I like this

During the holydays I analyse research dialogues on CE and I liked the following bit because it made me to remember the Muppet Show’s two old men, Statler & Waldorf, who occupy the box seat at every show and heckle the performances.
Turns out, during the dialogue people tried to criticise CE and after two-three minutes chat they arrived their conclusion: We can’t find anything bad to say about it really.
Isn’t it a nice compliment?

Pedagogiai vita

Az elmult harom evben uj jellegu pedagogiai vita bontakozott ki Michael Winter Hoff: Miert valnak zsarnokka a gyermekeink? cimu konyve nyoman (2008).
A mai szulok es tanarok tobbnyire partnerkapcsolatra torekszenek a gyerekekkel, hogy szabadon fejlodjenek, es ne kossek oket guzsba ertelmetlen szabalyok. Winter Hoff ugy veli, hogy ezekbol a gyerekekbol tiszteletet nem ismero, alkalmazkodasra es beilleszkedesre keptelen fiatalok lesznek...
Ket masik konyv kovette az elsot 2009-ben es 2010-ben is.
A vita nem csitul.
A konduktiv pedagogia szempontjabol aligha valtoztat barmit is Winterhoff felvetese, ugyanakkor valoban ambivalens gondolatokat valtanak ki muvei.

Az emlitett publikaciok:

Warum unsere Kinder Tyrannen werden: Oder: Die Abschaffung der Kindheit, Unter Mitarbeit von Carsten Tergast. Gütersloher Verlagshaus; Gütersloh 2008, ISBN 978-3579069807. Auch als Hörbuch, ISBN 978-3579076256
Tyrannen müssen nicht sein: Warum Erziehung nicht reicht - Auswege, In Zusammenarbeit mit Carsten Tergast. Gütersloher Verlagshaus; Gütersloh 2009, ISBN 978-3579068992
Persönlichkeiten statt Tyrannen: Oder: Wie junge Menschen in Leben und Beruf ankommen, Von Michael Winterhoff und Isabell Thielen. In Zusammenarbeit mit Carsten Tergast. Gütersloher Verlagshaus; Gütersloh 2010, ISBN 978-3-579-06867-1

Matthew Schiefer's research

I came across with the research interest of Matthew Schiefer , Ph.D. Biomedical Engineer at Cleveland University, Ohio, USA. His current research involves developing realistic nerve models using detailed histological studies. These models are used to guide the development of neural interfaces which will ultimately restore one or more functions in paralyzed individuals. Apparently, he ( his team) was able to start movements of paralysed lower extremities with only pressing a machine’s bottom. The future has arrived. I am sure this method will develop very successful later. As a conductor I never felt that such things would jeopardise CE as a profession, hence it opens the future…

Konduktor - Konduktor-pedagogus (?)

Nemregiben -nehany napja- az egyik kozeli angol tanar ismerosom, arrol kerdezett, hogy van-e kulonbseg, s ha van, mi a kulonbseg konduktor es konduktor pedagogus (conductive education teacher) kozott. Hirtelenjeben annyit valaszoltam neki, hogy mas a kepzesuk, a konduktorok nem kapnak pedagogiai kepzest es igy nem is tanithatnak iskolaban. Mire o azt ecsetelte nekem, hogy igen am, de hat az angol tanarok nagy tobbsege sem pedagogus a szo (magyar) szoros ertelmeben, hiszen inkabb tantargyat tanitanak nekik, nem pedagogiat, vagy tantargypedagogiat, es a pszichologiai kepzesuk sem fordit figyelmet korspecifitasra. Azaz, nem minden “teacher” pedagogus. A pedagogiat mostanaban kezdik “felfedezni” Angliaban. Tehat akkor felmerult a kerdes , hogy mi az, amit a konduktor nem ugy csinal, mint a konduktor- pedagogus. Erre azt valaszoltam, hogy valoszinuleg a neveles pszichologiaja es technologiaja mas a konduktor-pedagogusnal - felteve, hogy van hozza erzeke.

Szemelyes tapasztalatom, hogy az idosebb magyarorszagi konduktor generacio tulajdonkeppen, ha nem is kapott pedagogiai kepzest , a legtobb esetben megis meglehetosen jo pedagogiai erzekkel vegeztek, vegzik konduktiv pedagogiai feladatukat. Ennek oka valoszinuleg kulturalis es tarsadalmi gyokerekben keresendo. Tantargyak tanitasara persze ok nem is igen vallalkoztak. Mas kerdes azonban, hogy a biminghami NICE-ban vegzett konduktorok pedagogusok e. A kepzes alapjan termeszetesen nem, igy tehat ok sem tanithatnak iskolban, vagy azon kivul. Ebben az esetben szemelyes tapasztalatom , hogy a NICE kepzesben reszesult konduktorok kozott joval nagyobb a “szoras” azt illetoen, hogy milyen pedagogiai erzekkel es vagy tudassal kozelitenek meg egy-egy csoportot vagy szemelyt. Jelenleg harom NICE kepzett konduktorral dolgozom egyutt es nagyon jo velemennyel vagyok roluk. De volt ez maskepp is a karrierem soran, igy a kerdes mas pontra navigalhat minket. Szukseg van e pedagogiai es hozzateszem, mert nem mindenutt jar egyutt, pszichologiai kepzesre, ha konduktorokat nevelunk?

The 7th

Most of the British CE bloggers are gone to the 7th World Congress in Hong Kong. I am jealous a bit of course because I took part in 4 from the last 6 World Congresses and really enjoyed being there communicate about CE in many different ways. It is an uplifting feeling to meet with old and new friends and listen to interesting presentations about CE related topics. I will miss all of those during the next few days but in my mind I will be somewhere there in Hong Kong too. It is a great luck if someone works to such CE centre which is available to pay for the trip, accommodation and fees. I think many of the “ordinary” conductors are not able to visit the Hong Kong congress due to financial and time difficulties. I am one of them so the best thing I can do is to follow CE bloggers' written reports. You, who are there, please do not hesitate to give us full reports about everything you can experience in Hong Kong. I have already read on Facebook that the local temperature is 25C. So, keep reporting…

Roma Lear's works and CE activities

"Roma Lear is a Froebel-trained teacher and started her career by working with children in hospital wards. Her innate creativity and enthusiasm led her to devise toy and games to amuse children with specific needs. She established a toy library, play groups and became a home tutor. Roma is an international expert on the subject of homemade toys and play ideas for children with disabilities and lectures worldwide."

She has published plenty of good books full of very useful play ideas we can implement to CE activities. I guess many of you know her long time ago but as I was planning for one of my groups last night I came to the idea to mention her in my blog. Maybe she is new for someone out there.
Google,Amazon her name for her works.

What is CE?

I have been analysing research dialogues. One the clients describes CE:


"It’s a bit like a wake up call really. It’s been flashing lights –wake up and think about life, about thing being, this life."

Isn't it energising?

The workshop went well

The workshop went well. Despite that many people were hold back because of sickness the workshop was really enjoyable and felt very familiar. Apart from our (The Legacy Rainbow house) attempt there were others, NICE, Rainbow Centre, Nottingham who introduced their way. We all come up with different documentation system ideas what actually well demonstrated how different we are in this area but it also felt that all of those were useful and all of them had a great reason or logic being so. Luckily, we were able to find some similarities as well. Now we agreed, as a first step, that we are going to work towards at least to unify our terminology in the next year, or so.

Coding System for Assessing Client and Note writing in Conductive Education

I have been living in the UK for seven years but before I was here I had already realised how CE documentation systems were not unified in the UK and strangely the CE terminology also differ from each other from place to place. I personally have made some efforts to raise awareness about this issue and do some acts towards working out a reasonable unification when I was invited to take part in founding a “professional body” which group came to known as CEPEG in 2005. On one occasion at an early CEPEG conference in 2006 I presented a system just to open free discussion about the possibility to find the way how we could use similar documentation strategy and terminology. People seemed to agree that some unifying was necessary but the subject was not taken forward and the desired change did not happen. Since, we did not agree on a unified CE documentation system and terminology. In the last two years Melanie Brown, director of NICE, looked into the possibilities of using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health known as ICF and a researcher group started to work on finding the most relevant way of its use in CE earlier this year.
Furthermore, since 2005 under the umbrella of CEPEG, a conductor’s professional group - PCA - has born, too. The Professional Conductors Association organises a workshop once a year where the members try to change expertise and develop their services. This body is going to have its next workshop tomorrow on 20th November 2010.

Because of our documentation system and (the use of) terminology are still not similar throughout the UK my present colleagues and myself will have an attempt to come up with a new layout for the documentation (which recognising the system and structure of ICF and can be linked together) and a terminology and release them for professional discussion. I hope this time we step a bit further.

