Play rehab

Abstract

A Rehabilitation centre for children with cerebral palsy is the proposed project undertaken in this dissertation. This theme was chosen after the author had been involved with New Hope School in fundraising projects for the past 3 years. The author recognized the need of a dedicated rehabilitation facility for children with cerebral palsy as well as better accommodation for rehabilitation purposes. Spending time with cerebral palsied children, the need for basic education becomes evident. Over protectiveness from parents could prevent these children from sensory experiences, which can only be evolved through touching, smelling, seeing hearing and tasting. This early childhood experience of sensory development usually involves play. Play is the ultimate form of exploration for any child and when disabled, free play is usually non-associative with everyday activities. Without free play, children will have a handicap in natural development of social, mental, physical and sensory skills. Through harmless play, even a lion cub learns to become a hunter. The aim of this project would be to create a center where play would be used to rehabilitate children with cerebral palsy. New Hope School is situated in the Menlopark area, Pretoria. The proposed site for the rehabilitation centre would be consolidated to the north western corner of the existing school grounds and thus engaging this project as an addition to the existing New Hope School. The architecture used, should be of simplistic nature which merges the interiors of the building with nature. By achieving this, the children would get a basic form of sensory development while rehabilitating in the building. Copyright