László Szögeczki's CE blog

Thank You

2011-06-14T00:16:00.000-07:00

There was published a paper on Cyber CE a couple of weeks ago:

www.e-conduction.org/depository/Lacipaper[1].pdf

I expressed my thanks on Facebook for all of those who took part in it on the day of publishing. I wish to repeat my thanks here again since Facebook comments are gone by now.

Many thanks to the Legacy Rainbow House www.thelegacy-rainbowhouse.com to be interested in and make the project available. Thank you for LEE PREECE, conductor, for his interest and and active participation (leading the ce session from New York) in the Cyber experience. Thank you for the children tolerating an "out of routine session" and being so smart during the project. Many thanks for the classroom assistants: Megan Browne, Lucy Betherton, Moira Cannon to facilitate the project and children.

Thanks for being interested and help on site for Becky Wilkinson, conductor.

Many thanks for lecturing and being interested for Jules McDonald, leading conductor.

It was a great pleasure to work with you all. Thank You!

Challenge Me!

2011-06-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Szinte mar alig van idom s energiam kovetni a konduktiv pedagogiai iranyzatu bejegyzeseket ebben a felgyorsult, felszaporodott blog es facebook vilagban. Ez persze jo, mert elszigeteltsegunk ismet kapott egy sanszot az elettol, hogy nyithassunk a vilag fele es persze, hogy a vilag eszre vehessen bennunket. Vegre megjelent maga a Peto Intezet is a kozossegi oldalon es szamtalan jo es kevesbe jo irodik le mindenfele a vilagon a kondukciorol. Mint uttoro magyar konduktor blog iro sajnalom - de nem banom - hogy szemelyes eletem ugy alakult, hogy sokkal kevesebbet tudok megjelenni blogomban ezidottajt, de remelem, hogy ez a sok-sok, egyebkent nem mas temaval eltoltott ido hatvanyozottan terul meg kesobb konduktiv pedagogiai szempontbol is.

Ajanlo:

Kb. harom evvel ezelott a kezembe kerult Angliaban egy kartyacsomag, amely a Challenge Me nevet viseli. Amikor vegigneztem a kartyalapokat az tunt fel azonnal, hogy a rajzolt kepeken a gyerekek konduktiv pedagogiabol ismert feladtakot mutatnak be, valamint felreerthetetlenul a konduktiv pedagogia altal alkalmazott eszkozok lathatoak rajta. Kesobb, amikor az ismerteto kis fuzetet is vegigolvastam, tisztabb lett a kep. Ez a fuzetecske, amely 47 oldalas, tulajdonkeppen egy rovid koduktiv pedagogiai ismerteto: szamtalan informacio szerezheto meg belole. A szerzo, Amanda Elliott, maga is gyakorlott konduktorkent mutatkozik be benne es az is kiderul, hogy mely konduktiv pedagogiai intezmeny segitette a Mobility Activity Cards elkesziteset. A londoni Jessica Kingsley Publishers altal 2006-ban napvilagot latott kartyacsomagot kovette egy masik, amely a Challenge Me! Speech and Communication Cards nevet viseli es amely az elso kiadvannyal megegyezoen 3-12 eves gyerekeknek keszult feladatokat tartalmaz. E masodik csomag 2009-ben jelent meg. Mindket csomagot hasznosan tudom alkalmazni konduktiv munkam soran, igy szertettel ajanlom mindazoknak, akik meg nem hallottak rola. Az ara egy kicsit borsos...

Tovabbi informaciok a kiadonal,

http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/book/9781843104971
http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/book/9781843109464

Contemporary thinking

2011-05-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

Neuroplasticity: Learning Physically Changes the Brain

How lessons and experiences can shape and grow your students' brains over time.
by Sara Bernard

"There are a few broad principles that we can state come out of neuroscience," says Kurt Fischer, education professor and director of the Mind, Brain, and Education Program at Harvard University. Number one? "The brain is remarkably plastic," Fischer explains. "Even in middle or old age, it's still adapting very actively to its environment." Translation: All those little brains in your classroom are physically growing and changing every time they learn something. And there are ways to keep that happening.
Despite the fact that the concept of neuroplasticity is broad, vague, and hardly new (the theory was born in the mid-1800s and was heavily researched throughout the 1990s), it is one of the most reliable and fundamental discoveries about the brain that we have to date. Intelligence is not fixed, it turns out, nor planted firmly in our brains from birth. Rather, it's forming and developing throughout our lives.
Your Brain on Learning
According to neurologist and educator Judy Willis (and suggested by a research-rich chapter in the second edition of Developmental Psychopathology, among many other publications), neuroplasticity is defined as the selective organizing of connections between neurons in our brains.
This means that when people repeatedly practice an activity or access a memory, their neural networks -- groups of neurons that fire together, creating electrochemical pathways -- shape themselves according to that activity or memory. When people stop practicing new things, the brain will eventually eliminate, or "prune," the connecting cells that formed the pathways. Like in a system of freeways connecting various cities, the more cars going to certain destination, the wider the road that carries them needs to be. The fewer cars traveling that way, however, the fewer lanes are needed.
Neuroscientists have been chorusing "cells that fire together, wire together" since the late 1990s, meaning that if you perform a task or recall some information that causes different neurons to fire in concert, it strengthens the connections between those cells. Over time, these connections become thick, hardy road maps that link various parts of the brain -- and stimulating one neuron in the sequence is more likely to trigger the next one to fire. Thus, says Willis, "Practice makes permanent. The more times the network is stimulated, the stronger and more efficient it becomes."
Changing Brains in the Classroom
It turns out that if you tell students about this, it can have an effect on their brains too. Researchers Lisa Blackwell of Columbia University, along with Kali Trzesniewski and Carol Dweck of Stanford University, published a study in the journal Child Development in 2007 that found that both morale and grade points took a leap when students understood the idea that intelligence is malleable. Not only did those students who already believed this do better in school, but when researchers actively taught the idea to a group of students, they performed significantly better than their peers in a control group. Willis also found this to be true in her middle school classroom. Her students were more motivated to study, she says, when they knew that they were all fully physically capable of building knowledge and changing their brains.
Here are a few tips for making your classroom friendly to malleable brains: Practice, practice, practice. Repeating an activity, retrieving a memory, and reviewing material in a variety of ways helps build thicker, stronger, more hard-wired connections in the brain.
Put information in context. Recognizing that learning is, essentially, the formation of new or stronger neural connections, it makes sense to prioritize activities that help students tap into already-existing pathways (for instance, by integrating academic subjects or creating class projects relevant to their lives). In other words, nix the rote memorization. "Whenever new material is presented in such a way that students see relationships" between concepts, writes Willis, "they generate greater brain cell activity and achieve more successful long-term memory storage and retrieval."
Let students know that this is how the brain works. Breaking through those neuro-mythological barriers that paint intelligence as predetermined may ease students' minds and encourage them to use their brains. Willis notes, "Especially for students who believe they are 'not smart,' the realization that they can literally change their brains through study and review is empowering."

See: www.edutopia.org
http://www.edutopia.org/neuroscience-brain-based-learning-neuroplasticity

Szabo Zsuzsa

2011-03-31T13:02:00.000-07:00

Andrew Sutton facebook bejegyzesenek koszonhetoen

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1540593482

ma este todomasomra jutott Szabo Zsuzsa Fokusz RTL riport musora. Hat igen, a kulfoldi elet eltavolit bennunket olyan dolgoktol, amihez korabban komolyabban is kozunk volt. Ez ertendo termeszetesen minden szinten; hetkoznapi elet, baratok, munka, kultura, stb. Zsuzsa riportmusora komplex erzelmeket kavart fel bennem. Termeszetesen, mivel ez a blog csakis a konduktiv pedagogiara osszpontosit, nem szandekozom masegyebrol szolni, de megjegyzem sokkal melyebb kulturalis gondolotaim tamadtak, mint amirol a kovetkezokben olvasni fogtok.

Szabo Zsuzsa esete unikum, hiszen konduktor, aki a konduktiv pedagogia nyoman "csodat" muvel, el meg. DE, nem csak o maga, hanem az ot korulvevo "tarsasag" es kozos tevekenyseg-rendszeruk is csodaszamba megy. Ezek az emberek egy letuno vilag csodat veghezvinni kepes utolso elotti humanistai - egyebkent konduktorok. A nyugati vilagban el- es meg nem ismert, a volt szocialista orszagok teruleten devalvalodott kollektivizmus letezesenek es erejenek, meg nem tamadhatatlan letenek biztos evidenciaja. Az a kollektiv gondviseles, ami a filmben kidomborodik Zsuzsa iranyaba, a kondukcio egyik alaptezise (kimondva vagy kimondatlanul: tulsagosan is "szocialisztikus"). A kulonosen izgalmas emberi, tarsadalmi, erkolcsi magatartas-egyuttes ebben az, hogy egyeni erdekeken felulalallo empatikus magatartasat latunk, ami a valoban kihaloban van vilagszerte. Epp ezert, a riport szamomra sokkal kozelebbi kollektiv kapcsolatokrol szol, mint amiben "szerencsem" van elni ma. Egy elkepzelt erkolcs, amibe en meg belenottem otthon Magyarorszagon, itt Angliaban ma bizonyosan nem letezo vonasa a hetkoznapi letnek. A kollektivizmus mint erkolcsi magatartas megkoveteli a magasfoku egyeni felelosseget; "minden ember felelos azoknak a kozossegeknek a sorsaert, amelyeknek tagja, nemcsak csalad, nemzet, de vegso soron az egesz tarsadalom (de legalabb, korulvevo tarsadalom) sorsaert is. Ez a fajta felelossegerzes abszolut alapveto jellemzoje a konduktiv pedagogianak (tradicionalis felfogasban). Mifelenk a nyugati vilagban?