I share the terminology part below, you might have an opinion on it…

Coding System for Assessing Client and Note writing in Conductive Education

Assessing and Note writing are specific in CE. The present coding system is for explaining the amount of physical assistance the client requires for a particular task, or part of task, or function.
Any assistance, help is professionally regarded as facilitation in CE.
Coding categories:
Independent
The client can complete a task, or part of a task, or function without any physical facilitation from an individual or device in safe manner and within a reasonable time frame.
Distant Supervision
The client can complete a task, or part of the task, or function within fifty feet distance in safe manner and within reasonable time frame.
Close Supervision
The client can complete a task, or part of the task, or function within reaching distance in safe manner and within reasonable time frame.
Modified Independent
The client can complete the task, or part of the task, or function if given an assistive device (i.e. equipment to enable completion of activity) in safe manner and within a reasonable time frame.
Set Up Situation
Certain portions of task/function are completed in order to enable the client to perform the expected action (i.e. the rubbish bin is brought near to the individual in order to allow him to put waste in it).
Independent and assisted performance is often better /promptly available alongside with verbal facilitation. Verbal facilitations are:
Verbal Prompting
The client requires verbal prompting without physical contact or physical contact accompanied by verbal facilitation.
Consistent Verbal Prompting
Repeated prompting required during the task or function.
Occasional Verbal Prompting
4-6 prompts required to complete the task or function.
Minimal Verbal Prompting
Specified number of prompts under 4 required
Rhythmical Intention:
The client actively take part in trying or executing a task or function and receives and/or vocalising with a verbally/auditvely framed unit within a given time frame (i.e. counting until five, repeat a sentence, sing a song).
Verbal Correction
The client requires correcting his way of performing task or function.
Manual Prompt
The client requires body contact(s) physical facilitation (assistance) to complete the task or function. The place/area and the way of the manual contact facilitation can be specified with short sentences (i.e. X requires occasional manual prompt by her shoulders /finger touch/ to maintain her balance…)
Minimum (or Minimal) Manual Facilitation
The client requires physical facilitation (assistance) to complete the task or function. The client completes 75% or more of the effort for the task or function. The place/area and the way of the manual contact facilitation can be specified with short sentences (i.e. X requires minimum manual facilitation by her shoulders /holding on her shoulder/ to maintain her balance…).
Moderate Manual Facilitation
The client completes between 50-75% of the effort for the task or function. The place/area and the way of the manual contact facilitation can be specified with short sentences (i.e. X requires moderate manual facilitation to stretch her right leg out /pulling her R knee backwards/ whilst completing a step forward).
Maximum Manual Facilitation
The client completes between 25-50% of the effort for the task or function. The place/area and the way of the manual contact facilitation can be specified with short sentences (i.e. X requires maximum manual facilitation to lift her left arm up to shoulder height /facilitating by her L elbow and wrist to lift and stretch/).
2 or more Maximum Manual Facilitation
The client complete between 25-50% of the effort for the task or function by different body parts. The place/area and the way of the manual contact facilitation can be specified with short sentences (i.e. X requires maximum manual facilitation to lift her left arm up to shoulder height /facilitating by her L elbow and wrist to lift and stretch/ and also requires maximum manual facilitation to maintain her sitting position /holding on her hips and keeping her body on the chair/).
Equipment Facilitation
The client requires or learning to use a specific equipment to complete the task or function. The name and the way of using the equipment should be defined (i.e. X walks pushing a ladder-back chair in front of him holding on the third rang with both hands saying; I push the chair forward 1, I step up with L foot on the first rung 2, I step down 3, I push the chair and shift weight 4, I step up with R foot on the second rung 5, I step down 6, continuously).
Using Assistive Device(s)
The client requires a specific assistive device to complete the task or function. The name, the use of device and the body area where it is used should be specified (i.e. Sitting at the table, X puts a ring on a vertical stick with his right hand / for instance/ independently whilst wearing arm splints on her R arm.
Mechanical Facilitation
Using the facilitation based on the mechanics/physiology of the client’s body
Gravitational Facilitation
Any kind of use of gravity to facilitate the client to achieve the task, or part of the task, or function.

Peto Andras irja Dr. Farkasnak, a New York-i Medical College professzoranak

"Bennem sokan csalodtak. Egyesek azt vartak tolem, hogy kivalo matematikus leszek. Egyesek egy eljovendo nagy magyar koltot lattak bennem, egyesek azt hittek, hogy megmaradok a Pester Lloydnal es nemet nyelvu ujsagiro leszek Budapesten. Masok egy feltoro nemet nyelvu koltocsillagnak tartottak. Masok azt hittek, hogy a tudogyogyaszat fenye leszek. Ket hires becsi klinika hivott meg tanarsegednek. Az Elettani Intezet ki is nevezett tanarsegednek. Semmi sem lettem. Ellenben kalandot kaandra, szenvedest szenvedesre, oromet oromre halmozva eltem, sokszor azt sem tudva, mibol. Ha nagyon megegetett a sors, sebeim begyogyulasaig be-bevonultam egy-egy intezetbe, tudogyogyintezetekbe, fizikoterapias intezetekbe, elemegyogyintezetekbe szegodtem el, mint orvos. Kesobb orvos-iro lettem, orvosi folyoiratszerkeszto, orvosi konyvkiado vezetoje. Kisipari vallalkozasokat tobbszor kezdemenyeztem, Becsben, Parizsban, sot Budapesten is! Parizsban eppen egy orvosi es tudomanyos konyomatost alapitottam, amikor kitort a haboru. Egy baratom felesege keresere jottem Budapestre, es belesodrodtam a mozgasos kezelesbe. Hirneves lettem, es mint gyogytanar fizettem adot. A haboru utan egyik gyogyult betegem bekenyszeritett a Gyogypedagogiai Foiskolara, es innen indult ki, sok nehezseg lekuzdese utan az az intezet, amelyet lattal. Egyre kevesebb idom maradt kalandokra, nokkel, ferfiakkal es targyakkal, valamint az elet kulonleges korulmenyeivel. [.....]

Egy nagyon kivalo es egy kivalo tanitvanyom van, es most jott egy harmadik, akire mar evek ota vartam. A dolog, mely erosen pislogott, tavozasod ota az utobbi hetekben erosen langra kelt. Malaszttal teljes idok voltak ezek, mast nem mondhatok. A spasztikusok kezelese teren donto ujjitasokat vezethettunk be. Azonkivul ugy nez ki, hogy metodikai es az elmeleti anyag lefektetesere is sor kerul. "

Hari Maria: A konduktiv pedagogia tortenete, MPANNI, Budapest, 1997, 73.oldal

It seems I can not avoid English language :)

Thanks for the comment and breaking silence. Yeah, what Andrew says is understandable, it has a clear logic but the world does not work like that. I wrote in Hungarian in my post that what about those many American (USA) discovered ideas were discovered by non American rooted people. Are their theories, machines, etc. regarded as their origin country (culture) was? No, actually, not. Why? Because they acted and implemented their new ideas in US though nobody cares where they are coming from. Andrew, was Arthur Koestler English, Hungarian or Jewish writer? I truly believe that your logic is on a wrong track about the origin of conductive pedagogic. You could give an other title to this topic though: where from or how CE as an idea is developed? It is more than obvious that CE comes from Hungary either you like it or not. This kind of logic could result in the III.WW in two weeks if politics would follow it. Sorry, I got a go, but I hope you read my mind...

Tehat akkor a konduktiv pedogia nem lenne magyar?

Igazsag szerint errol mar beszelgettunk egyszer Andrew Sutonnal, ha emlekezetem nem csal, akkor talan nehany comment erejeig irasban is hozza szoltam ehhez az oltlatehez. Andrew legutobbi bejegyzeseben azt feszegeti, hogy a konduktiv pedagogia igazan nem is magyar, mert... olvassatok el. http://www.conductive-world.info/2010/10/how-hungarian-is-conductive-education.html
Nos maradjunk annyiban, hogy erdekes felvetes. Mit gondoltok a Pizza olasz? A futbal angol? (pedig arab) es sorolhatnam. Nyilvan mindennek meg lehet keresni a gyokeret es fel lehet fedezni, hogy semmi sem fekete-feher kontrasztban szervezodik. Igy tehat, lehet az igaz mind, amit Andrew felsorol Petorol: magyar-osztrak, zsido szarmazas, tehat a nyelv es kultura nyilvan vegyes, viszont teenager koraig magyar teruleten el es erik hatasok. Aztan osztrak allampolgarsag es exisztencia, tanulmanyok, munka. Viszont, a 2. vilaghaboru utan indulo konduktiv pedagogiat masutt nem talalni, csak Magyarorszagon, azaz MO az anyaorszag. Magyar neveltekkel es serultekkel, magyar nevelonokkel es kesobb konduktorokkal, magyar rendszerben es politikai valosagban. Summa summarum: A konduktiv pedagogia Magyaroszagon szuletik, mint intezmenyesitett program es ott is fejlodik egeszen addig, amig aztan ki nem szivarog es mindenutt sajatsagos alakzatot vesz fel masutt a vilagban. Onerzetemet nem serti Andrew felvetese, de eleg meresz gondolatnak tartom, nem ertek vele egyet. Ilyen alapon, szamtalan amerikai talalmanyt, amelyet a vilag amerikainak titulal, nem ismerhetunk el amerikainak, hiszen felfedezojuk, kitalalojuk kulturalis gyokere nem amerikai kozegben keresheto es folytathatnam, de nem teszem, mert azt gondolom ennyi erv eleg is:
A konduktiv pedagogia Magyarorszagon kezdodott es Magyarorszagrol indult foldkoruli utjara, Magyarorszagon lettek kepezve az elso konduktorok es az elso mozgasserultek Mo-n lettek orthofunkciosak. JA, ES a konduktorkepzes is Magyarorszagon kezdodott. Kell ennel tobb?

Hari Maria

Ha csak egy pillanat, mondat erejeig is, de nem telhet ez a nap el ugy, hogy ne gondoljunk ra.

Explicit vagy implicit?

Gondolom mindannyiotokban felmerult mar a kerdes, hogy valyon a konduktiv pedagogia hogyan kepes a motoros dysfunkciot fejleszteni; explicit vagy implicit emlekezet ervenyesul-e. Nyilvan mindahanyan ra is jottunk arra, hogy mindket emlekezet fontos szerepet jatszik az egyenek komplex fejlodese szempontjabol es hogy egyenenkent valtozik az arany mentalis erotol fuggoen a kozponti idegrendszeri serultek koreben.
Explicit emlekezet = tudatos emlekezet, implicit emlekezet = emlekezet tudatossag nelkul.
Mintegy husz, harminc eve kezdtek reszleteseggel kutatni az emlekezet szervezodesenek e ket formajat. A kutatasok egyik fo megallapitasa nem mas, minthogy a explicit es implicit emlekezeti teljesitmenyek disszocialnak, igy tehat agyserulteknel gyakran elofordul, hogy mikozben az explicit emlekezet sullyosan serult, az implicit meglehetosen jol funkcional. Az implicit emlekezet fejlodesere vonatkozo vizsgalatok azt igazoltak, hogy az implicit emlekezet az emlekezeti rendszernek fuggetlen eleme.
Mas vizsgalatok az eletkorfuggo elteresekre is felhivtak a figyelmet. A perceptualis printing hatas nagyjabol azonos idosebb es fiatalabb gyerekeknel, az idosebbek azonban joval jobb teljesitmenyt mutatnak az explicit emlekezeti feladatokban.

