RUN AWAY, LITTLE GIRL

Marilyn Segal was the mother of four and had been ""a peasant"" about having them, so when she became pregnant again after an interval of four years and presented herself at the hospital for delivery, she wasn't expecting trouble. This time it was different, and so was her child, for tiny Debra Jean was born With cerebral palsy. It took time to know and accept, even though Mike Segal was a doctor, and time: to quell guilt. But Debbie's health and welfare became the family concern and responsibility, and the story of her development is proof of devotion ...and skill. The original prognosis was paralyzing, later ones in Boston and then at the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, where Debbie was given a complete program which the Segals carried out with ingenuity and imagination, and discipline, less so-- but Mrs. Segal is fighting so that her daughter, au athetoid, does not succumb to being ""a pretzel in a wheelchair"" with a thirty-five year life expectancy. Her detailing of the program is specific and should encourage any mother in a like circumstance that something can be done about C.P. Debble, whose intelligence was normal, learned to read at three, moved from the crawl to the creep and made the great victory of standing at five. Today she goes to school, has friends, and is the delight of her brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents; she has emerged as a personality. Mrs. Segal's story tells about the newest advances in dealing with brain-damaged children; it is also a mother's story which takes--and gives--heart.