"Aki itt belepsz,hagyj fel minden remennyel..."

May be it is history

2011-03-09T09:56:00.000-08:00

After some weeks preparation finally everything came together and we managed to conduct CE through Skype to a group of six children. I was inspired by a Hungarian e-conference provider, Gyula Takacs, who encouraged me long ago to try such a thing. To be honest, I was quite sceptical about non-personal delivering of CE but when one of our former colleagues left from UK to USA the idea emerged again. We had life experience of e-CE this afternoon and we definitely can see more clearly about the possibilities of cyber CE. Well, the event will be analysed, and I, we will publish an assay on what we experienced and what we think about it.

"Tegnapi" hir

2011-02-26T02:22:00.000-08:00

Megszűnhetnek a Pető Intézet ingyenes foglalkozásai.

Az intézmény igazgatója szerint elképzelhető, hogy csak Anyagi gondokkal küzd a Pető Intézet. A nemzetközi szinten elismert intézmény eddig térítésmentesen tudta gyógyítani a mozgásszervi bajokkal született gyermekeket. A támogatások csökkenése miatt azonban lehet, hogy hamarosan pénzt kell kérniük a foglalkozásokért.

Pásztorné Dr. Tass Ildikó igazgató az MR1-Kossuth Rádió Napközben című műsorában elmondta: az elmúlt négy-öt évben több száz millió forint állami támogatástól estek el. Emiatt az intézet bizonyos fejlesztési tevékenységek fenntartására be kellett, hogy vezesse a térítési díjat, ami csak részben fedezi a költségeket.

Az intézet eddig is nyújtott fizetős szolgáltatásokat, igaz azok csak a külföldi betegeket érintették. Az ebből befolyt pénz nem jelentett pluszbevételt az intézménynek, mert az állami támogatás a működési költségek mindössze hatvan százalékát fedezi.

A Pető Intézet fejlesztő foglalkozásaira azért van szükség, hogy a mozgásszervi bajokkal küzdő gyermekek később ne eltartottként éljék életüket, képesek legyenek az önellátásra, esetleg dolgozni is tudjanak.

térítési díj ellenében tudnak foglalkozni a beteg gyerekekkel.

http://www.hirado.hu/Hirek/2011/02/25/13/Ezentul_penzert_gyogyulhatnak_a_gyerekek.aspx

6th Annual CEPEG conference

2011-02-17T10:45:00.000-08:00

Only 3 weeks to go...

Conductive Education Professional Education Group
CEPEG

Cheese and Wine at:

The Rainbow Centre
The Bradbury Building
Palmerston Drive
Fareham
PO14 1BJ

Conductive Education Professional Education Group
CEPEG

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
12 March 2011
Novotel, Southampton

Presentations in plan:

Meeting the need of children with sensory challenges through an adapted CE programme
The PACE centre
Heather Last and Lindsay Hardy

The first 18 months: A different focus for CE
Katalin Gonczy
NICE

Introducing and developing a system of aided language stimulation using the PODD system
Rosie Clark and Gail Weir
Greenmead School

Looking at engagement in those with complex difficulties and disabilities
Katie Murray
Percy Hedley Foundation

Goal planning – is there a place for it within CE?
Theresa Kinnersley
NICE

Swimming in Conductive Education
DVD
Judith Blake
Craig-y-Parc School

The potential impact of the current national educational strategies on CE settings.
Ruth Zimmerman
Horton Lodge School

Outreach Service
Workshop (max 20)

Beata Turi Kusel

Effective partnerships and meeting needs
Sarah Ffoulkes Roberts and Rachel Sebastino
Dame Vera Lynn School for Parents

Who am I?
Perceptions of professional identity
Liz Southall
NICE

In meeting the needs of the neurologically impaired individual, a multi-professional team is a requirement not an option
Patrick Salter
SCCM

Carol Johnson,
Manual Handling Advisor
Carol Johnson

A presentation from Rutland House School

Qualitative research on CE adult services
Laszlo Szogeczki
Independent Conductive Education Services

Transitions in practice
Thorsten Gegenwarth
Therapeinstitute Keil

Dyspraxia and CE.
The earlier the better.
Annamaria Berger
Megan Baker House

Research agenda and ICF for CE
Melanie Brown
NICE

Handwriting without tears.
PACE

Running An Inclusive Nursery
with a Conductive Ethos
Jules McDonalds
Becky Wilkinson
Laszlo Szogeczki
Legacy Rainbow House

Hand & Arm Spasticity Surgeon

2011-02-12T16:14:00.000-08:00

During our CE professional carrier we often expected to share our “conductive “opinion on surgical solution of different physical difficulties. Parents are asking our view on specific operation possibilities when something seems to be stuck or developing very slow. This is understandable. During my student years in the early 90’s at the Peto Institute, Budapest, there was no such a module, training where we could study the main ideas of CP related surgical methods. I learnt however that some of the experienced conductors knew about such solutions and they were really confident to suggest… also, we saw many children who have already had different operations or were going to have one. Top of that, I learnt that Dr. Tibor Vizkeleti, a Hungarian orthopaedic surgeon had a great professional relationship with the Institute. I understood that surgery was a medical way of approaching physical problems and as such it was not the main focus of the training of CE but we all missed that bit…or maybe we did not realize when we were there but soon after leaving the alma mater it become obvious to me personally that a little knowledge of that subject could have helped my everyday life as a conductor. Since, I learnt through experience a lot and I developed my own idea of many types of surgeries as I work with children and adults on an everyday basis but it took some good years to do so. I have learnt that different countries have different general thinking of approaches and those could be very different. Just recently, Susie M. was asking if we could suggest anything on Dorsal Tenotomy. This fact made me to think that it could be so great to share “results” in terms of seeing those through conductors’ eyes…
Just only some days later one of our kids’ mother was asking if we knew Waseem Rias Saeed’s Hand & Arm spasticity surgical method - actually we, I did not.
So, I thought to share this (see below) maybe some others can say something about it or learn about it and use it.

The following text is from his www.waseemsaed.com website.

Hand & Arm Spasticity

Hand and arm spasticity develops as a result of damage to that part of the brain that controls the limb. This may be apparent at or shortly after birth as in cerebral palsy, or be the devastating consequence of a severe head injury, brain mass or stroke. Despite these conditions being common, the provision of integrated surgical care for these patients has not been widely available. It was disturbing to me that many patients had been actively discouraged from surgical intervention or told, frequently by specialists, that there was none. Many of these patients suffered and continue to suffer from avoidable disability throughout their lives. The United Kingdom did not have a dedicated treatment centre for the surgical treatment of spasticity in the upper limb despite an increasing and weighty body of evidence supporting its benefits. This was in contrast to established units in the USA, Europe and Australia. I had gained experience in the treatment of such patients in Louisville in the United States and had made an in depth survey of the current literature on surgical techniques and the results of these techniques. My conclusions were that certain surgical techniques had been shown clearly to be beneficial in these patients. In 2000 I set up a multidisciplinary team with senior occupational and physiotherapists to treat patients afflicted with spasticity of the arms. This is called the CP Clinic although all causes of upper limb spasticity are treated. Colleagues in paediatric and adult neurology, rehabilitation medicine and paediatric orthopaedics to are also available to provide an overall strategy of care.

A NEW APPROACH

My approach to patients suffering from spasticity preventing hand use – whether an infant born with cerebral palsy or an elderly stroke-victim, challenges some of the preconceived ideas that have lead to patients being denied surgical intervention over the years. I have introduced surgical modifications based on biomechanical studies that exist in the peer-reviewed, hand surgery literature and simply do not accept the (unsupported) view that the brain cannot adapt and learn new ways of using the hand into adulthood. Some of my own patients have clearly demonstrated this adaptation. It was clear to me from my work on tendons that the traditional view of immobilising patients following surgery for cerebral palsy had little scientific support. In contrast the advantages of early movement in terms of less scarring and stronger tendons was established. As a result I incorporated early movement into the post-operative protocol for the patients that I treat. This has been successful and at the time of writing is a unique post-operative protocol for this condition.I have carefully recorded all aspects of patient's’ function in a multidisciplinary clinic, using validated assessment and outcome measures prior to surgery and at intervals after surgery. In 2003, I presented my early results at the annual meeting of The Federation of European Societies for Surgery of the Hand in Lisbon – a meeting attended by hand specialists from around the world. The work was received well (appendix 2).3 years later the extended work was presented at the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand Meeting in Sidney 2007.I have started to train the next generation of hand surgeons in the techniques involved and increased awareness through presentations to primary and secondary care physicians, trainees and therapists. The work continues at currently the only unit in the UK dedicated to the treatment of upper limb spasticity in a multi-disciplinary setting. Patients are referred on a national and regional level.

Another prove of Peto's genius

2011-02-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

The Act of “Learning”

Scientists knew that new brain cells are able “enhance learning” – they never thought that “learning” could actually cause the birth of new brain cells… that is, until recently. In recent animal studies, researchers have found that there was a direct relationship between “learning” and the survival rate of newly-birthed brain cells.

When researchers taught certain rodents a wide-variety of cognitive tasks which involved a wide-range of brain areas – scientists found that the more the animal “learned” – the more new neurons were able to survive in the hippocampus. Scientists have made it clear that “learning” can increase the presence of new neurons in the brain.

Brain cells that are born in the hippocampus, which normally die off, are literally “rescued” by “learning” experiences. There is still plenty of research being conducted in this area and not all sources agree.

An Enriched Environment

Science has long known that living in a mentally stimulating environment vs. an impoverished environment is far better for brain development. Research has found that exposure to an enriched environment enhances neurogenesis functioning and is able to regulate emotionality.