Reaction on Susie Mallett's Makarenko post

A nevelok kozossegenek, az egyuttmunkalkodo fejleszto team-nek celszerunek kell lennie, amely tudatos hatasrendszert kepes kiepiteni, amelyben a resztvevo neveltek megfelelo fejlesztese biztositva van. Ahol a nevelok kozossege nem kepes megfeleloen egyutt munkalkodni ott a nevelesi eredmeny korlatozott manifesztalodasa prognosztizalhato. A konduktiv pedagogiai feladat csak a neveltek aktiv kozremukodesevel oldhato meg. A csoport fejlodesenek szintjet az hatarozza meg, hogy a resztvevok onallosaga, ontevekenysege, valamint a konduktorok aktivitasa kozott mekkora a letrejovo hanyados. Makarenko "parhuzamos pedagogia rahatasrol" ir, ertekezik a szocialista pedagogia szellemeben. A 'szocialista pedagogia' kozvetlen es letrehozo ideologiaja a konduktiv pedagogia rendszernek akar tetszik ez nekunk, vagy sem. A konduktiv pedagogia a szocialista pedagogia bazisan jott letre es fejlodott, ha jol sejtem egeszen a kozelmultig. A konduktiv pedagogia rendszere nem kulonbozik a szocialista oktatasi es nevelesi rendszer elmeletetol, hanem annak tovabbgondolt, tovabbfejlesztett valtozata kulonbozo serulesekkel elo embertarsaink szamara. A rendszer egymassal kolcsonhatasban, kapcsolatban levo elemek egyuttese. Ilyen ertelemben tehat a fejlesztes, neveles tagabban es szukebben ertelmezve is valamifele rendszer. Tehat, a szocialista kozossegfejlesztes elmeletenek ismerete tagadhatatlanul hasznos a ma praktizalo konduktorok szamara is. Sot, meglehetosen lenyugozo elmeny azt atlatni, felfedezni, ahogyan Peto Andras kepes volt a 'vezetett', de egyeni tapasztalatok utjan alapulo neurologiai fejleszto elkepzeleseit trasformativ csoportos kepzesbe agyazva kialakitani. Nyilvan mas valasztasa nem igen lehetett a masodik vilaghaborut kovetoen kialakulo majd megerosodott kommuista, szocialista tarsadalmi rendszeren belul.

A bipolaris nevelesi kapcsolat feltetelezi a felek flexibilis, kolcsonos respekten alapulo kozos pedagogiai tevekenyseget. Aki csak korlatok kozott, melyrehato erzelmi azonusulas nelkul, hivatalos szabalyozassal, magasan, vagy kevesebe, de a neveltek fole emelkedve kepes csak nevelomunkat vegezni, az sohasem lesz kepes a konduktiv pedagogia altalal elkepzelt magas minosegu kooperaciora. Tovabba a konduktorok es neveltek egyuttmukodesenek minden pillanataban elnie szukseges annak a torekvesnek, hogy hogyan oldhatnank meg feladatainkat alkotobb modon, mindenki reszvetelevel, a neveltek aktivitasanak fokozasaval.

Magyarul erdekel valakit?

Ezt feljegyzest mintegy probakent irom. Magyar nyelven. Marcius ota nagyon suruek a napjaim. Napi minimum ket orat utazom autoval; a lakasunktol a munkahelyig es vissza, heti haromszor plusz egy orat. Ez, es persze a munkaval eltoltott ido jelentosen megkurtitja a csaladdal toltott idomet, a szabadidos tevekenysegeimet, amelyek termeszetesen a blogirasra es az interneten eltoltott idore is jelentosen kihatnak.
Megis azt kell feljegyeznem, hogy soha ilyen jol nem ereztem magam, mint konduktor. Soha ilyen jo emberi kozegben, teamben nem dolgoztam meg. A szemelyisegek passzolasa, az egyetertes es vagy nem ertes hanyadosa, azok kommunikalasa, a valos munkavegzessel toltott energia nem masra valo pazarlasa szinte teljesen kulonbozik az elozo munkahelyi tapasztalataimtol. Csikszentmihalyi ota a vilag jol ismeri a "flow" munka-pszichologiai jelentoseget, de ismernunk sem szukseges az o elmeletet, hiszen mindannyian tapasztalhatjuk, ha minden passzol, jol kijovunk a koroluttunk levo emberekkel, akkor a mindennapi nehez munka is boldogan eltoltott idonek tunik.
Hangsulyoznom sem kell mennyire fontos ez a mi munkank soran. Heti 80 mozgasserult szemellyel talalkozom, dolgozom kulonbozo csoportokban es egyeni foglalkozasok alkalmaval. Ez a rendszer termeszetesen messze elter a napi rendszereseggel fejlesztett iskolai csoportoketol, a felkeszules is joval nehezebb, megis, itt ezen a helyen erzem magam hosszu ido ota nagyon kellemesen. Ki latja az elonyet? Hat persze, hogy mindannyiunkra jo hatassal van, de a foglalkoztatottak (gyerekek, felnottek) azok, akik a legtobbet profitaljak.

Ma is nagyszeruen ereztem magam, a terveim nem valosultak meg 100%-ban, de nagymertekben igen. Ot kisiskolas fiubol allo csoportban (athetozis 1, quadriplegia 4) tanultunk a felelossegerzetrol az egymasra valo figyelesrol es egymasert valo onfelaldozasrol.
Kozben fekvo, egyeni allas-jaras, ulo, felhasznalas: mosni tanultunk (mozgasreszleteire lebontva), mostunk, kiteregettunk. A gyerekek onmagukert, a tobbiekert es persze miertunk is a maximumot probaltak kihozni magukbol - azthiszem sikerult. Boldogan es onbizalommal telve jottunk mindannyian haza.

Finally I got my internet back

A historical moment has arrived this late afternoon when I got back my internet access. How lovely it is after almost two months. I thank this luck to George Faludy.

Exactly two years ago, on 22 September 2008, I remembered in my blog on George Faludy, one of my favorite Hungarian poets, who was born on 22 September 1910. He would be 100 years old today. I got miraculously the chance to remember him today as my internet is back.

Egyik legfontosabb uzenete szamomra, hogy semmilyen korulmenyek kozott sem erdemes gazembernek lenni.

Si mortalis immortalis Georg Faludy talis.

For all those who were interested in the last post

Briefly reflecting on your request towards the expert workshop on research and CE which was held in June this year herewith I share the delegate list (see below), and in some weeks, I will share Dr. Miklos Feher’s presentation, too.

I have to disagree with the opinion that the event was held in secret or incognito. As you can see from the list it was quite international attended. I think the main problem lies somewhere else namely there is no ONE available official CE professional forum, website, magazine, etc. published by the leading CE Associations or/and Institutions where these information could officially flow.

Secondly, as we all aware of it, there is no consensus on recognising CE, no consensus of understanding CE, there is no consensus of use of CE pretty often within the borders of the same country and not to mention worldwide.
These are very serious problems. I guess this is a fatal situation. We cannot turn the history around. I wish we could!
So..., things happen isolated and everyone can do anything.....
The way out? Maybe You know it dear reader better, so give voice to your thoughts and vocalise it on blogs.

The list of delegate:

Susanne Carlsson Pre-school teacher Bräcke Diakoni, Förskolan Stegen
SWEDEN

Laszlo Szogeczki Director of
Senior CE Teacher Independent Conductive Education Services, PhD student,
UK

Ivan Su Corporate Programme Co-ordinator
SAHK
HONG KONG

Susan Effgen Professor University of Kentucky
USA

Zsuzsi Olexa Conductor, PhD student
Pető Institute
HUNGARY

Miklós Fehér MD Kisbér
HUNGARY

Leena Airaksinen Principal Ruskeasuo School Developmental Centre for the Disabled
FINLAND

John FitzGerald Consultant Ontario March of Dimes
CANADA

Tony Best Chief Executive Percy Hedley Foundation
UK

Anne Coates Head of Physiotherapy Percy Hedley School
UK

Mel Brown
Director & Senior conductor National Institute for Conductive Education
UK

Jude Bek Research Assistant National Institute for Conductive Education
UK

Theresa Kinnersley Conductor National Institute for Conductive Education
UK

Hilde T Myrhaug Research Fellow Oslo University
NORWAY

Thorsten Geganwarth Manager ITAgGmbH (Keil-Bastendorff Foundation)
Austria

and ICF again

Because of the wider interest in the subject of the use of ICF in Conductive Education I felt to make a short report about a research seminar was held in June 2010, in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK where an ‘international working party’ has been set up to look at core sets for ICF in CE.
A group of people came together who were interested in, or conducting research on CE at present to discuss their research activities, to share ideas on CE’s current measurement ideas. As part of this exercise, ICF was a main focus to look at and find the core sets for ICF in CE. However, this is very early stages and therefore a great deal of work is still needed....

CE use of ICF (?) Second part

Hypotheses of study:

1. We presume that the adapted version of ICF-CY will be suitable for following the functional condition of children with CP.
2. We presume that in many cases it is the environment rather than their condition that make dysfunctioning persons disabled.
3. We presume that the new tool (ICF-CY) will be suitable to measure improvement in the quality of life which is immeasurable by existing instruments.

Current stage of research:

I made a general ICF-CY-based survey for CP child to show how we can fit the codes
into CE practical work. ( You can see an example in the annexes, annex I.)

