, London
Helen Mount, Coordinator, Mencap PIMD Section, Manchester
Carol Ouvry, Independent Special Education Advisor, Ross-on-Wye,
Herefordshire
Nick Pronger, Director, Brilliant Computing, Bradford
Helen Sanderson, Development Officer, Mancunian Community
Health NHS Trust, Manchester
Foreword
Leisure has become a central preoccupation of society and the
individual in the second half of the 20th century. The provision of
leisure is now of paramount significance in the economy of many
countries, with tourism the largest single world industry. From a past
when only the privileged few had time to spare we have moved to
a situation in which access to the leisure pursuits of our choice is view
ed as an essential prerequisite for a good quality of life. For many of
us, but by no means all, leisure time will occupy the largest single
proportion of our waking life from the age of 18 years onwards.
People with disabilities, as well as many other minority groups,
have in the past been disadvantaged in their opportunity to participate
in this expansion in leisure provision. In part this has stemmed from
assumptions about the feasibility of their accessing many types of
leisure pursuit coupled with a lack of concern to eliminate the barriers
that lead to exclusion.
This situation has now changed radically. There can be few, if any,
activities left from which people with disabilities are excluded. Rose
and Massey (1993) report not only on successful climbs up Kiliman
jaro and the Alps by people with severe and profound learning
disabilities, but on role reversals in these settings, in which the
individuals with learning disabilities became the helpers and sustainers
of their peers without disabilities. Nevertheless, even though this
expansion of activities is the case, in reality barriers still remain -
physical, organizational and attitudinal (Lawton, 1993).
People with profound intellectual disability and multiple physical
and/or sensory impairments have, until the past decade, been partic
ularly disadvantaged in their access to leisure. This situation reflects
not only the complexity of their needs and our failure to appreciate
what they require to enhance the quality of their lives, but perhaps
a too exclusive concern with their therapeutic, medical and educa
tion needs, initially justifiable after decades of neglect. As noted in
Chapter 2 of this book, parents' and carers' need for advice on, and
access to, leisure provision remains great.
Foreword ix
The extent to which change has come, however, is reflected in a
number of initiatives with which the editors, as well as the authors,
of this volume have been involved. Cavet (1989), in a European Com
mission supported study, has documented developments in several
countries (summarized here in Chapter 3) in a wide range of service
models reflecting both specialized and integrated provision. Lambe
(1990) has brought together and described a variety of initiatives and
activities in a distance training pack, discussed here in Chapter 14.
The pack was the outcome of extensive work by Mencap's PRMH
Project during the 1980s in which, through surveys, discussion with
parent groups and contact with professionals, a clearer view of what
was required was refined and developed in several areas, including
leisure. The success of this venture has been confirmed by Mencap's
setting up of its Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities Section,
showing a commitment to people with profound and multiple
disabilities and their carers. In addition, PAMIS (Profound and Multiple
Impairment Service), a new registered charity, is now engaged in an
extensive national dissemination programme with parents and carers
in which consideration of leisure provision plays an important part.
H these initiatives account for the editors' immediate impetus to
produce this book, we nevertheless wish to acknowledge how broadly
based has been the movement to provide leisure opportunities for
people with profound disabilities. All the contributors to this volume
and the work of others that they cite have played a key role in moving
this field forward.
The impact of their work, however, is highly dependent upon wider
changes in society's attitudes to profound disability and its willingness
to share resources and opportunities on an equitable basis. In part
this is a matter of education of public attitudes and of professionals
in other fields, such as those in local authority recreation service depart
ments. It also entails a commitment to imaginative thinking, innova
tion and a sensitivity to the aspirations of those with profound
disabilities to realize ways of ensuring access to leisure.
The present volume focuses essentially on engagement in specific
activities, rather than offering a detailed account of models of leisure
provision. At present the situations in which leisure is offered are
almost certainly biased towards specialist provision. However, as in
other areas of disability, the trend is increasingly towards provision
of leisure opportunities in integrated settings, where engagement takes
place alongside and with peers. A model for such integration is clearly
provided in Reed's (1991) development of the Meldreth games, and
is vividly demonstrated in his recent accompanying videotape of the
games.
x Foreword
This book sets out to offer a resource that will enable the interested
reader to supplement his or her existing skills and to improve what
is offered to those with whom they work or for whom they care. It
also gives pointers as to how training may be given to front-line staff
and volunteers, and to areas where further collection and dissemina
tion of information, as well as research, would be beneficial. Its prin
cipal justification will be its usefulness to those who work with people
with profound disabilities, and the extent to which the latter's quality
of life is enhanced.
Cavet, J. (1989) Occupational and Leisure Activities for Peaple with Profound Retard
ation and Multiple Impairments: A Study of Creative Activities to Facilitate Social
Integration, Hester Adrian Research Centre, University of Manchester,
Manchester.
Lambe, L. (1990) Leisure Resource Training Pack for People with Profound and
Multiple Disabilities, Mencap, London.
Lawton, M. (1993) From Startrac to leisure choice: the first slow steps towards
change, in Disabling Barriers - Enabling Environments, (eds J. Swain,
V. Finkelstein, S. French and M. Oliver) Sage and Open University,
London, pp. 178-85.
Reed, L. (1991) Games with a New Look for All Ability Levels, The Spastics
Society, Meldreth, Herts.
Rose, S. and Massey, P. (1993) Adventurous outdoor activities: an investiga
tion into the benefits of adventure for seven people with severe learning
difficulties, Mental Handicap Research, 6, 287-301.