Scientists have found that memory-based tasks were far improved in the hippocampus region of the brain when human beings are raised in a healthy, enriched environment. One study found that mice put in stimulating environments actually had larger hippocampus regions than did those living in “standard” or “poor” laboratory conditions. They discovered a direct correlation between an enriched environment and the amount of neurons produced in the brains of mice. This had a significant effect on neurogenesis!

An Exercise Regimen

Everybody knows that exercise is good for your overall health and heart, but in recent findings, powerful evidence has proven that exercise is great for your brain. Scientific experiments have discovered that mice consistently using running wheels had around 2x the amount of hippocampal neurons (brain cells) as the mice that didn’t exercise.

Another study at Colombia University found that humans who had a exercise training program were able to grow and maintain new brain cells and nerve cells in the hippocampus region of the brain. The specific area called the “dentate gyrus” is responsible for helping produce neurogeneis. Even more studies have discovered that those who exercised had 2 – 3x increases in the birth-rate of new neurons!

For more information:

The Journal of Neuroscience. 2007 Mar; 27(13): 3252-3259. Experience-Specific Functional Modification of the Dentate Gyrus through Adult Neurogenesis: A Critical Period during an Immature Stage. Tashiro A, Makino H, Gage FH.

Stanford University Research In Progress: HD & Lifestyle http://www.stanford.edu/group/hopes/rltdsci/inprogress/ae2.html

Ujra es ujra, ismet, megint lehangolo kutatasi eredmeny

2011-01-27T12:38:00.000-08:00

Par napja szamoltam be a legfrissebb konduktiv pedagogiat vizsgalo angol kutatasi eredmeny publikalasarol. Azota Andrew Suttonnak sikerult hozzajutnia a szoveghez es blogjaban mar kozetette a lehangolo eredmenyt, miszerint a kutatocsoport nem ajanlja a Britt iskolaknak, hogy a konduktiv pedagogia rendszeret, mint strukturat alkalmazzak, vagy financialisan tamogassak a szulok eziranyu kereseit.

Azt mar lehet tudni, hogy a kutatocsoport evtizedekkel korabban publikalt eredmenyekbol deduktiv uton jutott erre az allaspontra.

Nyilvan valakinek az Egyesult Kiralysagban reagalnia kellene; ertekelni a kutatast, biralni annak metodologiajat es dizajnjat, esetleg nem utolso sorban eredmenyeit vitatni megfelelo modon megvedeni a konduktiv pedagogia letjogosultsagat es versenykepesseget. Talan nem ohajtanek sokat, ha azt kivannam, hogy egy ertekelo cikk jelenhessen meg a publikalo magazinban.

Ki irhatna? Tulajdonkeppen barmelyik konduktiv pedagogiat Britanniaban eredmenyesen alakalmazo iskola pedagogusa, pszichologusa, egyeb szakembere, vagy akar a Britt konduktiv pedagogiai szakmai forum.

Remelem, valaki abban a pozicioban van, hogy ezt megtehesse, idot es energiat nem sajnalva reagal. Let's hope!

New! Conductive education: appraising the evidence

2011-01-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

Title: Conductive education: appraising the evidence

Author: Louise Tuersley-Dixon, Norah Frederickson

Publication: Educational Psychology in Practice

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Date: January 12, 2010

Abstract: Conductive education (CE) is widely reported as having a range of benefits. In the last two decades, it has expanded internationally. Educational Psychologists may well encounter parents requesting this specialist intervention which is not normally offered within Local Authority special needs provision, for children with cerebral palsy and other motor difficulties. This paper reviews the empirical research to investigate the specific claims that CE improves motor skills, thinking skills and independence and the counter claim that it may cause harm. Implications for practice are discussed.

Regarding to Andrew Suttons' last posting

2011-01-17T15:42:00.000-08:00

See his post http://www.conductive-world.info/2011/01/what-will-happen-to-peto-institute-now.html

Announcement issued by MTI on 28/12/2010:

Non-profit companies and central government agencies to take over the thirty-five, the government established by the Foundation and charitable functions of the cessation of which appeared in the latest government decision aims to Hungarian Gazette.

A Magyar Mozgókép Közalapítványnál - néhány más alapítvánnyal együtt - soron kívüli ellenőrzést végez a Kormányzati Ellenőrzési Hivatal.

The Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation for - along with some other foundation - unscheduled inspection, the Government Accountability Office.

Megszűnik a többi között az Európai Összehasonlító Kisebbségkutatások Közalapítvány, a Fogyatékos Személyek Esélyegyenlőségéért Közalapítvány, a Gandhi Közalapítvány, az Iparfejlesztési Közalapítvány, a Magyar Kultúra Alapítvány, a Magyar Nemzeti Üdülési Alapítvány és a Nemzetközi Pető András Közalapítvány.

Will the rest of the European Comparative Minority Research Foundation, the Foundation for Equal Opportunities of Persons with Disabilities, the Gandhi Foundation, the Industrial Development Foundation, the Hungarian Culture Foundation, the Hungarian National Holiday Foundation and the International Foundation for Andras Peto.

Az új közhasznú szervezetek megalapításáról az állami vagyon felügyeletéért felelős tárcavezetőnek - azaz Fellegi Tamás nemzeti fejlesztési miniszternek - kell gondoskodnia.

The new non-profit organizations responsible for overseeing the establishment of state assets tárcavezetőnek - Fellegi Thomas is the national development minister - should be sought.

A kormányhatározat további alapítványok és közalapítványok megszüntetéséről is rendelkezik.

The government decision is the elimination of additional foundations and charitable organizations have.

A határozat értelmében ily módon szűnik meg a többi között az 1956-os Magyar Forradalom Történetének Dokumentációs és Kutatóintézete Közalapítvány; a Betegjogi, Ellátottjogi és Gyermekjogi Közalapítvány; az Emberi Jogok Magyar Központja Közalapítvány; a Habsburg-kori Kutatások Közalapítvány; a Hajléktalanokért Közalapítvány; a Határon Túli Magyar Oktatásért Apáczai Közalapítvány; a Környezetgazdálkodási Oktatási Fejlesztésért Alapítvány; a Magyarországi Cigányokért Közalapítvány; a Magyarországi Nemzeti és Etnikai Kisebbségekért Közalapítvány; a Magyary Zoltán Felsőoktatási Közalapítvány; az Oktatásért Közalapítvány; a Magyar Filmtörténeti Fotógyűjtemény Alapítvány; a Magyar Könyv Alapítvány és a Magyar Történelmi Film Közalapítvány.

The decision is thus eliminated in the rest of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the History Foundation of the Institute, the patients 'care recipients' and Children's Rights Foundation, the Human Rights Centre for Public Foundation of Hungary, the Habsburg-era Research Foundation, Foundation for the Homeless, the Cross Over Apáczai Hungarian Education Foundation, the Environmental Education Development Foundation, the Public Foundation for Roma in Hungary, the Hungarian National and Ethnic Minorities Foundation; the Magyary Zoltán Foundation for Higher Education, the Education Foundation, the Hungarian Film History Photo Collection Foundation, the Hungarian Book Foundation and the Hungarian Film History Foundation.

A kormányhatározat ugyanakkor kimondja, hogy a megszűnő alapítvány vagy közalapítvány által ellátott feladatokkal kapcsolatban tanácsadó testület hozható létre a kuratóriumaik bázisán.

The government resolution states, however, that the legacy foundation or public foundation in relation to the tasks of the Advisory Council to create a base board.

Michael Winterhoff's concept seems to be close to CE

2011-01-07T00:13:00.000-08:00

I posted about a "new"pedagogical discussion some days ago in Hungarian (19th December). Now, I thought to mention it in English as well since the view of Michael Winterhoff, a German child-psychologist, seems to have several correlating ideas with CE. It is not a suprise. CE remained to be in its pedagogical framework as it was years and years before. Oppositely, modern education has changed enormuosly in the last twenty-thirty years. Winterhoff recognises the downsides of the modern approach and efforts to highlight the values of the "traditional', or lets say earlier pedagogical methods both at home or school.

Here I copied a little text of him just raise your attention to this subject.

"Children used to be seen as children and intuitively led and guided by adults as such. For at least 15 years now they have been treated as partners and reared with the help of discussion and explanations. But you can't learn tennis, either, by having it explained and demonstrated to you. It isn't only parents and grandparents that are making major mistakes today, but professionals, too. This starts as far back as kindergarten and continues on into school, where teachers are receding more and more into the background and assuming the role of mentor and, more recently, coach. Primary school pupils are supposed to teach themselves reading, writing and arithmetic; grade one is taught by grade two. The fact is, however, that from a developmental psychology perspective, small children go to school to gain their mothers' approval and do many things they don't feel like doing for their teachers' sake.

To make matters worse, many parents compensate for the growing loss of orientation and recognition they feel today according to the following motto: even if nobody out there loves me, my child at least should do so. This unconscious compensation for a need cements the reversal of power that is the subject of infants' phantasies until they realize, from age three onwards, that grownups are bigger and stronger than they are. However, the worst part of it is that the general uncertainty and anxiety about the future of our society causes parents to merge with their children's minds in a kind of symbiosis. All of these relational disorders are linked to false reactions that make emotional development impossible. We end up with an entire generation of under-three-year-olds: egocentric, unable to cope with life, lacking in independence, unemployable or unfit for vocational training. This problem, by the way, is a worldwide phenomenon, seen in all of the wealthy countries and not only in Germany.

So this is not a consequence of the anti-authoritarian-education ideal fostered by the post-68ers in Germany?