I made an ICF-CY-based Assesment Form for CP child what belongs to 292 codes in 8
different areas:

1.Muscle tone 7 codes

2.Sensory organs
- seeing 5 codes
- hearing 5 codes
- swallowing, chewing 5 codes
- other purposeful sensing 4 codes


3.Mobility
- changing and maintaining body position 11 codes
- sitting 3 codes
- standing-walking 16 codes
- manipulation 13 codes
~ writing 3 codes
- communication 25 codes


4. Mentality
- global mental function 15 codes
- temperament and personality functions 8 codes
- energy and drive functions 3 codes
- attention functions 4 codes
- memory functions 3 codes
- psychomotor functions 5 codes
- emotional functions 3 codes
- thought functions 5 codes
- general tasks and demands 8 codes
- interpersonal interactions 19 codes


5. Self-care
- washing oneself 9 codes
- toileting 5 codes
- dressing 6 codes
- eating 6 codes
- household tasks 4 codes


6. Recreation and leisure 15 codes


7. Enviromental factors
- products and technology 15 codes
- air qality 2 codes
- support and relationships 8 codes
- attitudes 9 codes
- services, systems and policies 7 codes

+ 8. Learning and applying knowledge (for school ages children)
Basic learning
- copying 10 codes
- rehearsing 2 codes
- learning to read 2 codes
- learning to write 2 codes
- learning to calculate 2 codes
Applying knowledge
- focusing attention 2 codes
- thinking 2 codes
- reading 2 codes
- writing 2 codes
- calculating 2 codes
- solving simple problems 1 code
- solving complex problems 1 code
- making decisions 1 code
Education 5 codes
(You can see a short example in the annexes, annex II.)


Budapest, 15.06.2010.



ANNEXES

Annex I.

General ICF-CY-based survey for CP child


Personal factors

 Name: Ch. E. Personal
 Sexuality: female factors
 DOB:12.11.1996.
 To ethnic: black
 Bringing up: adopted
 Mother’s name: J. E. (Kenya)
 Father’s name: W. E. (Switzerland)
 Live: Switzerland
 Diagnosis: DPL, more effected on the left side
 Weight at birth: 1500g
 Weeks of gestation : 28
 Family anamnesis (life history): no information
 Inclination to fits: -
 Medication: -
 Allergy: -
 Operation (surgery): tracheotomia in 1998.
 Previous treatment: fisikoth.,ergoth.,hypoth., swimming, CE


General description

 Generally age-appropriate body size, her lower body is overweight a bit. Her feet are shorts and showed deformity, that is why she can not walk barefoot.
 She dribble.
 She is a friendly and happy girl, but a real teenager, who has sometimes wavering mood.
 She attends a special school, grade 5. in her home.

Body functions

b1263.1 Psychic stabiliy
b1266.1 Confidence (because of dribble)
b1302.2 Appetite
b1600.1 Form of thought

b1644.1 Insight (fatness)
b1646.1 Problem-solving
b1721.1 Complex calculation
b28015.1 Pain in lower limb (barefoot)
b5104.2 Salivation
b7203.3 Mobility of tarsal bones
b7304.2 Power of muscles of all limbs
b770.2 Gait pattern functions (spastic gait)

b830.1 Other functions of the skin
(sweating, resulting body odour)

Activities and participation

d2402.1 Handling responsibilities
d4101.2 Squatting (standing up from this p.)
d4152.2 Maintaining a kneeling position
d4154.3 Maintaining a standing position
d4301.4 Carrying in the hands (without stick)
d4303.0 Carrying on shoulders, hip and back (backpack)
d4351.2 Kicking
d465.2 Moving around using equipment (stick)
Self-care
d5203.3 Caring for fingernails
d5204.4 Caring for toenails
d5402.2 Putting on footwear

Enviromental factors

e1201.+3 Assistive products and technology for personal indoor and outdoor
mobility and transportation (stick)
e1401.+3 Assistive products and technology for culture, recreation and sport
(trycykle for long distance)
e1500.+4 Design, construction and building products and technology for
entering and exiting buildings for public use (Switzerland)
e1501.+4 Indoor (lifts)
e1550.+4 Buildings for private use (home for handicapped)
e310.+4 Immediate family (adoptive parents)
e320.+3 Friends
e325.+3 Acquaintances, peers, colleagues, neighbours and community
members (special school)
e345.0 Strangers
e445.1 Individual attitudes of strangers (handicapped)
e460.1 Societal attitudes (black skin)
e5551.+4 Association and organizational services (summer camp for
handicapped)
e5750.+4 General social support services (financing conductive education)

Annex II.

ICF-CY-based Assesment Form for CP child (first part of it)



CODE NUMBER DESIGNATION COMMENT
Muscle tone:
b7350.
Isolated muscles
b7351. One limb
b7352. One side of body (hemi)
b7353. Lower half of body
b7354. All limbs
b7355. Trunk (back)
b7356. Whole body
Others:
Sensory organs:

Seeings:
b21000. Binocular acuity of distant
b21001. Monocular …
b21002. Binocular acuity of near
b21003. Monocular …
d110. Watching
Others:
Hearing:
b2300. Sound detection
b2301. Sound discrimination
b2302. Localisation of soundsource
b2303. Lateralization of sound
d115. Listening
Others:
Swalloing, chewing:
b5101. Biting
b5102. Chewing
b5103. Mani. of food in the mouth
b51050. Oral swalloing
b5106. Vomiting
Others:
Other purposeful sensing
d1200. Mouthing
d1201. Touching
d1202. Smelling
d1203. Tasting
Others:




MOBILITY


CODE NUMBER DESIGNATION COMMENT
Changing and maintaining body position:
d4100. Lying down
d4101. Squatting
d4102. Kneeling
d4107. Rolling over
d4150. Maintaining a lying positio
d4151. Maint. a squatting position
d4152. Maint. a kneeling position
d4155. Maint. a head position
d4201. Transferring os. while lying
d4550. Crawling
d4551. Climbing
Others:
Sitting:
d4103. Sitting
d4153. Maint. a sitting position
d4200. Transferring os. while sit.
Others:
Standing-walking: Equipment needed
d4104. Standing
d4105. Bending
d4106. Weight shifting
d4154. Maint. a standing position
d4301. Carrying in the hands
d4302. Carrying in the arms
d4303. Carrying on back, shoulder
d4500. Walking short distances
d4501. Walking long distances
d4502. Walking on diff. surfaces
d4503. Walking around obstacles
d4552. Running
d4553. Jumping
d4600. Mov. around within home
d4601. Mov. other than home
d4602. Mov. around outside
Others:



CODE NUMBER DESIGNATION COMMENT
Manipulation:
d4300. Lifting
d4305. Putting down objects
d4400. Picking up
d4401. Grasping
d4402. Manipulating
d4403. Releasing
d4450. Pulling
d4451. Pushing
d4452. Reaching
d4453. Turning or twisting hands
d4454. Throwing
d4455. Catching
d446. Fine foot use
Writing
d1450. Acquiring writ. implements
d1451. Acqu. symbols, char., alph.
d1452. Acqu. words and phrases
Others:
Communication:
b3100. Production of voice
b3101. Quality of voice
b320. Articulation functions
b3300. Fluency of speech
b3301. Rhythm of speech
b3302. Speed of speech
b3303. Melody of speech
b3400. Production of notes
d1330. Acqu. single words, symbol
d1331. Combining words into phr.
d1332. Acquiring syntax
d3100. Responding to human voice
d3101. Simple spoken messages
d3102. Complex spoken messages
d330. Speaking
d331. Pre-talking
d332. Singing
d3350. Producing body language
d3351. Prod. signs and symbols
d3352. Prod. drawings, photogr.
d3503. Conversing with 1 person
d3504. Con. with many people
d3600. Using telecommuni. devices phone, computer, telex m.
d3601. Using writing machines typewriter, computer
d3602. Using communic. technique reading lips
Others:

CE use of ICF (?)

The use of ICF is getting more common in the 'medical world' all over the world by now. Strangely, the Britons are not very much keen using it anywhere. ICF can be a useful measurement basis system since it views human in its complexity (just like CE) the person as a whole (just like Peto).

The possibility of reasonable use of ICF for the documentation of CE has been considered for a while by different CE service providers mostly in Europe and has been discussed at a research seminar in UK too.

Zsuzsanna Olexa one of the Hungarian trained conductors who has been working at the Peto Institute, Budapest and currently is a PhD student has chosen ICF as thesis subject:

Development of a common language to serve as a scientific basis in conductive education, with the help of the International Classification of Functioning (ICF)
and its Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY)

I am glad to announce that I have the permission from Zsuzsa to publish her work for the very first time here on my blog.

You will be able to read the whole work here in parts.

Development of a common language to serve as a scientific basis in conductive education, with the help of the International Classification of Functioning (ICF)
and its Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY)

by Zsuzsanna Olexa Józsefné



(The Andras Pető Institute of Conductive Education and Conductor Training College; Doctoral School of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Education and Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary)

The mission of the Pető Institute is to show individuals suffering from injuries to the central nervous system and their families the way to a full life and to make society aware of the opportunities to help.
Physician and educator Andras Pető developed his conductive education system in the 1940s. His method opened up a new path for the rehabilitation of children and adults whose motor impairments originate from damage to the central nervous system. His approach was first taught and practised in the predecessor of the institute now named after him. Conductive education (CE) is based on the idea that despite the damage, the nervous system still possesses the capacity to form new neural connections and this ability can be mobilised with the help of a properly guided teaching and learning process. That is the reason why Professor Peto called his education system „conductive”.
Conductive education (CE), a suitable method for habilitating/rehabilitating individuals in any age-group with motor disorders due to central nervous system damage has by now become known all over the world. Practice has proved its effectiveness and thus it has been established outside Hungary as well.
The conductive educators are trained multidisciplinary and therefore they are able to deal with all damaged functions of brain damaged persons. The work in group with group of clients and educate or conduct them how to perform everyday activities.
Several international studies have examined the effectiveness of CE (Rochel and Weber, 1992.; Bairstow, 1993; Reddihough, 1998; Blank and von Voss, 1996-2001). According to these international studies, to our comparative study and to our practical experiences it may be stated that CE is at least as effective as the traditional rehabilitation team (using the Bobath or Vojta method), or in some aspect more effective, achieving higher satisfaction of clients and their carers.
Research into the matter has made it clear that for measuring accurately the performance of individuals with central nervous disorders a very complex, comprehensive measurement tool is essential.

Studying the various methods of measuring and comparing them with the ICF-CY (International Classification of Functioning Children and Youth Version) prepared by the WHO in 2006 I have come to the idea that I should consider adapting a unified international measurement method.


Conductive Education has remained largely untouched by the International Classification of Functioning, concerning the adult population. Internally at least, Conductive Education has not needed this, as it has already implicitly moved on to the next stage, which involves mechanisms for change not just classification. But International Classification of Functioning Children and Youth Version changes in the developing child’ s functioning and performance and the role of enviromental factors are taken into account; applicable in varying health conditions.

