The Confident Zone

I have a friend.

I have been enjoying this relationship since 1999. We do not meet or speak very often since I moved out from Munich, Germany eight years ago. Once we meet, everything is continued from where it was… Therefore I call it deep manly friendship. He is a therapist and he has his own business in Munich what offers different approaches towards physiotherapy. During the last ten years we have had some very good discussions about dissent approaches of physiotherapy, about contemporary approaches what are out of the ordinary and of course about Conductive Education as well.
Those discussions slowly but surly made me to look at CE from a little distance and in the meantime I detected how he sees CE as an outsider without deep knowledge of it. Just recently, I read publications of Carry Cooper, professor of organizational psychology and health at Lancaster University and surprisingly he drafted something parallel to my friend’s point of view but far not related to CE. Cooper’s works persuaded me to collect together our ideas we thought why CE was a bit “different”. That is prior to me to share today. The following sentences involve an essential what we both agreed.

There can be many things and more strategies that work for physically disabled people. Rehabilitation methods, treatments, manual handlings are very different. CE has got his own approach strategy for the body itself which can be discussed professionally by medical development point of view however, in life orientation way it is outstanding and introducing a new picture of rehabilitation to the world. My friend says: it takes us (the disabled person) to the confident zone of life.

These aspects are nothing to do with the impaired, disabled body. It changes behaviour, act and life. CE one of those things what can work for the mind and spirit as well.
Conductive Education offers and provides physical development and education together and teaches to think positive, think better: to be more realistic of the dysfunction of the body and see the possibilities in life, open eyes and mind to see the bigger picture. It teaches to face to the situation and shows the chances how to befriend themselves, also, teaches to watch out for rigid expectations, keep things in perspective and avoid using “awfulising” stereotypes. To behave responsibly: actively listen, acknowledge what people say and to say what they think and feel, say what they would like to happen. To be a good time manager: using time effectively, to deal stress with the help of time managing. To do a useful schedule – a daily, monthly, yearly routine - list everything they want to achieve. Try to stay realistic about how much time they need for activities, etc. and be prepared for unexpected events. How to tackle of stress of disability: CE tries to teach to be precise aware of their disabilities and how to overcome some physical, emotional, social problems, to learn how to look at the bright side of their situation.
To live a healthier life: How to look after their diet, to consume de-stressing foods, how to exercise the body and get relationships, how to be active in the society and the importance of having a hobby (something to deal with).



Notes

www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/profiles/cary-cooper/
see selected publications


Praxis für Phyisotherapie, Rudolf Eckert
Hubertusstr. 22.

80639 München, Germany

Bobath
Elektrotherapie
Krankengymnastik
Lasertherapie
Lymphdrainage
Manuelle Therapie
Massage
Fango / Naturmoor
PIlates
Reflexzonentherapie
Shiatsu
Hausbesuche
Osteopathie
Musiktherapie

The journey must go on... Herman Nohl

‘The basis of education is the passionate relationship of a mature man to expectant people, and for its own sake, that he had on his life and his form come. This educational relationship builds on an instinctive basis, in the natural implications of human life...’

(Nohl 1970, p. 134, quoted. Bern after 1992, p. 57)