No, absolutely not. And it is not a question of any kind of pedagogical discussion either. The tragic part of it is that the problems these children have can no longer be solved even through increased strictness. The child is not overburdened because it is treated as a separate person but because it is treated like a small adult. "

Source: http://www.goethe.de/wis/fut/bko/en6480095.htm

I like this

2010-12-23T02:41:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-19T15:11:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-18T15:45:00.000-08:00

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 (?)

2010-12-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-05T14:57:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

"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?

2010-11-27T04:35:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-21T13:16:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

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

2010-10-31T13:35:00.000-07:00

"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 :)

2010-10-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-10-28T02:28:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

Explicit vagy implicit?

2010-09-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-09-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

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 (?)

2010-06-19T05:27:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-06-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-06-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-27T12:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

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.

This rings the bell

2010-04-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

It is absolutely not a surprise when we learn about new (or not known) group therapies/ activities/ approaches and they show similarities to Conductive Education. In this big family we all seek the power of the operative dynamic of group setting to help our people to transform from point A to B.
As the title suggests, the following topic rang the bells for me. I do not wish to analyse it but I am fully happy to share it and leave it with you.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)

is psychological therapy which blends features of cognitive therapy with mindfulness techniques. MBCT involves accepting thoughts and feelings without judgement rather than trying to push them out of consciousness, with a goal of correcting cognitive distortions. MBCT's main technique is based on an 8 week program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn called mindfulness-based stress reduction, which was adapted for use with major depressive disorder. The aim of MBCT is not relaxation or happiness in themselves, but, rather, a "freedom from the tendency to get drawn into automatic reactions to thoughts, feelings, and events". MBCT programs usually consist of eight-weekly two hour classes with weekly assignments to be done outside of session. The aim of the program is to enhance awareness so clients are able to respond to things instead of react to them.

D e s c r i p t i o n
Mindfulness Skills have emerged as an important focus of several empirically supported treatments. Dialectical Behavior Therapy for borderline personality disorder, mindfulness-based cognitive behavior therapy for depression, and mindfulness-based stress reduction are based in mindfulness. The roots of mindfulness practice are in the contemplative practices common to both eastern and western spiritual disciplines and to the emerging scientific knowledge about the benefits of “allowing” experiences rather
than suppressing or avoiding them. Mindfulness in its totality has to do with the quality of awareness that a person brings to everyday living; learning to control your mind, rather than letting your mind control you. Mindfulness as a practice directs your attention to only one thing, and that one thing is the moment you are living in. When you recognize the moment, what it looks like, feels like, tastes like, sounds like – you are being mindful. Further, mindfulness is the process of observing, describing, and participating in reality in a nonjudgmental manner, in the moment and with effectiveness. At the same time, mindfulness is the window to acceptance, freedom, and wisdom.

I n s t r u c t i o n
These are guidelines for leading mindfulness practice in a group setting. Leadership of the mindfulness practice should rotate from member to member. These instructions reflect just that; everyone gets a chance to lead the practice. The leader should receive nonjudgmental feedback and coaching about the exercise.

B e g i n n i n g
The team leader asks a designated person, “Are you prepared to lead us in a mindfulness practice?” If the person answers, “yes”, the team proceeds. If not, the leader moves on to the next person, continuing until someone answers “yes”. The person leading the exercise is bell keeper as well, so the bell is passed to them at this moment. The team practices a nonjudgmental attitude toward anyone who is unprepared to lead. Why ask if the person is prepared? His or her preparation enhances the quality of the practice of every person on the team.

TELL A PERSONAL STORY
This anchors the exercise in the listener’s mind. Place the mindfulness exercise you're leading in the context of your daily life. Telling a personal story evokes emotion, making it easier for the group to recall the specific practice.

MAKE THE EXERCISE SIMPLE (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH EASY).
In other words, pick ONE thing as the focus of your mindful attention. For instance, if you lead mindful breathing, you might suggest focusing on the rise and fall of the belly OR the sensation at the tip of the nose where the breath comes in OR the point in the back of the throat where the air is exhaled OR counting each breath. But, ask that each person pick ONE thing as his or her focus: This seems especially salient for beginners.

ANTICIPATE AND GIVE INSTRUCTIONS ON "WANDERING" ATTENTION
We like to refer to this as "what to do when you lose your mind". It's perfectly normal and expectable that the mind will wander off to something other than the focal point. For example, the mind may start craving that pastry on the table in front of you, or worry about paying that unexpectedly large credit card bill or detect an unbelievably intense urge to scratch the itch you've just noticed on the tip of your left nostril. Of course your mind does this and it’s fine. Really fine. The practice is to catch your mind wandering and gently, gently, gently bring it back to the exercise. THAT is the practice! THAT is mindfulness! If you start judging yourself because your mind is wandering, notice your judging (without judging it) and bring your attention back. Likewise, if you're thinking what a wonderful person you are because you can really concentrate, notice your judgments (without judging) and bring your attention
back to the practice.

ASK FOR FEEDBACK
After you have led the practice, you may find it helpful to hear nonjudgmental feedback, coaching, and reflection on your story, your bell-keeping, your instructions, etc. Remind the group to give you very specific behavioral instructions on something they would change. Our rule is to start with brief and genuine appreciative or complimentary feedback. Remember that one of the most effective ways to strengthen your skills is to strengthen your awareness of what you do well.

INCORPORATE THE COACHING ON THE SPOT
If you and your team have the time after feedback, you can practice your new improved version of your instructions, sounding the bell, or telling your story by giving you a little time for behavioral rehearsal. Remind your teammates of the fundamentals of shaping: END AT A HIGH POINT. They should praise you, allow you to stop, and smile at you warmly, the moment you improve your behavior.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING A MINDFULNESS BELL
The mindfulness bell serves as a cue for the practice. We advise you to use the bell for mindfulness only, avoiding use of it for bringing your team back to order. At retreat centers, the bell is invited to sound, not rung. Inviting the bell to sound, mindfully, marks the beginning and end of the formal exercise. These guidelines are an example of ones used at mindfulness retreats: Invite the bell to sound three times to start the practice, and three times to end it. As the bell sounds three times, slowly, mindfully, it gives your mind a few moments to settle down and ready itself for the practice. Likewise, inviting the bell at the end of the practice reminds you to bring yourself back to the present moment, as you move from mindfulness practice to team discussion. NOTE: Remember to orient new team members to the bell
and it's purpose.

Being Alive

2010-04-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

Just a short notice of Being Alive...
What was am I talking about? oh yeah, CE...
To be honest, it was a great break and now just as nice to be back. First, my faith helped me through couple of dificulties in February and March was the time for re-building. By now - as my re-apparence on the blog shows too, I am back and I know my staff. I do not only know but people alongside and behind me, that is a great feeling.

And let me advise something to read:

Slavin, Roberta L. : Operative group dynamics in school settings: Structuring to enhance educational, social, and emotional progress.

This article describe the dynamics taking place in school settings, particularly in classrooms. Literature pertaining to the use of group dynamics in classrooms. A number of significant group therapy concepts are addressed. Furthermore, group-as-a-whole, group structure, transference-countertransference, the school and the classroom as holding environments, and therapeutic factors. Some practical dynamic strategies that are meant to strengthen group operations in classroom also be included.

Source: Group, Vol 26(4), Dec, 2002. pp. 297-308.

Why people hurt others?

2010-02-17T06:17:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was hurt in a Conductive Education environment. I try not to keep posting about myself here therefore I thought to share some ideas which are more general but seek for the reasons why people hurt others (anywhere or at CE).

These are Tetcha's thoughts I agree 100% with:

Some people hurt others for kicks. Really, there are people who experience a sense of euphoria when they inflict pain on others; they derive pleasure from other people’s sufferings. In Arlene J. Chai’s book, Eating Fire and Drinking Water a certain character in that book caught my attention; his name is Aure, a military colonel tasked with quelling terrorism in the South (Note: South here refers to the terrorist-infected southern part of the Philippines). This Aure is a man that belied his calm demeanor, for underneath the mask is an animal that unleashes his claws to torment his victims with the most horrid things imaginable (cutting a flesh here, scooping an eyeball there). And this he does in the full feeling and seeing of his preys; they are being mutilated alive. What can I say to such people? None. No one can change their convoluted minds, so I wouldn’t even try.

Some people maliciously hurt others as an act of vengeance. This, I think, is the most logical reason behind the need to cause others to suffer – to get even for some reasons, real or imagined. I hope that people who wreaked physical or emotional wounds on others have found a valid reason to do so and not do the hurting solely on the basis of some made-up thoughts or impressions concocted by malicious minds; otherwise, the premeditated “hurting” only becomes a channel for venting one’s hang-ups or grudges on the wrong party. To those who say, “Vengeance is mine,” you can learn a thing or two from Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi when he says, “An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.” Don’t harbor ill will, throw it out. You’re better off without any excess baggage. Go light. Be happy.

Some people get manipulated to hurt others. People come in different shapes and sizes. There are the “dictator” types who think that they own people and that they could impose on them. Trailing behind are the “puppets” who seem to have no mind of their own, allowing others to decide for them, never questioning the dictator’s intentions. To those who dictate upon others, may you be filled with enough cunning so that those you dictate upon won’t be able to discern the real score, because if they do, you might one day end up all by your lonesome self. And to the puppets, wake up, you’re human beings with free reins on your thoughts and actions. Must you totally abandon the dictates of your own conscience just to give in to another person’s every whim, however absurd? Remember the Golden Rule: “Do unto others what you want others do unto you.” I suppose you don’t want to be hurt yourself. (Terrible but it did not work for me this time…)

Some people are oblivious to the fact that they’re hurting others. Call it lack of sensitivity, if you must, but some people can be tactless sometimes they hurt others without really meaning to. The hurting may come in the form of a seemingly trivial comment, a broken promise, a missed appointment, even simple acts of courtesy that might have been overlooked for whatever reason. Enemies can hurt you, but sometimes friends and loved ones can hurt you more. Why? Because you love them, that’s why. And you expect much from them. What do I say to those who don’t know they’re hurting others? Always put yourself in the other person’s shoes; never assume that the other person always understands. S/he may be in one of those wake-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-bed days or may be particularly feeling down and out, you may be rubbing salt to her/his wounds, making it all the more unbearable. For whatever it’s worth, learn to patch up your differences. It won’t hurt to say, “I’m sorry.”