The topic of my PhD research on the application of the ICF-CY in Hungary can be regarded as a pioneering effort for to the best of my knowledge the subject is not dealt with on academic level in this country.
The relevance of the International Classification of Functioning Children and Youth Version to conductive education is that the method developed by the WHO makes an all-round assessment of the disabled individual and the supportive or impediment factors of the environment possible. The classification aims to meet the demands of medical, pedagogical and social-occupational rehabilitation and to provide the different rehabilitation professionals with a common language.
Creating an internationally accepted measurement instrument like the ICF-CY, suitable for the objective measuring of the efficiency of conductive education would be of great importance to both the Pető Institute and conductive pedagogy.

ICF - Towards a common language?

THE MODEL OF ICF
Two major conceptual models of disability have been proposed. The medical
model views disability as a feature of the person, directly caused by disease,
trauma or other health condition, which requires medical care provided in the
form of individual treatment by professionals. Disability, on this model, calls for
medical or other treatment or intervention, to 'correct' the problem with the
individual.

The social model of disability, on the other hand, sees disability as a sociallycreated
problem and not at all an attribute of an individual. On the social model,
disability demands a political response, since the problem is created by an
unaccommodating physical environment brought about by attitudes and other
features of the social environment.
On their own, neither model is adequate, although both are partially valid.
Disability is a complex phenomena that is both a problem at the level of a
person's body, and a complex and primarily social phenomena. Disability is
always an interaction between features of the person and features of the overall
context in which the person lives, but some aspects of disability are almost
entirely internal to the person, while another aspect is almost entirely external. In
other words, both medical and social responses are appropriate to the problems
associated with disability; we cannot wholly reject either kind of intervention.
A better model of disability, in short, is one that synthesizes what is true in the
medical and social models, without making the mistake each makes in reducing
the whole, complex notion of disability to one of its aspects.
This more useful model of disability might be called the biopsychosocial model.
ICF is based on this model, an integration of medical and social. ICF provides,
by this synthesis, a coherent view of different perspectives of health: biological,
individual and social.

How can ICF be used?

Because of its flexible framework, the detail and completeness of its
classifications and the fact that each domain is operationally defined, with
inclusions and exclusions, it is expected that ICF, like its predecessor, will be
used for a myriad of uses to answer a wide range of questions involving clinical,
research and policy development issues. (For specific examples of the uses of
ICF in the area of service provision, and the kinds of practical issues that can be
addressed, see the box below.)
ICF Applications
Service Provision
At the individual level
• For the assessment of individuals: What is the person's level of functioning?
• For individual treatment planning: What treatments or interventions can maximize
functioning?
• For the evaluation of treatment and other interventions: What are the outcomes of the
treatment? How useful were the interventions?
• For communication among physicans, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and
other health works, social service works and commmunity agencies
• For self-evaluation by consumers: How would I rate my capacity in mobility or
communication?
At the institutional level…
• For educational and training purposes
• For resource planning and development: What health care and other services will be needed?
• For quality improvement: How well do we serve our clients? What basic indicators for
quality assurance are valid and reliable?
• For management and outcome evaluation: How useful are the services we are providing?
• For managed care models of health care delivery: How cost-effective are the services we
provide? How can the service be improved for better outcomes at a lower cost?
At the social level…
• For eligibility criteria for state entitlements such as social security benefits, disability
pensions, workers’ compensation and insurance: Are the criteria for eligibility for disability
benefits evidence based, appropriate to social goals and justifiable?
• For social policy development, including legislative reviews, model legislation, regulations
and guidelines, and definitions for anti-discrimination legislation: Will guaranteeing rights
improve functioning at the societal level? Can we measure this improvement and adjust our
policy and law accordingly?
• For needs assessments: What are the needs of persons with various levels of disability -
impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions?
• For environmental assessment for universal design, implementation of mandated accessibility,
identification of environmental facilitators and barriers, and changes to social policy: How
can we make the social and built environment more accessible for all person, those with and
those without disabilities? Can we assess and measure improvement?

Source:

http://www.who.int/classifications/icf/training/icfbeginnersguide.pdf

17/06/2010

Did you hear about ICF?

International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, known more commonly as ICF, is a classification of health and health-related domains. These domains are classified from body, individual and societal perspectives by means of two lists: a list of body functions and structure, and a list of domains of activity and participation. Since an The ICF puts the notions of ‘health’ and ‘disability’ in a new light. It acknowledges that every human being can experience a decrement in health and thereby experience some degree of disability. Disability is not something that only happens to a minority of humanity. The ICF thus ‘mainstreams’ the experience of disability and recognises it as a universal human experience. By shifting the focus from cause to impact it places all health conditions on an equal footing allowing them to be compared using a common metric – the ruler of health and disability. Furthermore ICF takes into account the social aspects of disability and does not see disability only as a 'medical' or 'biological' dysfunction. By including Contextual Factors, in which environmental factors are listed ICF allows to records the impact of the environment on the person's functioning.individual’s functioning and disability occurs in a context, the ICF also includes a list of environmental factors.

The ICF is WHO's framework for measuring health and disability at both individual and population levels. The ICF was officially endorsed by all 191 WHO Member States in the Fifty-fourth World Health Assembly on 22 May 2001(resolution WHA 54.21). Unlike its predecessor, which was endorsed for field trail purposes only, the ICF was endorsed for use in Member States as the international standard to describe and measure health and disability.

Source:
http://www.who.int/classifications/icf/en/
17/06/2010


Implementation of the ICF started in 2001 with the unanimous endorsement of the classification by the 54th World Health Assembly as the framework for describing and measuring health and disability. Since then, ICF has been applied in a variety of settings at national and international level.

International and national health and disability reporting
ICF based health and disability surveys have been conducted at national and international level. In WHO the ICF framework has been used in the Multi-Country Survey Study in 2000/2001 and the World Health Survey Program in 2002/2003 to measure health status of the general population in 71 countries. From this data WHO and selected Members States are currently generating population norms for selected ICF domains and disability prevalence rates. At regional level UNSD, UNESCWA and UNESCAP in collaboration with WHO implemented a series of workshops for African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries to improve disability statistics using the ICF framework. At national level ICF based data sets and questionnaires are currently used in a number of countries including Australia, Irland, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Malawi.

Several countries started the process of streamlining ICF in their health & social information standards and legislation. Development and piloting of ICF based indicators and reporting systems for use in rehabilitation, home-care, age-care, disability evaluation are ongoing in Australia, Canada, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico.

Clinical and epidemiological use
In clinical settings ICF is used for functional status assessment, goal setting & treatment planning and monitoring, as well as outcome measurement. Countries, which already use ICF in a variety of clinical settings include Australia, Italy, The Netherlands….. At international level WHO is exploring the use of ICF to measure health outcomes and guide disability management in infectious disease programs such as LF and

Source:
http://www.who.int/classifications/icf/appareas/en/index.html
17/06/2010

Special figures

As part of my research study on Conductive Education I conducted a dialogue with a very unique married couple today. The husband, who is over 80, has been participating in CE for twenty years at one of the NICE’s Parkinson’s group and of course his wife socialized herself with the CE environment throughout those many years there. They are living history, legends, but most importantly, they are still very motivated figures of our pedagogy and an extraordinary example of how CE is able to long (ever) last. What the very best of the today’s encounter was that this couple actually energised me and made stronger my faith in CE.
Thank you.

No Title

Most of the time Conductive Education (CE) is taken to be a rehabilitation method, an intensive therapy for children with Cerebral Palsy. This is a popular misconception because of the lack of understanding of the work of early practitioners and the dearth of appropriate research methodologies to approach the system as a whole since. Although that numerous papers were published in order to introduce and explain CE, the “scientific” acknowledgement was not forthcoming.
In the early 1970’s, the first interpreters of Conductive Education in the UK, such as Ester Cotton, Karel and Bertha Bobath and James Loring, viewed it as a therapeutic treatment method. Griffits (1988) also described conductive education as a therapy which helped people to overcome different dysfunctions and achieve orthofunction, i.e. functioning normally in society without the use of aids or wheelchairs. This was not a true representation of Conductive Education. Brown and Mikula-Toth (1997) disagree with his description and take the view that it would be impossible to set out with this aim as the large majority of people would never achieve it. They expressed that Conductive Education is based on setting realistic goals, not idealistic ones. Despite of Andrew Sutton’s et al numerous papers, presentations on CE Sophie Levitt (2004) still refers to Conductive Education as a treatment, therapy or group therapy in her fourth book ‘Treatment of CP and Motor Delay’.

“Lack of an articulate account of conductive pedagogy from an original Hungarian source has been a major problem in the spread of Conductive Education across the world. Those involved in professional training have lacked an authoritative basic text and those who advocate Conductive Education, struggle to establish conductive centres and defend them, or simply look in from outside and try to understand this new approach to special education and rehabilitation, have all had their jobs made the harder for lack of a simple brief overview." (Maguire, Sutton, A. 2004 p.13).
As a result the ‘principles of Conductive Education’ continue to be misunderstood and misrepresented by proponents and opponents alike and gaining apparent legitimacy in the twenty-first century as they spread across the Internet.
"Over the years Conductive Education has generated a considerable literature written by mostly outsiders. The problem for those less than fully aware of the nature of conductive pedagogy is how to distinguish the nub of relevant, even excellent material within this ever-expanding corpus from the wrong, the ignorant and even the anti-conductive. Astonishingly, even after forty years of professional writing on Conductive Education – not least by those trying to practise it and to train others to do so – there are swathes of published materials, not just in English, which make no mention at all of conductive pedagogy as the vital factor in implementing an education that is conductive. Indeed, there remain many who appear altogether unaware that in seeking to implement an education without its pedagogy but, as one author noted, this is like attempting Hamlet without the Prince." (Maguire, Sutton, A. 2004 p.14).