I wrote about H. Plessner before my post on Gestalt therapy. This time, I wish to continue again the introduction of great people whose thoughts might have an impact of A. Peto’s Conductive Education idea. Herman Nohl (7. Oktober 1879 Berlin – 27. September 1960 Göttingen) is well known in the field of western education. He can be named as one of the first educational anthropologists. I do not want to introduce him and his work, but I aim to draw attention to his couple of fundamental thoughts about human education what are also seem to be basics at Peto. He is fully touched by the philosophy of gestalt and the roots of his thoughts emerged from it.
He highlights the importance of observation in sense of education hence; he underpins the “direct fellow-being relationship” saying that pedagogy can be understood only through live interactive kind of relationship. The teacher has to learn a fully comprehensive observation in a similar manner as physicians should do. He assumes that education, upbringing is like an art: art of pedagogy, as insight into character. If the teacher is able to build up a “correct”, reasonable vision of the educated person’s future it will cause to get the most of the education of him. Simply, “let it be” derives to “be”. In his words in German “Sollen” takes you to “Sein” where Sollen has to be well thought-out, well baked. At the end, education has to have a dualistic point of view: find the best between idealistic and realistic where idealistic should take a good place which guaranties the approach of a higher level of real. (I hope dear reader that my English is not confusing….but understandable.) This is very “conductive” – conductors should have a very special relationship to their clients, they need to be very good observant: as we know about operative observation, and visualize the possible higher level: orthofunction of the clients.
Nohl also says that the legitimatization of education roots to the system of culture, man as such, has an end in itself; thereby upbringing is not arbitrary but culture concentric. Education should lead us to a higher level of life. Nohl expresses that there are three assumptions what he thinks already exist:
The individual (the person) has all those marks in him what typify the system of the whole humankind.
The individual (the person) has all those marks in him alongside with his unique (personality) what typify the general of humankind.
Every individual (person) has got an inner point of drive what forms the psycho-multifariousness.
He assumes that human is historical since there is no act of us which would not related to our whole psycho-past what affects our present and future.


Notes:

Nohl, H. Character und Schicksal. Eine Peadagogische Menschenkunde, Frankfurt/M 1959
Schaffhauser F. A nevelés alanyi feltételei, Telosz Kiadó, Budapest, 2000

www.wikipedia.com

I read it, I thought it was interesting...

I read this article on http://www.origo.hu/. I thought it was interesting. Sorry, I did not translate it to English but I have tried the translator gadget and it was ok, so I suggest to use that.

Amerikai kutatók újabb lépést tettek abban a kísérletsorozatban, amelynek célja, hogy a lebénult emberek visszanyerhessék mozgásképességüket. Az agyból mesterségesen átirányított elektromos jelekkel képesek voltak mozgásra bírni majmok megbénított csuklóját.

Korábban más kutatóknak már sikerült majmokat betanítani arra, hogy egy robotkart irányítsanak az agyukból érkező elektromos jelekkel. Az agyat egy úgynevezett agy-számítógép illesztőegységgel (interfésszel) kapcsolták össze a robotkarral. A cselekvések - például fogás - végrehajtásához több tíz neuron (idegsejt) aktivitását kellett dekódolni, ami jelentős számítási kapacitást vett igénybe.
A mostani kísérletben Chet Moritz és munkatársai a seattle-i Washington Egyetemen hasonló jeleket használtak arra, hogy egyetlen neuronból származó közvetlen elektromos ingert juttassanak el egy megbénított izomhoz.
Először egy sor elektródát ültettek két makákó majom agyának mozgatókérgébe. Minden egyes elektróda egyetlen neuronból vett föl jeleket. Ezeket a jeleket külső áramkörön át egy számítógéphez vezették. A neuronból érkező jelek egy kurzort vezéreltek a képernyőn. A majmokat betanították, hogy csupán az agyműködésükkel vezéreljék a kurzort.
A kutatók ezután helyi érzéstelenítő szer befecskendezésével ideiglenesen megbénították a majmok csuklóizmait. Majd az elektródákból érkező jeleket átirányították, hogy elektromos ingerlést adjon a csuklóizmoknak. Azt tapasztalták, hogy a majmok ugyanazon agytevékenységükkel képesek voltak irányítani a korábban megbénított végtagokat. A majmok kevesebb mint egy óra alatt megtanulták a béna végtagok működtetését. A csoport a kísérlet eredményeit a Nature folyóirat legújabb számában tette közzé.
A neuron korábbi funkciója nem befolyásolta, hogy "betanítható" volt-e egy adott izom működtetésére vagy sem. "Bármelyik neuron egyaránt jól használható volt, attól függetlenül, hogy eredetileg kapcsolatban állt-e ezen izmok aktivitásával. Ez drámai mértékben megnöveli egy jövőbeli neurális művégtag működtetéséhez számba vehető neuronok mennyiségét" - jelentette ki Moritz.
A gyakorlati felhasználásra még várni kell
A klinikai próbákig azonban még valószínűleg sok év telik el. Bár a majmok mozgásteljesítménye jelentősen növekedett a gyakorlattal, a szükséges hosszú távú elektróda-implantátumok még alkalmatlanok az emberek számára.
Ráadásul egy izom mozgatása egy neuronnal nagyon jól végrehajtható, de egész cselekvések vagy koordinált mozgások létrehozása sokkal nagyobb kihívást jelent - figyelmeztet Andrew Schwartz, a pennsylvaniai Pittsburgh-i Egyetem kutatója, aki a fent említett robotkaros kísérletet végezte a majmokkal. "A több ízület működését igénylő mozgások nagyságrendekkel bonyolultabbak, mint ez a demonstráció."
Az eredmény mégis fontos lépés ezen a területen. Az agy és az izmok közti közvetlen összeköttetés kialakítása megszabadít a nagy kapacitást igénylő komputeres számításoktól, ami a jelek dekódolásához szükséges a robotkarok vagy más művégtagok működtetésénél. A mostani kísérletben csupán egy elemmel működtetett, mobiltelefon nagyságú chipre támaszkodtak, és a jövőben ez minden bizonnyal még kisebb lesz. "Már léteznek olyan kicsi elektronikák, amelyek elférnek egy ingzsebben, és néhány év múlva remélhetőleg olyanok is lesznek, amelyeket be lehet ültetni a bőr alá, akár egy pacemakert" - mondja Moritz.