Some people allow others to hurt them. Though it’s hard to admit, we’re sometimes responsible for how people treat us. In order to live harmoniously with others, we sometimes willingly give in and allow others to have their way, letting stale comments and little acts of discourtesy pass, without so much as giving a thought to them. Unfortunately, the very act of giving and understanding and making lame excuses for how others behave (or misbehave) toward us sends the wrong signal – that they (the misbehaving crowd) can get away with everything, and again, because we seem to be okay with what they do; it doesn’t seem to annoy us one bit, although the truth of the matter is, we’re fuming mad we’re just not showing it. We bear all of the other party’s blows up to the point where we can bear no more. Sooner or later, we’ll explode and there’s no turning back on angry words thrown at each other, forever burning the bridges that had once been witness to good relationships. How do we guard ourselves then from getting hurt? Learn not to be nice all the time; you’re prone to abuse. Give the other party a piece of your mind and heart; don’t let others trample on your pride and dignity, because in the end that’s what you will have left.

The acts of hurting and getting hurt are but parcels of our human existence. Each of us inevitably gets hurt one way or the other, and there’s no escaping that stark reality. We invariably cause other people’s pains and sufferings, too, by mere thoughts, words, or actions, however we deny it. Whether the hurting was done just for kicks or vengeance, out of sheer manipulation or mere insensitivity, or because there are willing victims, it’s not really the beatings we received that matter, but how we deal with those hurts. We can accept each whack in the back nonchalantly or make our indignations heard. We can own up to our faults – if we’re to be honest about it – that we deserve what we’re getting or we can justify our ill treatment of others. Whatever – different folks, different strokes. The morale of the story is: No matter how harshly others treat us, we must not lose sight of what it’s like to live without resentment in our hearts. We may not always forget, but we can always forgive those who have wronged us. Continue to believe that there’s an inherent good in all of us, that there’s no such thing as people born bad, and that there’s still hope for humanity.

Energy

2010-02-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

One of the main aims of Conductive Education is to develop participants’ will, “drive” life energy which is crucial to our life as a human at every level.
One of the main reasons why people fail to achieve everything they are capable of, even if they know they are capable of so much more is due to the related conditions of apathy, lethargy and lack of motivation - all of which are due to one fundamental factor - lack of personal energy.
Most will have noticed that there are also times when you have seemingly boundless energy, during which times almost anything seems possible - and indeed is.
So the question we must as ourselves is why this is?
Why is it that sometimes you can feel invincible and capable of anything, yet at others lethargic, fatigued and helpless, where achieving even the most basic tasks seems an effort?
The simple but profoundly important answer is personal energy.
By personal energy I don’t mean the type of Energy derived from foods, or by drinking "energy drinks" etc. - they are often nothing more than stimulants giving a temporary illusion of energy - rather mean universal life energy.
As humans we have three fundamental objectives as relates to energy:
1. Get contacted to our own energy
2. Direct our energy in an effective way
3. Store our energy
This is a small sample of what Baron Eugene Fersen, the founder of Science of Being says about energy:
"Even when, through an effort of will power, you are able to overcome that feeling and start to do your work, you begin presently to experience a sense of fatigue which often culminates in actual exhaustion. That is the reason why work is a real ordeal to most people, with the result that they do it not because they like it, but because most often they are compelled by circumstances to do it. …
Once connected with your own power which flows in you, supplying all the life force you need for the work you have to perform, and even much more than that, the thing that seemed difficult to you before will appear easier and simple, because of the superabundance of energy at your disposal.The sense of laziness you may have felt before starting to work will be done away with as if by magic; and as for fatigue, you will soon forget the meaning of that word, because -you will realize that -the more you work with the Universal Power to back up every step, the stronger and healthier you will become. That which appeared to you before almost as an ordeal will become a real pleasure to you. Thus not only will your attitude toward your work change, but your entire outlook on life will change and broaden also, bringing you that sense of freedom, of exhilaration and reserve power which invariably comes to him who is "stepping out of the rut."
http://www.scienceofbeing.com/
The more positive energy that can be stored, and the more efficiently it can be stored, the more energy "reserves" we have access to, and the more energetic we will feel.
In other words the less lethargic we feel.
It is absolutely crucial, for a wide range of reasons to develop people with disabilities to find their energy to cope, to keep up with their life.This kind of life energy of course cannot be replaced, but it can be developed and maintained in optimum condition so that it may hold the maximum energy which can be deployed and utilised at will.
So, one of the main aims of Conductive Education is to develop the participants’ will, “drive” life energy which is crucial to our life as a human at every level.

Baron Eugene Alexandrovics Fersen (1873 - 1956)

"The Teacher of the Teachers," gave to the world his truth, his knowledge, and his seat-of-power knowing that all of Humankind should have access to the secret teachings that were only privy to the rich and powerful. He came to share with us these secrets; with the hope that we would free ourselves with this knowledge and rid ourselves of the myths that hold us hostage and bind us to our physical bodies and this Earthly existence. There are other secrets, which still remain secret, because it is believed that main-stream minds and hearts are not ready to comprehend their truths at this time. He taught and believed that “As humans enlightened their Spirits with this knowledge more would be revealed to them.”

Changing the world

2010-01-27T05:17:00.000-08:00

Margaret Ledwith writes about changing the world in Participatory Practice, (2010) Policy Press :
We believe that the process of transformation often gets stuck at the personal, group or project stage… if you think participatively and ecologically, everything is interconnected and stuckness is a failure to make key connections for energy to flow in the system with the necessary feedback process. It is these processes that tip a system into a new way of being. We can engage in the dialogical, reflexive process within a community, but unless we extend that engagement to all who connect with the community, we are not opening up the valves for the process to become collective. We have to engage with communities of practice in ever-increasing cycles of reflection and action. …
From a practical perspective, there needs to be a commitment to continuous revolution, inner and outer. It involves linking people across systems, connecting with others.

Paulo Freire emphasised that transformative change begins in grassroots communities, and it is the powerless who, in liberating themselves, are the ones who liberate the powerful. Freire, P(1972) Pedagogy of the oppressed, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Community development is people development: people developing the power and self-worth to use their skills and knowledge to create positive change. It is about transfer of power to those local leaders…
The work of the community practitioner is to create the context for developing the skills and knowledge for people to join together collectively to bring about change. As individual issues becomes shared, a group establishes a project, projects become organised under a community-wide umbrella, perhaps a community forum, this provides a level of organising that leads to alliances, and alliances unite as movements for change. This brings back full circle to participatory democracy. … So community development, while building grassroots groups which link together to form social movem,ents, still retains local collective power to participate in decisions that improve local well-being. In this constant local-global dynamic, participatory democracy sustains a way of life on earth as a flourishing, mutual ecosystem.

After having some ideas about the process of transformation through the key stage levels of changing ourselves, connecting with others and changing the world, we must compare it to Conductive Education and find the similarities between those elements and our everyday practice.

Connecting with others

2010-01-25T15:27:00.000-08:00

Healthier people do seem to feel a greater emotional sense of connection and belonging, and that sense of meaning and connection is a vital part of health.

Skinner B.F.: Reflections on behaviourism and society, Englewood Cliffs 1978

Connecting collectively is central to community development process, and calls for us to work on number of levels at the same time. In our participatory practice, not only should we be engaging with individuals, groups and projects within the community, but also with the organisation and people who connect with community or impact on it. This is about bringing to the surface those hidden connections. Our work is about connecting people at all levels in all contexts, from community groups to movements for change. Not only does this heal alienation, but it also creates a common purpose for healthy world. Connections begin in less organised ways, and not only between groups, also not long period of time. Individuals represent, consciously or unconsciously, a wider society when connecting to other people who anyway also represent other groups of the society. A higher level when we consciously try to liaise with other groups of people – connecting collectively.

Changing +

2010-01-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

The extent to which we human beings do not achieve our potential to be creative authors of our own vision is due to the tremendous set of socialised perceptions –Truths- which promote a limited consciousness and prevent the development of critical awareness of the natural phenomenon of which we are an integral part and the dynamic, dialectic interaction which defines the relationship with our environment. Our truths function, ultimately, to prevent our self actualisation as individuals and in groups.

Murphy B: Transforming ourselves, transforming the world: An open conspiracy for social change, 1999 London: Zed Books

However, there is more to it than this. If we are a microcosm of the whole, then we have to seek balance and well-being within ourselves, since our own consciousness is interrelated to what is outside ourselves. So it is not just about re-visioning ourselves in relation to the whole, it is being whole in ourselves, in relation to the different parts of ourselves and the community of which we are a part. It is about being critically reflexive and critically engaged in the world on an inner and outer dimension.
In these ways, I see a participatory worldview as not simply an approach to practice – it is a way of life. We can not engage people in our working relation in a mutual, equal way, only to be abusive or exploitative in other contexts of our lives. This is duplicitous and simply does not work. Our value base provides the foundation of practice. For example, the concept of dialogue cannot be applied to practice without a profound understanding of the way that values of respect, dignity and human worth enable it to become an engagement that is mutual and reciprocal, one based on corporation rather than competition, based on humility rather than arrogance. This may seem a simple idea, but consider the way that arrogance is part of every day life in the West, encouraged as a form of status in competitive, top-down world. And arrogance is a form of bullying, an acting out of superiority that reflects dominant power relations. In order to ensure that superiority is not unconsciously acted out in dialogue as a form of power over others, we pay attention to. A self-reflexive approach to self-consciousness helps us to go deeper into understanding of personal power: who am I, in my maleness, femaleness, in my profession, in my middle classness, in my Whiteness…and how is this experienced by those who are other. An understanding of the way we express our values in relationships is vital to the process of liberation.
Partnerships cannot be mutual unless all parties believe they have as much to learn from each other as they have to give. In this sense, Freire saw mutuality in horizontal relations; co-learners, co-teachers, co-researchers working as true partners in the process of liberation.

