A two year old goes to hospital.

This observational film made in 1952, narrated by James Robertson (with no natural sound) with intertitles in capital letters, drew attention to the plight of young patients at a time when visiting by parents was severely restricted. Robertson provides commentary about what is said. Laura, aged 2, is seen at home with her parents happily playing. She needs to be in hospital for 8 days to have a minor operation. The film sequences are called 'time samples' within the production. She is too young to understand her mother's absence. Because her mother is not there and the nurses change frequently, she has to face the fears, frights and hurts with no familiar person to cling to. She is extremely upset by a rectal anaesthetic. Then she becomes quiet and 'settles'. Bizarrely, one of the time samples was thought to be spoilt so a play session was repeated; clearly revealing (or causing) more of her distress. At the end of her stay she is withdrawn from her mother, shaken in her trust. There have been great changes in children's wards, partly brought about by this film. But many young children still go to hospital without the mother, and despite the play ladies and volunteers the depth of their distress and the risks to later mental health remain an insufficiently recognised problem. This film study of typical emotional deterioration in an unaccompanied young patient, and of the subtle ways in which she shows or conceals deep feelings of distress, remains as vivid and relevant as when it was made.