ABSTRACT
The problem to be solved when undertaking a project in the field of social research is that of identifying and contacting the people from whom it is necessary to obtain information. In the absence of any readily available comprehensive list of children known to be cerebral palsied, the Spastics Society, who commissioned the work, allowed us to use the register of children which has been compiled at the Society's Family Help Unit in Nottingham. The project was designed to follow the precedents laid down in the course of the first two stages of the longitudinal study of the upbringing of normal children in Nottingham. The East Midlands mothers were approached by letter in the first instance and asked to give their help by telling us about their own experiences and problems. To make discussion of the problems which a handicapped child presents to his family meaningful, some measure of the degree to which his disability affects day-to-day living is essential.