References:
Griffits, M. and Clegg, M. (1988) Cerebral Palsy: Problems and Practice, Human Horizon Services. Souvenir Press, London
Brown, M. and Mikula-Toth, A. (1997) Adult Conductive Education A practical Guide. Stanley Thornes (Publishers) Ltd
Levitt, S. (2004) Treatment of Cerebral Palsy and Motor Delay. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford
Maguire, G. and Sutton, A. (2004) Maria Hari on Conductive Pedagogy. The Foundation for Conductive education, Birmingham


The facts are:

• Conductive Education is continued to be an attractive option for the habilitation, rehabilitation of central nervous system damaged people and the service mostly used by the private sector in the world
• CE generally thought to be a sort of intensive physiotherapy-kind approach
• Conductive Education Teachers, Conductors are working mostly alongside with different trained professionals or not trained assistants
• In several cases CE is combined with different therapies, ideas, methods
• In some cases CE is integrated to local education services (!) – where Conductive Education Teachers are part of the teacher team however, they are mostly in teacher assistance or “therapist” status
• It is rear to find “conductor teams” functioning as it was thought by the originator of CE in and out of Hungary: each member of the team trained as CE professional
• The scientifically recognised world is hardly interested to explore CE
• The Alma Mater Peto Institute, Budapest had no plan and structure ( and maybe interest) to introduce and sell CE constructively to the rest of the World
• Conductive Education is in an agony of selling itself to the scientifically recognised world
• There are not enough CE training places
• There are not enough CE professionals and there are not enough Conductive Education Teachers

Well, I could continue it but I believe we should openly continue it together… what would you put next?
What are we up to?

The psychology of optimal experience

Do we think that Csikszentmihalyi's psychology of flow could be a good bases of our CE approach?
Let's think of it.
Flow – The Psychology of optimal experience
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Harper, 1990

Introduction

This fascinating book is all about happiness and how to find it. Cziksentmihalyi is an authority on the subject. As he explains, happiness is not something that happens, that money or power can command. Happiness is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated and defended privately by each person. It is only by controlling our inner experience that we can become happy. Happiness cannot be reached by consciously searching for it. As J S Mill once put it, “Ask yourselves whether you are happy and you cease to be so”.

Optimal Experience

The author uses the term “optimal experience” to describe those occasions where we feel a sense of exhilaration, a deep sense of enjoyment, which we cherish for long and that becomes a landmark in our lives. These moments are often not passive, receptive relaxing times. They tend to occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something that is difficult or worthwhile.

Everything we experience is represented in the mind as information. If we are able to connect this information, we can determine what our lives will be like. Optimal states result when there is order in consciousness. This happens when we are focused on realistic goals with our skills matching the opportunities for action. Goals allow people to concentrate attention on the task at hand, forgetting other things temporarily.

The key element of an optimal experience is that it is an end in itself. It may be undertaken for other reasons but the activity soon becomes intrinsically rewarding. It is autotelic. (Auto means self and teleos means goal). An autotelic experience lifts life to a different level.

Building Inner Harmony

Our level of happiness ultimately depends on how our mind filters and interprets everyday experiences. Happiness depends on inner harmony, not on our ability to exert control over the great forces of the universe. There are people who regardless of their material conditions are satisfied and have a way of making those around them more happy. On the other hand, there are people who despite being blessed with so much money and power, are unhappy.

People must learn to find enjoyment and purpose, regardless of external circumstances. To become happy, we must strive to become independent of the social environment, i.e. become less sensitive to its rewards and punishments.

The essence of socialization is to make people dependent on social controls, to make them respond predictably to rewards and punishments. All social controls are ultimately based on a threat to the survival instinct. Practically, every desire that has become part of human nature, sexuality, aggression, a longing, security, receptivity to a change, has been exploited as a source of social control by politicians, churches, corporations and advisers. We must learn to enjoy and find meaning in the ongoing stream of experience, in the process of living itself. This will ensure that the burden of social controls falls off from our shoulders.

Controlling the Conscious

Control over consciousness is not a cognitive skill. It cannot be memorized or routinely applied, but must be learnt by trial and error. It requires the commitment of emotions and will. Knowledge of how to control consciousness must also be reformulated, every time the cultural context changes. Rituals should not win over substance. Control over consciousness cannot be institutionalized. As soon as it becomes part of a set of social rules and norms, it ceases to be effective in the way it was originally intended to do.

The function of consciousness is to represent information about what is happening inside and outside the organization in such a way that it can be evaluated and acted upon by the body. The consciousness becomes a clearing house for sensations, perceptions, feelings, establishing priorities among all the diverse information. Without consciousness, we would have to depend on our instincts and reflexes. With consciousness, we can deliberately weigh what the senses tell us and respond accordingly. It is consciousness which enables us to daydream, write beautiful poems and scientific theories. Unfortunately, the nervous system has definite limits on how much information it can process at any given time. The information we allow into consciousness becomes extremely important. It is what determines the content and quality of life.

The shape and content of life depends on how attention has been used. The terms extrovert, high achiever, paranoid refer to how people structure their attention. Attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience.

One of the main forces that affects consciousness adversely is psychic disorder – that is information that conflicts with existing intentions, or distracts us from carrying them out. Depending on how we feel, it can lead to pain, fear, rage, anxiety or jealousy. These disorders divert attention to undesirable objects. Psychic energy becomes unwieldy and ineffective. When information disrupts consciousness by threatening its goals, it leads to inner disorder or psychic entropy.

Pleasure and Enjoyment

Pleasure is essentially a feeling of contentment that one achieves whenever information in consciousness says that expectations set by biological programs or by social conditioning have been met.

Pleasure improves the quality of life by helping to maintain order but it cannot create new order in consciousness. Pleasure does not produce psychological growth.

Enjoyment results when a person has not only met some prior expectation but also gone beyond what he or she has been programmed to do and achieved something unexpected. Enjoyment, in other words, is characterized by a sense of novelty or accomplishment. Enjoyment has eight major components:

1. Tasks with a reasonable chance of completion
2. Clear goals
3. Immediate feedback
4. Deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the frustrations and worries of everyday life.
5. Sense of control over our actions
6. No concern for the self
7. Alteration of the concept of time, hours can pass in minutes and minutes can look like hours.

Understanding Flow

During flow, attention is freely invested to achieve a person’s goals because there is no disorder to strengthen out or no threat for the self to defend against. When a person can organize his or her consciousness so as to experience flow as often as possible, the quality of life starts to improve.

In flow, we are in control of our psychic energy and everything we do adds order to consciousness. Following a flow experience, our self becomes more complex than that it had been before, due to two broad psychological processes – differentiation and integration. The self becomes differentiated as the person after a flow experience feels more capable and skilled. Flow leads to integration because thoughts, intentions, feelings and the senses are focused on the same goal. After a flow episode, one feels more together than before, not only internally but also with respect to other people and the world in general. Differentiation promotes individuality while integration facilitates connections and security.

To improve the quality of life, we can try to make external conditions match our goals and also change how to experience external conditions. Both are needed. Each by itself is insufficient.

Some individuals are constitutionally incapable of experiencing flow, eg: schizophrenics. They notice irrelevant stimuli and get side tracked. Some people find it difficult to concentrate psychic energy. Others are too self conscious. Self centered people also find it difficult to reach flow. Alienation, a condition which forces people to act in ways that go against their goals, is also an impediment to flow. Another impediment is anomie where the norms of behaviour in the society become muddled. When it is no longer clear what is permitted and what is not, behaviours may become erratic.

People who require a lot of information to form representations of reality in consciousness may become more dependent on the external environment for using their minds. They have less control on their thoughts. By contrast, people who need only a few external stimuli to represent events in consciousness, are more autonomous from the environment. They have a more flexible attention that allows them to restructure experience more easily and therefore to achieve optimal experiences more frequently. People who can enjoy themselves in a variety of situations can screen out unwanted stimuli and focus only on what is relevant for the moment.

But there is no permanent genetic disadvantage. Learning can compensate for any inherent weaknesses. People who achieve flow more regularly pay close attention to the minute details of their environment, discover hidden opportunities for action, set goals, monitor progress using feedback and keep setting bigger challenges for themselves.

The most important trait of people who find flow even during adversity is non self conscious individualism, i.e. a strongly directed purpose that is not self seeking. Because of their intrinsic motivation, they are not easily disturbed by external events.


Different ways to achieve Flow

The body

Everything the body can do is potentially enjoyable. Yet many people ignore this capacity. If one takes control of what the body can do and learns to impose order on physical sensations, entropy leads to a sense of enjoyable harmony in consciousness. Sports, dance, sex, yoga, the martial arts, music, fasting, can all help produce enjoyment. The skills necessary to become athletes, dancers, etc are demanding. But it is possible to develop sufficient skills to find delight in what the body can do.

The Mind

Some of the most exhilarating experiences we undergo are generated inside the mind, triggered by information that challenges our ability to think. These activities that order the mind directly are primarily symbolic in nature. They depend on natural languages, mathematics or some other abstract system like a computer language to achieve ordering of the mind. Like in the case of physical activities, there must be rules, a goal and a way of obtaining feedback. The normal state of the mind is chaos. Without training and without an object in the external world that demands attention, people cannot focus their thoughts for more than a few minutes at a time. It is relatively easy to concentrate when attention is structured by outside stimuli and we place ourselves on automatic pilot. But when we are left alone, the basic disorder of the mind reveals itself. With nothing to do, it begins to follow random patterns, usually stopping to consider something painful or disturbing. The mind will usually focus on some real or imaginary pain, on recent grudges or long term frustrations. So it is important to gain control over mental processes.

Leveraging Memory

Memory is the oldest mental skill. Remembering is enjoyable because it entails fulfilling a goal and so brings order to consciousness. For a person who has nothing to remember, life can become severely impoverished. A mind with some stable content is much richer than one without. The author emphasizes that creativity and rote learning are not incompatible. A person who can remember stories, poems, etc often finds it more easy to find meaning in the contents of her mind.

The Philosophy

A fact often lost sight of is that philosophy and thinking were invented and flourished because thinking is pleasurable. Great thinkers have always been motivated by the enjoyment of thinking rather than the material rewards that would be gained by it. Indeed, playing with ideas can be exhilirating. Not only philosophy but the emergence of new scientific ideas is fueled by the enjoyment one obtains from creating a new way to describe reality.

