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2 - The problem of lost children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2009

By
Edward H. Cornell  and
Kenneth A. Hill
Edited by
Christopher Spencer  and
Mark Blades
Christopher Spencer
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Mark Blades
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
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Summary

Ken Hill has been living with the ghost of a nine-year-old Nova Scotia boy for over eighteen years. Hill can picture Andrew Warburton as he was on a sunny day in July 1986 when he was enjoying activities near his aunt's rural home. Dressed in swimming trunks, a tank top, and sneakers, he independently set off to meet his older brother at a lake several hundred meters from the house. Although he had previously walked the path with playmates, Andrew disappeared in the forest on his way to the lake. A massive search effort resulted, ultimately involving over 5,000 community volunteers, fire fighters, and military personnel. The police search manager called the nearby university and asked for a psychologist who knew anything about children's spatial behaviour. Professor Ken Hill agreed to meet the search manager at the incident command post. Hill was asked to indicate on a map of the surrounding environment where search efforts should be focused. Hill remembers that he could think of nothing in the sizable literature on the development of children's spatial representation that applied to this problem. It was obvious that Hill had little to offer, and as the co-ordinators of the search continued to converse among themselves, Hill slipped away from the post to join one of the ground search teams. After eight days of the search effort, Andrew Warburton was found dead from hypothermia, approximately 3.2 km from the place where he had last been seen.

Type
Chapter
Information
Children and their Environments
Learning, Using and Designing Spaces
 , pp. 26 - 41
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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