A cikket az alábbi címen találja az [origo]-ban:
http://origo.hu/tudomany/20081016-majmok-agytevekenyseggel-mozgattak-megbenult-izmaikat.html

“Multidisciplinarity” in Conductive Education

I have a very busy 10 days behind me. Finally, I took my opportunity to sit down today and put these thoughts into a brief post. I was planning to do it since I saw A. Sutton’s blog earlier this month.

Andrew has posted an interesting note on „multidisciplinary” in his blog on 3th of October. He wrote the following regarding to Interconnections Multidisciplinary Information Service:

"I personally have never really understood the concept of ‘multidisciplinary’ as manifest in public services in the United Kingdom. The phrase ‘jack of all trades...’ springs to mind. More formally, I wonder, either there is a place and need for a ‘discipline’ or there is not. It is interesting therefore to see critical comment arise from within the paradigm itself.

If this is an emerging trend, then it is one meriting careful monitoring by the conductive movement."


This post caught my attention as I was lucky enough to work just about seven years in multidisciplinary team settings in Conductive Education. They were two different settings in two parts of the world but the similar idea of using CE. As I first joined to a multidisciplinary team I accepted at the beginning the idea of combining CE with something else which was meant to enhance the quality of the local service and I really wanted to give my best as a professional to it. As time passed by and I had worked some years through in this sorts of model I realised the real downsides of multidisciplinary as well.

(Why) Does Conductive Education need multidisciplinary setting?

It is a fact that multidisciplinary Conductive Education initiatives can be mostly found out of Hungary. It undeniably is because of the difficulty of adaption of CE into those places where the local system has not been able to recognise CE as a profession and the CE professionals. Therefore, founders find it easier to fit CE to the local system through multidisciplinary way. In this context, multidisciplinary meant to facilitate the business, operation, sustainability of CE on abroad but not to change the principals of CE or challenge a new system. Thus, answering the question from above: I believe CE does not necessarily need to be mixed with different methods.

Why?

All aspects of, and the nature of CE have been written in many papers, books and they can be found at many other sources, so I do not wish to deal with this. However, if one takes the opportunity and time to read those information or have already known the conductive pedagogy system can tell that CE is quite flexible in many areas and anyway, it is changing towards the better service. It is exactly because of its philosophical, pedagogical, holistic nature; making the whole kind of character.

