ABSTRACT
The ways in which children in different types of institution spend their day suggests that what they do, and what they are allowed to do, are influenced by factors other than the handicaps of the children. Indeed, the similarity among all the living units within each institution, and the wide differences between types of institution, suggest that institutions develop their own distinctive norms of child management. In attempting to operationalize the conceptual dimension in children’s institutions, this chapter concentrates on four areas of child management and staff-child interaction: the rigidity of routine; ‘block treatment’ of children; depersonalization of children; and the social distance maintained between children and staff. Institutionally-oriented child management practices were found in both the hospital for subnormal children and in a hospital for children of normal intelligence who had chronic and severe physical handicaps. The child-oriented units in all establishments shared certain factors reminiscent of family households in the community.