Changing

2010-01-20T08:19:00.001-08:00

“Ultimately we must ask ourselves what kind of a society we wish to live in and what we are going to do to make our vision a reality…
To find the courage and power to question and act in the interest of a more democratic and just world.”

Darder A.: Reinventing Paulo Freire: Pedagogy of love
Boulder, CO and Oxford 2002

There are three key stages in the process of transformations: changing ourselves, connecting with others and changing the world.

In relation to changing the self, participation demands that we are part of the process; we can not set ourselves outside the process of change. Engaging in participatory practice is engaging in our own transformation. How can we help others to become authentic if we are not open to challenge and to change ourselves?

Changing can not be achieved without a unity of praxis in which theory, practice and change are integrated. If we are seeking balance and wholeness in community we need to hold a balance within ourselves, and be aware when the balance is challenged. We also need to understand the nature of relationship between ourselves and others. Self- reflection involves being aware of the relationship between our outer and our inner world.

Guide for fresh arrivals (conductors) to Britain

2010-01-09T13:48:00.000-08:00

No, it is not that serious as the title suggests…

During my “snow break” – off from school because of the unusual weather condition throughout the UK – I have had a chance to brose around between old and new literature. Although I knew George Mikes’ name from the articles of George Faludy, I never read anything from him so I dig out some old “minibuses” as Mikes called his writings and read them. Even if many contents of his topics are out of date for now, Mikes’ sense of humour makes us to laugh. I thought to share this piece with the world of conductors (Hungarians and others) in order to introduce George Mikes who wrote numerous minibuses. His literature can ease conductors life on abroad.

The following chapter is from
How to be an Alien: A Handbook for Beginners and More Advanced Pupils (1946)

THE LANGUAGE

When I arrived in England I thought I knew English. After I'd been here
an hour I realized that I did not understand one word. In the first week
I picked up a tolerable working knowledge of the language and the next seven
years convinced me gradually but thoroughly that I would never know it
really well, let alone perfectly. This is sad. My only consolation being
that nobody speaks English perfectly.
Remember that those five hundred words an average Englishman uses are
far from being the whole vocabulary of the language. You may learn another
five hundred and another five thousand and yet another fifty thousand and
still you may come across a further fifty thousand you have never heard of
before, and nobody else either. If you live here long enough you will find
out to your greatest amazement that the adjective nice is not the only
adjective the language possesses, in spite of the fact that in the first
three years you do not need to learn or use any other adjectives. You can
say that the weather is nice, a restaurant is nice, Mr Soandso is nice, Mrs
Soandso's clothes are nice, you had a nice time, and all this will be very
nice. Then you have to decide on your accent. You will have your foreign
accent all right, but many people like to mix it with something else. I knew
a Polish Jew who had a strong Yiddish-Irish accent. People found it
fascinating though slightly exaggerated. The easiest way to give the
impression of having a good accent or no foreign accent at all is to hold an
unlit pipe in your mouth, to mutter between your teeth and finish all your
sentences with the question: 'isn't it?' People will not understand much,
but they are accustomed to that and they will get a most excellent
impression.
I have known quite a number of foreigners who tried hard to acquire an
Oxford accent. The advantage of this is that you give the idea of being
permanently in the company of Oxford dons and lecturers on medieval
numismatics; the disadvantage is that the permanent singing is rather a
strain on your throat and that it is a type of affection that even many
English people find it hard to keep up incessantly. You may fall out of it,
speak naturally, and then where are you? The Mayfair accent can be highly
recommended, too. The advantages of Mayfair English are that it unites the
affected air of the Oxford accent with the uncultured flavor of a
Half-educated professional hotel-dancer.
The most successful attempts, however, to put on a highly cultured air
have been made on the polysyllabic lines. Many foreigners who have learnt
Latin and Greek in school discover with amazement and satisfaction that the
English language has absorbed a huge amount of ancient Latin and Greek
expressions, and they realize that:
a) it is much easier to learn these expressions than the much simpler
English words;
(b) that these words as a rule are interminably long and make a simply
superb impression when talking to the greengrocer, the porter and the
insurance agent. Imagine, for instance, that the porter of the block of
flats where you live remarks sharply that you must not put your dustbin out
in front of your door before 7.30 a.m. Should you answer 'Please don't bully
me,' a loud and tiresome argument may follow, and certainly the porter will
be proved right, because you are sure to find a douse in your contract
(small print, of last page) that the porter is always right and you owe
absolute allegiance and unconditional obedience to him. Should you answer,
however, with these words: 1 repudiate your petulant expostulations,' the
argument will be closed at once, the porter will be proud of having such a
highly cultured man in the block, and from that day onwards you may, if you
please, get up at four o'clock in the morning and hang your dustbin out of
the window. But even in Curzon Street society, if you say, for instance,
that you are a tough guy they will consider you a vulgar, irritating and
objectionable person. Should you declare, however, that you are an
inquisitorial and peremptory homo sapiens, they will have no idea what you
mean, but they will feel in their bones that you must be something
wonderful. When you know all the long words it is advisable to start
learning some of the short ones, too. You should be careful when using these
endless words. An acquaintance of mine once was fortunate enough to discover
the most impressive word notalgia for back-ache. Mistakenly, however, he
declared in a large company: 'I have such a nostalgia.' 'Oh, you want to go
home to Nizhne-Novgorod?' asked his most sympathetic hostess. 'Not at all,'
he answered. 'I just cannot sit down.' . Finally, there are two important
points to remember:
1. Do not forget that it is much easier to write in English than to
speak English, because you can write without a foreign accent.
2. In a bus and in other public places it is more advisable to speak
softly in good German than to shout in abominable English.
Anyway, this whole language business is not at all easy. After spending
eight years in this country, the other day I was told by a very kind lady:
'But why do you complain? You really speak a most excellent accent without
the slightest English.'

A christmas tree

2010-01-03T11:56:00.000-08:00

Trust
We NOT I
Us NOT Me
Ours NOT Mine
Secure NOT Insecure
Humble NOT Egotistical
Sharing NOT Self Centered

I have worked with X as a conductor. X has been a great friend and a mentor to me over the years. Her ability to lead has been an ispiration to me, and her natural ability to be able to relate to people at all levels help me hone my skills on how to communicate with others. Some people however, do not want to communicate. Let them not to.

Deepest Sympathy, Again

2009-12-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

The journey from sorrow to peace is one we all take at our own peace. The sympathy of loved ones help guide the way. I have to express my deepest sympathy to the loss of our CE community again. A conductor could not find her way back from Himalaya which is a great loss for us and for the speleotist community too.

Have A Great Winter Holidays, Merry Christmas

2009-12-22T17:27:00.000-08:00

Konduktiv mehrfach- therapeutische Förderung nach Petö und Keil: Theorie - Praxis - Effektivität

2009-12-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

And this is what I brought to question in one of my former posts: Conductive Education as a name for CE is a misnomer. But to call it "mehrfachtherapie" is even worse to me. I guess it refers to Frau Helga Keil.

Sandra Schwarcenbacher's new book: Konduktiv mehrfach- therapeutische Förderung nach Petö und Keil: Theorie - Praxis - Effektivität

This is written by Amazon as product description:

Die ursprünglich von dem ungarischen Arzt und Wissenschafter Dr. András Petö gegründete und von Helga Keil weiterentwickelte Methode der konduktiven Förderung wird in der Behandlung und Förderung v.a. cerebral bewegungsbeeinträchtigter Menschen seit Jahren erfolgreich eingesetzt. In diesem Buch gibt die Autorin in einem ersten allgemeinen Teil einen Überblick über die theoretischen Grundpfeiler der konduktiv mehrfachtherapeutischen Förderung nach Petö und Keil, ihrer Zielsetzung und ihrer praktischen Anwendung. Anhand zweier Fallbeispiele geht sie im zweiten, empirisch-wissenschaftlichen Teil der Arbeit der Frage nach, ob sich aufgrund der Teilnahme an einem Intensiv-Therapiekurs nach der erwähnten Methode Veränderungen im Selbstbild, im Speziellen in den Kontroll- und Kompetenzüberzeugungen feststellen lassen. Ein Blick in dieses Buch ist für alle Personen interessant, die mit dem Thema "Behinderung" befasst sind. Sowohl betroffenen Eltern, als auch Therapeuten, Konduktoren oder Personen, die weiterführende Studien zu diesem Themenkomplex durchführen wollen kann diese Arbeit grundlegende Informationen geben und darüber hinaus neue Denkanstöße vermitteln.

Sandra Schwarzenbacher
Mag.a phil.: Studium der Bildungswissenschaften (Psychoanalytische Pädagogik, Heil- & Integrativpädagogik), Universität Wien. 2002 - 2007 Austrian Federation of adapted Physical Activity Wien (Gruppenleitung Sektion Schwimmen), 2004 - dato Fachspezifische Schule für individualisierte Teilausbildungen der ITA GmbH. Wien (Trainerin).