My seven years experience in multidisciplinary CE service let me to assume that CE multidisciplinary settings are useful to look at, or to learn from but they do not seem to be providing a more successful habilitation, rehabilitation, education or motor-development service comparing to the “original” CE approach. One of the well defined reasons why that happens is that those services missing out the power of the teamwork of “holistic” trained conductors, the similar point of view of approach.

My conclusion is therefore that one can understand why certain initiatives move towards multidisciplinary out of Hungary but it would be ideal to put more effort to keep the well developed system as it is and modify it to local needs in between sense boundaries.

Please feel free to argue with this opinion!

Link to Andrew Sutton's blog:

http://www.andrew-sutton.blogspot.com/

Work related injuries in CE

Every profession has a kind of risk of injuries. Being a Conductor is a big challenge of helping people out of their disabilities however, it has a high risk to be injured due to the nature of the profession.

I have a soft tissue problem recently, so this made me to think about the following:

Sore shoulders, aching wrists, arms, legs or feet. Bad backs. These aches and pains aren't just the result of getting older :) or being out of shape. They are often related to our work, especially as a Conductive Education Teacher.
Many conductors are suffering of soft tissue injuries as a result of their work.
These injuries usually sneak up on us. Conductors often get on with their jobs, trying to "work through" the pain or ignore night time tingling in their hands, arms, backs, etc. But the injuries can become very painful and, sometimes permanent, disabilities. Depending on what is injured, other tissues can be affected.

What are these injuries called?

cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs);
overexertion/overuse injuries; and
repetitive strain injuries (RSIs).

Specific names include:

carpal tunnel syndrome (nerves going through wrist);
degenerative disk disease (backbone);
epicondylitis (tennis or golfer's elbow);
myofascial pain/myalgia (tissue covering muscles);
rotator cuff syndrome (shoulder tendons);
sciatica (nerve to leg from discs);
tendinitis (tendons); and
tenosynovitis/de Quervain's (tendon sheath/covering).

What makes it hurt?

Work-related soft tissue injuries can be caused by these risk factors, often working in combination:
repetition: especially for fine movements, strange positions;
force: lifting, pulling, pushing, contact pressure;
posture: awkward and static (in one position);
work environment: temperature, light, noise, humidity; and
work organisation: how hard, fast and long people work, how much say they have about their work and the equipment/tools they use, and social relations at work.

Conductors have a beautiful job title but their actual work can be very risky. Conductors' jobs often involve lots of repetition, precision work, static and/or awkward positions and tasks that are heavier than they look.

Work organization affects all other factors. For example:

Time pressure is important when dealing with people; packing equipment can increase the amount of repetition and force used if you have no breaks or time to do the job properly.
Many conductors lack control about everything from how they do their job to how long they have to, dare to do it.
The nature of CE and lack of proper equipment forces to put themselves at risk of back injuries while moving people.
Lack of respect or stereotyping are additional stressors, combined with generally lower wages.

Studies show that being stressed by things like this increases the odds of having some soft tissue injuries, especially for the back, neck and shoulders.

How are soft tissue injuries prevented?

Prevention is the best way to tackle any health and safety problem. For soft tissue injuries, prevention is based on ergonomics - the science and art of fitting the job and the workplace to workers.

For this we need:
fully-adjustable surfaces, equipment and work places;
a choice of tools for different hands and tasks;
accessible mechanical devices for lifting people or materials;
fully-adjustable chairs or sit-stand stools; and
to prevent stress by such things as:
having more say about your job and how you do it;
doing a variety of tasks;
reasonable schedules, hours of work and breaks;
adequate staff levels; and
proper training about the job and using ergonomic equipment.

How can we deal with a work-related soft tissue injury?

Take care of yourself:

See your doctor about getting time off, "light duty," splints, referrals.
Go to a specialist (rheumatologist, physical/rehab medicine) or occupational health centre.
Investigate massage, physiotherapy, chiropratic treatments, exercise (eg. yoga, Pilates, Alexander technique, Tai Chi).
Take your breaks, walk at lunch and/or do exercises on the job (eg. shoulder rolls, stretching).