Communication

Conversation is another way of enhancing our lives by improving the quality of experience. Writing also provides important benefits. Writing gives the mind a disciplined means of expression. It allows one to record events and experiences so that they can be easily recalled and relived in the future. It is a way to analyse and understand experiences. It is a self communication that brings order to them.

Writing

Observing, recording and preserving the memory of both the large and small events of life is one of the oldest and most satisfying ways to bring order to consciousness. Having a record of the past can free us from the tyranny of the present and make it possible for consciousness to go back to older times.

Lifelong Learning

Many people stop learning after they leave school. The long years of education often leave behind unpleasant memories. Their attention manipulated by text books and teacher, they look at graduation as the first day of freedom. The goal of learning is to understand what is happening around us and develop a personally meaningful sense of what one’s experience is all about. So the end of formal education should be the start of a different kind of education that is motivated intrinsically.

The Job

A job can also provide opportunities for flow. The more a job resembles a game with variety, appropriate and flexible challenges, clear goals and immediate feedback, the more enjoyable it will be regardless of the worker’s level of development. Jobs can always be made more enjoyable. But unfortunately in today’s business environment where the emphasis is on productivity and compensation, making jobs more enjoyable is low on the priority list. Another problem is that many people consider their jobs as something they have to do, a burden imposed from the outside. So even if the momentary on-the-job experience is positive, they tend to discount it, because it does not contribute to their own long range goals.

Solitude

If we learn to make our relations with others more like flow experiences, our quality of life will improve. But the fact is the average adult spends about one third of his or her working time alone. So one must also learn to tolerate and enjoy being alone. We must learn to control consciousness even when we are alone. Most people feel a nearly intolerable sense of emptiness when they are alone, especially with nothing specific to do.

Indeed, the ultimate test for the ability to control the quality of experience is what a person does in solitude, with no external demands to give structure to attention. It is relatively easy to become involved with a job, to enjoy the company of friends or to enjoy a movie in a theatre. A person who rarely gets bored, who does not constantly need a favorable external environment to enjoy the moment, has passed the test for having achieved a creative life. If being alone is seen as a chance to accomplish goals that cannot be reached in the company of others, then instead of feeling lonely, a person will enjoy solitude and might be able to learn new skills in the process.

Coping with Stress

While coping with stress, a person has three resources to draw from:

• External support, especially the network of social support
• Psychological support, intelligence, education, relevant personality factors
• Coping strategies

Coping strategy is what makes the big difference. People respond to stress in two main ways. The positive response is called a mature defense. The negative response is called neurotic defense or regressive coping. The ability to make something good of a misfortune is a very rare gift. No trait is more useful, more essential for survival or more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge. Such people have unconscious self assurance. They believe destiny is in their hands. They are self assured but not self centered. They do not doubt that their own resources would be sufficient to determine their fate. They recognize their goals may have to be subordinated to a greater entity. Such people spend little time thinking about themselves. They are not focused on satisfying their needs. They are alert, constantly processing information from the surroundings. Instead of becoming internally focused, they stay in touch with what is going on. So new possibilities and new responses emerge.

One can cope with new situations either by trying to remove the obstacles or by focusing on the entire situation and asking whether alternative goals may be more appropriate. The moment biological or social goals are frustrated, a person must formulate new goals and create a new flow activity.

The autotelic self transforms potentially entropic experience into flow. Developing an autotelic self involves the following:

• Setting goals – monitoring feedback
• Becoming immersed in the activity
• Paying attention to what is happening
• Enjoying the immediate experience

Creating a Unified Flow Experience

Having achieved flow in one activity does not necessarily guarantee that it will be carried over into the rest of life. All life must be turned into an unified flow experience. As the author mentions, “If a person sets out to achieve a difficult enough goal, from which all other goals logically follow and if he or she invests all the energy in developing skills to reach that goal, then actions and feelings will be in harmony and the separate parts of life will fit together and each activity will make sense in the present, as well as in view of the past and the future.”

It does not matter what the goal is. What is important is it should be compelling enough to order a lifetime’s worth of psychic energy. A goal can give meaning to a person’s life if it provides clear objectives, clear rules for action, and a way to concentrate and become involved.

Creating meaning involves bringing order to the contents of the mind by integrating one’s actions into an unified flow experience. It is not enough to find a purpose. One must also carry through and meet its challenges. When an important goal is pursued with commitment and focus, and all the varied activities fit together into an unified flow experience, the result is harmony that is brought into consciousness. Purpose, resolution and harmony unify life and give it meaning by transforming it into a seamless flow experience. Whoever achieves this state, will never really lack anything else. A person whose consciousness is so ordered, need not fear unexpected events. Every living moment will make sense. By and large, life will become enjoyable.

Conflicting Claims on attention

The availability of too many choices today has increased uncertainty and led to a lack of resolve among competing claims. Inner conflict is the result of competing claims on attention. We should learn to sort out essential claims from those that are not. There are two ways of doing this – a life of action and a life of reflection.

Action helps create order but it has its drawbacks. For one, options may become restricted. Sooner or later, postponed alternatives may reappear as doubts and regrets. The goals that have sustained action over a period do not have enough power to give meaning to the entirety of life. This is where a path of reflection scores.

Detached reflection, a realistic weighing of options and their consequences are generally considered to be the best approach to a good life. Activity and reflection should complement each other. Action is blind, while reflection is impotent.

The psychic entropy peculiar to the human condition involves seeing more to do than one can actually accomplish and feeling able to accomplish more than what conditions allow. This becomes possible only if one keeps in mind more than one goal at a time, being aware at the same time of conflicting desires. When there are too many demands, options, challenges, we become anxious. When there are too few, we get bored. The inner harmony of technologically less advanced people is the positive side of their limited choices and of their stable repertory of skills, just as the confusion in our soul is due to unlimited opportunities.

Consciousness has become more complex over time, because of the biological situation of the central nervous system, the development of culture, technologies, specialization and exposion to contradictory goals.

Instead of accepting the unity of purpose provided by genetic instructions or by the rules of society, the challenge for us is to create harmony based on reason and choice. When a person’s psychic energy coalesces into a life time, consciousness achieves harmony. But not all life themes are equally productive.

In authentic projects, a person realizes that choices are free and makes a personal decision based on relational evaluation of experience. Inauthentic projects are those a person chooses because they are what she feels ought to be done, because they are what everybody is doing. Authentic projects tend to be intrinsically motivated while inauthentic ones are motivated by external forces.

Similarly a distinction can be drawn between discovered and accepted life themes. In discovered life themes, a person writes the script for her actions out of personal experience and awareness of choice. In accepted life themes, a person simply accepts a predetermined role from a script written long ago by others.

People who succeed in building meaning into their experience tend to draw from the order achieved by past generations. There is much well ordered information accumulated in culture, ready for use. Great music, architecture, art, poetry, drama, dance, philosophy and religion are there for anyone to see as examples of how harmony can be imposed on chaos. But people ignore this source of knowledge by and large.

To extract meaning from a system of beliefs, a person must first compare the information contained in it with his or her concrete experience, retain what makes sense and then reject the rest. An increasing majority of people are not being helped by traditional religions and belief systems. Many are unable to separate the truth in the old doctrines from distortions and degradations that time has added. Since they cannot accept error, they reject the truth as well. Others are so desperate for some order that they desperately cling to some belief. If a new faith is to capture our imagination, it must be able to account rationally for the things we know, the things we feel, the things we hope for and the ones we dread. It must be a system of beliefs that will direct our psychic energy towards meaningful goals. Such a system must be based to some degree on what science has revealed about humanity and about the universe.

For the past few thousand years, humanity has achieved incredible advances in the differentiation of consciousness. We have learned to separate ourselves from other forms of life and from each other. We have learned to separate objects and processes. We have developed science and technology to capture nature. Now the focus must be on integration. We must learn how to reunite ourselves with other entities around us, without losing our individuality. We must realize that the entire universe is a system related by common laws and that it makes no sense to impose our dreams and desires on nature without taking them into account. We must accept a cooperative rather than a ruling role in the universe. The individual’s purpose should merge with universal flow.

Fundraising for CE center in North West, UK

There was a fundraising walk for Legacy Rainbow House in North West England last weekend on 15 May 2010.
It was fun + perfect weather for the event. Just before feeling an agony of walking I saw the sign (see above) what energised me to finish the long walk. Small World.

http://www.wigantoday.net/news/pals_lace_up_for_rainbow_ramble_1_761358

The Hungarian Code of Practice: Etikai Kodex Konduktorok szamara

Andrew Sutton asked about the Hungarian Code of Practice for Conductors in one of his comments on my last post. The "Etikai Kodex Konduktorok szamara" was edited and published by the Magyar Konduktorok Egyesulete.
Herewith I share these two pics taken of the hard copy I have...

Code of Practice

Since I have received several inquires about the conductors' code of practice after launching my post yesterday here I share it:


Code of Practice for Conductors


Introduction

This document contains agreed codes of practice for conductors, describing the standards of conduct and practice within which they should work.

The Code of Practice for conductors is a list of statements that describe the standards of professional conduct and practice required of conductors as they go about their daily work. The code of practice will affect not only conductors, but also their employers and the service users.

The Code of Practice has its foundation in the ethos and philosophy of conductive education (CE), importantly:

• An understanding of CE as a pedagogy leading to an educational view of motor disorders
• A belief all humans have a capacity to adapt and chance
• An understanding this change is brought about through interactions between the conductor and service user
• An optimistic and forward looking attitude





Conductors must:

1. Protect the rights and promote the interests of service users and carers

2. Strive to establish and maintain the trust and confidence of service users and carers

3. Promote the independence of service users while protecting them as far as possible from danger or harm.

4. Respect the rights of service users.

5. Uphold public trust and confidence in CE services

6. Be accountable for the quality of their work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving their knowledge and skills

1. As a conductor you must protect the rights and promote the interests of service users and carers.

This includes:

1.1 Treating each person as an individual

1.2 Supporting service users’ rights to control their lives and make informed choices about the services they receive

1.3 Respecting and maintaining the dignity and privacy of service users

1.4 Promoting equal opportunities for service users and carers

1.5 Respecting diversity and different cultures and values


2. As a conductor you must strive to establish and maintain the trust and confidence of service users and carers.

This includes:

2.1 Being honest and trustworthy

2.2 Communicating in an appropriate, open, accurate and straightforward way

2.3 Respecting confidential information

2.4 Being reliable and dependable

2.5 Honouring work commitments, agreements and arrangements and when it is not possible to do so, explaining why to service users and carers

2.6 Declaring issues that might create conflicts of interest and making sure that they do not influence your judgement or practice

2.7 Adhering to policies and procedures about accepting gifts and money from service users and carers


3. As a conductor you must promote the independence of service users while protecting them as far as possible from danger or harm.