Our story in participatory practice

2009-12-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

My story defines who I am. If I want to know myself, to gain insight into the meaning of my own life, then I …must come to know my own story. (McAdams, 1993:11)

Coming to know own stories is the beginning of becoming critical and self-critical. Participatory practitioners listen to and share everyday stories as respectful opening of a mutual partnership. It is a relationship founded on the fundamental belief in people to be autonomous subjects in their word. Our stories embody process begins so early in our lives that our identities are shaped by what is reflected back to us about who we are, and we tend to accept these messages with all their flawed contradictions unquestioningly. Therefore, our stories contain the values and attitudes of the status quo that rank us in order of perceived importance in society. What happens when you suddenly surrounded by another and different society? When your embodied values are questioned? This would be an uncomfortable process, and a distressing experience.

Ultimately we must ask ourselves what kind of a society we wish to live in and what we are going to do … (Darder, 2002:231) Praxis can not happen without respect, dignity, trust, reciprocity and mutuality neither can dialogue exist without humility.

The way we see the world influences the way we act in the world: epistemologies and ontologies work in dynamic relationship.

Our story is (or shoud be) a community based "action" for transformative change.

The Abstraction of CE + Human Dimension

2009-11-23T04:15:00.000-08:00

The original language of CE is Hungarian and according to a rough translation of the name, Conductive Pedagogic System, the currently used English label is a misnomer. I think.

The word pedagogy comes from Greek paidagōgiā, the slave who took children to and from school called paidagōgos in which παίδ (paíd) means "child" and άγω (ágō) means "lead"; so it literally means "to lead the child". The Latin-derived word for pedagogy is the technique used by an instructor to foster and facilitate learning by another, which can be by upbringing, training or educating. The person who facilitates the learning process can be anybody, but the trained professional facilitator, however, is called a “teacher.” The word “pedagogy” is still used today in many countries , referring to the teaching – learning process . A number of famous people contributed to the theories of pedagogy: Benjamin Bloom, John Dewey, Celestin Freinet, Geetha Narayanan, Paulo Freire, Friedrich Fröbel, Kurt Hahn, Gloria Jean Watkins, Jan Amos Komensky, Janusz Korczak, Maria Montessori, William G Perry, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Jean Piaget, Simon Soloveychik, Rudolf Steiner, Lev Vygotsky, Henry Giroux.

The Conductive Pedagogic System is a transformative concept. The most important expression in the name is “pedagogic”, because it highlights a new way of rehabilitation. Dr. Andras Pető assumed that ortho- and dys-functions are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, orthofunction is not based on the change in a defect but is the transformation of someone to help them overcome their difficulties. The pedagogic aim is to facilitate the transformation of the disabled person, which is only possible if we approach the person as a whole and deal with his cognitive, communicative, social, emotional and physical existence altogether. At this level of pedagogy the role of active participation is very important, and activities should not be separated from human interest or from the assumptions and feedback of the surrounding culture and society.

The word conductive is new in a pedagogical context. It emphasises the active form of learning. Conductive means here inductive, which starts by creating aims, and then leads towards resolution. This resolution is not simply what we perceive as a function of behaviour but as a result of an inner organisation which, through interaction with the environment, results in a successful outcome. The conductor “inducts” the person through complex and systematic activities, which produce an inner organisation which in turn coordinates the nervous system. Having established an aim, the nervous system works out how to execute it. This process, however, is not conscious and the aims and activities are interlinked.

The expression “system” refers to the fact that the pedagogical programme is structured, being networked horizontally and longitudinally. It deals with many interdependent factors. It is deductive, planed, linear, parallel, spiral, concentric,and at the same time inductive. The system, through the structure of activities, assures the relationships.

About the human dimension:

Conductive Education deals with people with damage to the central nervous system and it has as one of it’s basic beliefs that people with disabilities should not be treated less favourably because of their disability and that reasonable steps should be taken to ensure that they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage. The “normal function” can be defined in many ways. Dr. Andras Pető defined it as orthofunction which term points out the human dimension of Conductive Education. CE shows a very high respect for humanity and it builds its system based on that respect. Conductive Education seeks to realise the full potential of those who live with damage of their central nervous system.

Participatory practice

2009-11-16T14:36:00.000-08:00

Lived experience is at the heart of participatory practice.

“Men and women make history from the starting point of given concrete circumstances, from structures that already exist when they are born….The future is something that is constantly taking place, and this constant ‘taking place means that the future only exists to the extent that we change the present. It is by changing the present that we build the future; therefore history is possibility, not determinism. (Freire P., 1993)

Paula Allman talks about the need to understand and use concepts more fluidly, more critically, more dialectically, if we are ‘to engage in authentic local and global social transformation’ (1999)

By making sense of our social reality, understanding the critical connections between our histories, cultures and differences, gaining insight into the relations of power that have shaped who we are in the world, we begin to grasp the links between ideology and alienation, and this helps us to dismantle the “common sense” that has led to dominant ideology that divides and alienates us from our natural participatory place in the web of life on earth.
Participatory approaches are committed to locating knowledge in every day life. Transformative practice begins in everyday lives. In our practice we bring ideas and knowledge and action together to produce orthofunction.

Participation is transformative. It is central to the purpose of CE. There are three key stages in the process of transformations: changing ourselves, connecting with others and changing the world.

Variety of Interventions for Parkinson Disease

2009-11-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

Neuroscientists at Karolinska Institute in Sweeden used PET and functional MRI scans to reveal changes in the number of the receptors for dopamine. Whether volunteers started with relatively low or relatively high number of dopamine receptors, brain training /brain gym resulted in a shift closer to the optimum balance.
“We knew that brain is plastic” says Torkel Klingberg, the lead neuroscientist for the investigation. “But nobody has shown that biochemistry of the brain is plastic in this way”.
He developed a programme used in the study, called Cogmed Working Memory Training. Neuroscientist Peter Snyder of Brown University, who is not really convinced of the effectiveness of brain training, also pointed out that it is given that the brain will change in response to a variety of interventions. The best memory enhancer is exercise. Secondarily, a good diet and an active social life have brain benefits.

From the article of Goodier R. in Scientific American Mind July/August 2009

Have you seen something similar around? Conductive Education for people with Parkinson Disease?

One example of the Narratives

2009-11-01T03:39:00.000-08:00

Dr. Julia Devai who recalls her memory in The first years with András Pető: The birth of Conductive Education (OMOD 1997 pp.1-8. in Forrai J. 1999)
“On that grey November day in 1946 Pető was sitting behind his desk, leaning back on his chair. His eyes were only partly open but, while talking to somebody, he seemed to be aware of everything that was going on. He did not even look at us, only indicated the door to the next room with his head. I was eager to leave the place where nobody paid any attention to me, and happily entered the next room. There were three people inside doing different things. One of them was lying on the floor, and tried to reach the end of the carpet with his extended legs and feet. The other was sitting on a chair, attempting to lift a seemingly paralysed arm with the good one, and the third person was leaning on a chair, while bending and extending a knee along the leg of the chair. There was a slight murmur in the room, because everybody was counting slowly, according to the rhythm of the forced move. The murmur, the quiet effort and the unbelievable concentration of these people created such a great tension the room, that there was no space left for questions. I was simply drawn into their world, and before long I realised that I was unconsciously counting and sitting on one of the chairs to help to stabilise it. I wanted them to succeed, I wantedthat knee to bend and that arm to raise with such a fervour, that I hardly realised the Pető was standing in the middle of the room. He walked to every one of them, showed a better grip, turned something here, pushed a little bit there. The guy using the new trick Pető just showed him, was finally lifting his arm, and was all smiled, without interrupting our counting…From than on I was frequent visitor in his apartment…At that time only half of his patients suffered motor problems, the other half or even more had internal or dermatological diseases. His methods were somewhat unusual in Hungary, and could not be easily adapted to any traditional hospital setting. He was convinced that the essence of the “movement therapy”, which was the original name of conductive education, was a learning process, thus it seemed logical to get this new discipline accepted through the Ministry of Education[...]”

Hermeneutic Phenomenology

2009-11-01T00:48:00.000-07:00

Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation theory, and can be defined as either the art of interpretation, or the theory and practice of interpretation. Phenomenology becomes hermeneutical when its method is taken to be interpretive (rather than purely descriptive as in transcendental phenomenology). This orientation is evident in Heidegger’s work as he argues that all description is always already interpretation. Every form of human awareness is interpretive. In his later work especially he increasingly introduces poetry and art as expressive works for interpreting the nature of truth, language, thinking, dwelling, and being. Contemporary or modern hermeneutics encompasses not just issues involving the written text, but everything in the interpretative process. This includes verbal and nonverbal forms of communication as well as prior aspects that impact communication, such as presuppositions, preunderstandings, the meaning and philosophy of language, and semiotics. Hans-Georg Gadamer, one of the followers of Heidegger, continued the development of a hermeneutic phenomenology, expecially in his famous work Truth and Method. In this work, he carefully explores the role of language, the nature of questioning, the phenomenology of human conversation, and the significance of prejudice, historically, and tradition in the project of human understanding.
Paul Ricoeur also studied Husserl, and he too does not subscribe to the transparency of the self-reflective cogito of Husserl. He argues that meanings are not given directly to us, and that we must therefore make a hermeneutic detour through the symbolic apparatus of the culture. Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology examines how human meanings are deposited and mediated through myth, religion, art, and language. He elaborates especially on the narrative function of language, on the various uses of language such as storytelling, and how narrativity and temporality interact and ultimately return to the question of the meaning of being, the self and self-identity. Researchers and educators are increasingly implementing qualitative research methods to investigate issues of concern and interest. Hermeneutics has risen as an option for the qualitative research paradigm particularly after the 1970s. The precedence of the sciences that have applied hermeneutics as an approach to investigation is provided with special reference to nursing. In the nursing science, hermeneutics have been used extensively as a qualitative research method to investigate a variety of issues, through the lived experiences of the participants.

