ABSTRACT
As student occupational therapists we were required to spend time with ‘simulated disabilities’. Cooking supper with one hand tied behind the back might have seemed funny at the time but it certainly taught us what it must be like to have a paralysed arm. Without experiencing any degree of physical limitation to our otherwise healthy bodies it is difficult to put ourselves into the position of a child with a motor impairment. Ideally, when a school plans to admit a child with a physical difficulty, a member of staff, together with the child’s potential peer group, should attempt to assume his particular problems and survey the school in advance of his arrival. Not only is this a practical and efficient way of eliminating many of the difficulties before the new pupil arrives, and of making his introduction to the mainstream less stressful, it is also one way in which the other children can be introduced to the idea of physical difficulty and special needs.