This includes:

3.1 Promoting the independence of service users and assisting them to understand and exercise their rights

3.2 Using established processes and procedures to challenge and report dangerous, abusive, discriminatory or exploitative behaviour and practice

3.3 Bringing to the attention of your employer or the appropriate authority resource or operational difficulties that might get in the way of the delivery of safe care

3.4 Informing your employer or an appropriate authority where the practice of colleagues may be unsafe or adversely affecting standards of care

3.5 Complying with employers’ health and safety policies

3.6 Helping service users and carers to make complaints, taking complaints seriously and responding to them or passing them to the appropriate person

3.7 Recognising and using responsibly the power that comes from your work with service users and carers


4. As a conductor you must respect the rights of service users while seeking to ensure that their behaviour does not harm themselves or other people.

This includes:

4.1 Recognising that service users have the right to take risks and helping them to identify and manage potential and actual risks to themselves and others

4.2 Taking necessary steps to minimise the risks of service users from doing actual or potential harm to themselves or other people

4.3 Ensuring that relevant colleagues and agencies are informed about the outcomes and implications of risk assessments.


5 As a conductor you must uphold public trust and confidence in conductive education and services based upon the work

In particular you must not:

5.1 Abuse, neglect or harm service users, carers or colleagues

5.2 Exploit service users, carers or colleagues in any way

5.3 Abuse the trust of service users and carers or the access you have to personal information about them, or to their property, home or workplace;

5.4 Form inappropriate personal relationships with services users;

5.5 Discriminate unlawfully or unjustifiably against service users, carers or colleagues;

5.6 Condone any unlawful or unjustifiable discrimination by service users, carers or colleagues;

5.7 Put yourself or other people at unnecessary risk

5.8 Behave in a way, in work or outside work, which would call into question your suitability to work as a conductor


6 As a conductor you must be accountable for the quality of your work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving your knowledge and skills.

This includes:

6.1 Meeting relevant standards of practice, and working in a lawful, safe and effective way

6.2 Maintaining clear and accurate records as required by procedures established for your work

6.3 Informing your employer or the appropriate authority about any personal difficulties that might affect your ability to do your job competently and safely

6.4 Seeking assistance from your employer or the appropriate authority if you do not feel able or adequately prepared to carry out any aspect of your work or you are not sure about how to proceed in a work matter

6.5 Working openly and co-operatively with colleagues and treating them with respect

6.6 Recognising that you remain responsible for the work that you have delegated to other workers

6.7 Recognising and respecting the roles and expertise of workers from other agencies and working in partnership with them

6.8 Undertaking relevant training to maintain and improve your knowledge and skills and contributing to the learning and development of others

Life experience in CE as a conductor

When I first arrived as a fully qualified conductor from Hungary to the western part of the world I experienced a huge difference between the behaviour of the local and the Hungarian trained colleagues. Independent from their real knowledge of the profession most of the West trained co-workers have a higher level of self-confidence than the others. They were always ready to put forward their ideas, had the confidence to say what they wanted, without being self critical like we Hungarians can be. This behaviour shocked me at first. Then, critically, I took a step back and asked myself: “ Isn’t this maybe the behaviour that brings forth good ideas?”
Later I found out that generally speaking, we Hungarians were much more self critical of what we were doing and saying, so therefore our professional style of communication was not always appropriate to the situation we were now in of adapting CE abroad. We can address this issue as cultural differences that emerge from upbringing, education and culture. Differences in how we expect our children to act, differences in what teachers expect from pupils in different situations and differences in how the community expect us to behave.
However, to find a healthy balance is always difficult, especially if you travel abroad for work.
No doubt, individually there is a huge difference between people’s emotional and social intelligence. Even if they come from the same planet so to make a judgement is not necessarily a good idea. Still, some people’s huge confidence in their professional knowledge continuously annoys me, especially when these people are unable to respect others’ thoughts, unable to discuss subjects, to compromise or simply listen and think. Many times these people are the “winners” because they are “strong enough”. I write “strong enough” because I think there is a pinch of arrogance added to high level of self-confidence. Not long ago I ran a small group of stroke clients and adults with acquired head injured. I had the idea, because it was a sweet little group and a great challenge to work with that I would take us on a special journey, a journey “Back to the past”. I went to the Maria Hari Library, Budapest last year at Easter and dug out an old task series, written by Dr. Andras Peto himself, for stroke clients. I used it to create my complex programme for group mentioned above. I had one two hour session with them each week. I learnt that coincidently Peto had also seen his ‘patients’ in the 1950’s only once or twice a week at his clinic – which anyway was his place.
I was excited to use the information I had found.
There was only one thing that I wanted to change. I wished to use a modern Aphasia programme since in this area science has changed a lot. After some searching I found many works on Aphasia and the developing ideas and testing methods. Finally, I have chosen AT 1 and AT 2 computer software programmes combining with some “classic” activities linked to everyday activities and speech.

I then put the routine/programme together:
• Arrive at session.
• Settle down and get ready for the session. This involves changing clothes and taking shoes and socks off.
• Breathing programme,
• Lying programme starting from sitting position,
• Coffee time.
• Aphasia programme sitting at the table - communication.
• Standing programme.
• Individual programme – walking in different circumstances, with ladder-back chair, on slope, stairs.
• Sitting programme at the table combined with fine motor activities and speech programme.
• Practice (all sorts)
• Walking out.

Between the task series and activities we had to always change places with the “given” individual way. Yes, it was quite busy for that two hours but we all loved it and could do it. The participants were happy coming week by week. The results spoke for themselves and they were documented. Both clients showed great emotional, social and physical achievements.
The lying, standing, sitting at the table and individual walking tasks were taken strictly from Peto’s written documents from the HM Library. The aphasia programme and interaction time was crucial since that was the time they could openly share many things with each other and with me. I quite liked it as it really was a journey to the past through the task series.
The conclusion it was after I was separated from that group that my professionally very confident, young colleague, but without the knowledge that it was a special journey with those people, changed the complex programme. She criticized the old one without any communication with me (for example not asking what I had done and why).
This fact made me angry at first but then I smiled and I thought; possibly Dr. Petö András himself would not be good enough, experienced enough for this enthusiastic, professionally very confident and arrogant colleague. I do not wish however to write about this case, but about the phenomenon. I strongly believe that the exaggerated confidence of the profession and arrogance are not what will bring Conductive Education to the best acceptance in Hungary or to the rest of the world. Ironically enough, from what I've experienced I think “huge professional confidence” and arrogance actually comes from insecurity. People who act like this I think have been put down a lot or have had inadequate amounts of emotional, psychological support and have the need to make them feel secure about themselves. At a certain point, when their self-esteem is so low, it's natural for them to protect themselves emotionally from getting hurt any further by exhibiting superiority or arrogance over others. At the moment they are recognized for one of their strengths or abilities, the full blown confidence makes up for their lack of confidence in everything else. In a way, its the mind's natural self-defense mechanism. The whole case is raising a question. How should we act as a Conductor, Conductive Education Teacher to our own colleagues? Well, one supposes to say that the Code of Practice gives us a great direction. It certainly does but where is the border of acceptance?

I can not express enough how important/ good/useful to have great team spirit in CE. I mean between colleagues and of course between participants, too. How crucial is to find the best personal fit to get out the best performance of our team. In an effective relationship parties listen to understand others’ positions and feelings. The simplest way to understand what is important to another person or to a group is to ask, then listen to the answer. We all know (even feel), when someone else is really interested in us. The other person is attentive, does not interrupt, does not fidget and does not speak about him or herself most of the time. This gives us time to think and feel accepted, rather than be judged. Listening leads to understanding; if you understand someone else fully, then you know what to do to get closer and work better together.
In effective relationships, parties openly express their positions and feelings without the fear what could happen if their ideas a bit different from the others. Sometimes we expect people – particularly those close to us at home or work – to understand what we want and to give us what we need intuitively. This is not a realistic aspiration. People are so complicated and react to events in such different ways that even when they have lived together for 60 years they can still surprise each other. We need to say what we need and to express how we feel. By doing this we are more likely to get what we want, rather than expecting someone to notice what we want, then waiting for that person to give it to us.
In order to make our relationships more effective, we should treat ourselves and each other with respect. Respect is the core of any good relationship. We show respect by listening to the other person and by trying to understand how they view things. Quickly forming judgements based on prejudice is the complete opposite of respect. You can respect people (even if you find their behaviour difficult to understand) by acknowledging that they are doing the best they can when their circumstances and history are taken into account.
Respect is the foundation for a strong relationship – and this means respecting yourself as well as others. If you feel good about yourself, it is much easier to see the good in people and treat them with respect.
Another key to forming effective relationships is to face differences directly. Differences between people are interesting. In a conversation where each person listens to the others, you may each discover a new truth that integrates (say) two opposing perspectives. This is more rewarding than the alternatives – for example, withdrawing, fighting, grumbling to someone else or plotting. Learning to face differences takes time and can be uncomfortable, but confronting and attempting to understand them is a good, stretching discomfort.
Work towards solutions where both parties win. I believe profoundly that win–win solutions are possible and they should always be our goal. If we both feel we have gained from resolving a difference, then we will be more willing to co-operate again in future. This builds exciting and satisfying relationships.
How great to work in an environment like that? Very, very lucky.
I personally did have a luck to try working in different type of settings in CE throughout the last 15 years. Although I worked most of the time with conductors I saw, experienced both hell and haven.

At the moment I feel very lucky again.