The development of the day treatment centre for emotionally disturbed children at the West End Crèche, Toronto.

This article describes the interplay of various interests in centre-based child care from the 1930s to the late 1960s, through an examination of the development of a treatment centre for children with autism at the West End Creche in Toronto. The impact of the attention to child care during World War II in North America is described in relation to the postwar trend to reorient child care away from a service for wage-earning mothers and towards an educational-therapeutic service for children and families. The role of local and international welfare associations, as well as the influence of the interrelated professions of child psychiatry, social work, and nursery education, is reviewed. Finally, implications for current developments in the field of early childhood education are discussed.