Improving Understanding on CE

2009-10-31T05:42:00.000-07:00

During working out an adequate qualitative methodology for a research on Conductive Education, particularly on the emotional and social elements alongside with the physical ones, I met many ideas how to implement different methods for better understanding. Some critics say that it is not useful listening to CE participants, patient’s opinion about their treatment since they are subjectively involved and they won’t inform us about the objective rehabilitation truth. I am and many other qualitative researchers are arguing that point. If we would follow this idea we probably would never get any information about the participants’ lived experience. Lived experience, which is crucial in education, habilitation, rehabilitation.
When we would like to express the lived experience and write down as a narration, we produce an autonomous text, a text that expresses its own meaning. Whatever the production is it does not need any correction. It tells about our world, about “Dasein” according to Heidegger, in English translation about “being in the world”, about our lived world. This is not a factual world outside or lying behind the text, but rather a world in front of the text, a world revealed by the text. Through lived discourses we participate in the CE world, and through the texts, narratives we come aware of this participation. Narratives touch us and move us when they shed light on our or the participants’ lived experience of discourse participation. Being touched and moved may reveal the essential meaning of this participation, this being in the world. Being touched and moved by essential meaning leads us toward the truth. Towards the lived truth of CE.

Encounter

2009-10-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

Today I had a great opportunity to spread Conductive Education at a higher level. I had a chance to meet with Jonathan Shaw MP, Minister for Disabled People (UK) and Minister for the South East.

... and a representative of the “new” Care Quality Commission.
The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. Their aim is to make sure better care is provided for everyone, whether that’s in hospital, in care homes, in people’s own homes, or elsewhere.
They regulate health and adult social care services, whether provided by the NHS, local authorities, private companies or voluntary organisations.

Alan's speech at the exhibition through his communication aid

2009-10-08T04:28:00.000-07:00

Hello.
Thank you all for coming to the opening of this exhibition. I'm Alan Martin, and you may recognise me from some of the photographs here today. I was delighted to be asked to pose for these works. It’s not the first modelling I've done!
Over the past few years, I've been attending sessions of conductive education with Lotszi. I know that using this technique with adults, like myself, is still very rare, but, in my case, it was really beneficial. Although its nearly a year since I had the chance to attend a session, I can still feel the benefits. At each session, I gained more awareness of my body, and learned techniques to ease stiff joints, get better control of my movements, and increase the range and strength of those movements. I feel it should be much more widely available.
As well as physical improvements, I feel more confident in my abilities, which comes in very useful in my line of work, namely, inclusive dance. Dance has been my passion for several years now. Some of you may just remember me at the start of my career, providing the entertainment at the Glaxo A.G.M. That was a long time ago!
I'd like to recommend conductive education as a whole person approach. My experience was not just about improving physical issues; it was about me, as a whole individual. See the person before the disability, is a quote I like, and I think that's true of this therapy. I hope you enjoy the work of Eva, Rachel, and Phil.
THANK YOU.

An exhibition I organised to Liverpool Neurosupport Centre

2009-10-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen! My Friends!

I have chosen this piece of music to get started, the g-moll Presto by Vivaldi, because it represents great power and force. Also because it links what we will experience here tonight at the Neurosupport Centre.

Mr. Alan Martin, who is an example to all of us; despite his severe physical and speech disabilities he lives on his own without any government support, runs his own business as a dance performer, dance teacher and lives a full and independent life. Our community, and all of us, should learn from his ability. We will also see the art of the photographer Eva Erdi-Krausz, whose photographs illustrate this power of spirit. And through her camera enable us to see these forces of hope.

The documentary photos of Rachel and Phil Hibberd also show the power of Conductive Education, delivered by Megan Baker House, which is teaching and rehabilitating children, adolescents and adults to get to the level of Mr. Martin. And last but not least the Neurosupport Centre which has got the power to organise, introduce and spread ideas and to mediate between people and organisations.

If we take a second and think a little bit about of all these factors and activities we realise that Objective Conditions are tricky. Objective conditions do not tell us much regarding of the quality of life we live. Objective conditions limit our freedom but according to John Dewey, the famous educator and author, they cover a wide range of existence. An existence which is mostly based on our life experiences. Every experience is a moving force. Its value can be judged only on the ground of what it moves toward and into. Conductive Education is one of those powers which takes experience very seriously and enables people with motor disabilities to increase their quality of life by giving them the most complex experiences in an emotional, social, physical, and functional way of life.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please enjoy Eva’s elementary photographs showing Alan’s dancing art, and Rachel and Phil’s documentary photographs about the hard work that provides a higher quality of life to adolescents and adults through Conductive Education at Megan Baker House. In the meantime, please listen to Alan’s composed music and enjoy the beverages.

Thank you for your interest!

www.meganbakerhouse.org.uk

www.mouseonthemove.co.uk

www.alanakagraham.blogspot.com

www.evaerdikrausz.hu

From my personal, professional interest to qualitative research methodology

2009-07-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

My personal journey from a primary school teacher to special education, education psychology and therapies to a “multidimensional”, “holistic”, “transformative” rehabilitator, i.e. ‘conductive education teacher’ was long but direct. The focus on that ‘slice’ of the society which suffers a lot and struggles to find friendly and reliable professional help, evolved from an empathetic personality and a personal interest. Once I had learnt Conductive Education (CE), my mind slowly moved from a sceptical empiric dualist position increasingly towards a holistic one, where things can be looked at “in the round”. During studying CE at the International Peto Institute, Hungary, something very simple to the eyes but constructively so complex to the mind was unfolding in front of me. One very interesting thing I realised was that ‘Butterfly-effect’ (introduced first by Edward Lorenz in Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas 1972 which highlighted that small variations of the initial condition of a dynamic system may produce large variations in the long term behaviour of the system) was real in terms of the holistic links between the various parts of the World. In the World we humans participate as part of the whole whilst functioning individually as a whole. The ‘whole’ builds up from many smaller “elements”. These elements can be found in the smallest and largest parts of our body and brain. Where, de facto, numerous simultaneous inputs can cause turbulence and change output, the overall system is able to accommodate such changes. Put simply, a global approach which is able to get in touch with the physically disabled person’s complex needs is more likely to bring about change in their condition than any other method. I thought I would find this approach in CE.

As a young professional in the field of rehabilitation I shortly realised that CE was very different from any traditional services as it takes for granted the use of pedagogy and deals with the person as whole and not only their physical needs but emotional, social and often any other needs as well. The new, unknown, professional position of the rehabilitation of the central nervous system damaged patients produces a professional loneliness and a sort of ‘professional racism’ for CE providers. The feeling of the loneliness and not being accepted, forced me into thinking harder about my own position and that of my fellow professionals. I noticed much misunderstanding about CE and I also found a colossal lack of adequate research in this area. All of these factors challenged me to look critically into the characteristics of CE again as experienced conductive education teacher and try to choose an adequate methodology to explore it.

“The holistic science includes more 'participatory methodology'. It validates the inner subjective experience as well as objective physical sense data. The worldview of wholistic science does recognize the intrinsic nature and value of the human inner life. With the scientific recognition of the inner life, the wholistic worldview permits a global view of the human being as a 'totality of body, soul and spirit.' Scientific discoveries of the interrelations of body, soul and spirit are reflected in a new educational paradigm. The new pedagogical methodology recognizes that the child's learning experiences and learning difficulties are global in nature. The global view of the child and the learning process can provide a secure theoretical and practical foundation for a holistic education that directs itself to educate the whole person for the whole of life." (Gerald Karnow, "Educating the Whole Person for the Whole of Life," Holistic Education Review vol. 5 no. 1 (Fall 1992): p. 64)

I suggest taking Karnow’s approach towards a better understanding of education of the person, and transfer it to the education of adults and hence to the rehabilitation of disabled people.

Thus, this methodology should fully support the alternative view of the self, which is responsive to issues of relationship, emotions and bodily functions etc. Such a concept would highlight the less visible aspects of the studied object as a result of the research.

An holistic way of thinking comes from the philosophical position of the researcher, which has an impact on the choice of methods used to gather and analyse data for the research. Martin Heidegger, the german philosopher, believed that one makes sense of the world by being in it, and not by being detached from it (Maggs-Rapport, 2001). “Dasein”, i.e. ‘being in the world’, is one of the main concepts of his hermeneutic phenomenology. Dasein is the experience of time and space. It is the experience of the whole without separation between the person and their life-world and where relationships are counted as part of the existance. Hermeneutic Phenomenology as research method, however, needs to be expanded.

Discovery has been the aim of science since it was first practised, but how those discoveries are made has varied with the nature of the subjects being studied and the era in which they took place. Knowledge and understanding have taken many forms. In areas ranging from sociology and education to healthcare there has been a move towards qualitative paradigms since the World War II. Out of the quantitative – qualitative paradigm battles of the 1980s, qualitative researchers took their place at the table. Qualitative methods of data gathering and analysis have gained popularity. (N.K. Denzin 2009) “Qualitative research - according to A. Strauss and J. Corbin in Basic Qualitative Research (1998) – [we mean] any type of research that produces findings not arrived by statistical procedures or other means of quantification. It can refer to research about a person’s life, lived experiences, behaviour, emotions and feelings as well as about organisational functioning, social movements, cultural phenomena, and interaction between nations. Some of the data maybe quantified, as with a census, or background information about the people or objects studied.“

In addition to the measurable benefits of Conductive Education -Brittle N, Brown M, Mant J, McManus R, Riddoch J, Sackley C. at the School of Health Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK. Short-term effects on mobility, activities of daily living and health-related quality of life of a Conductive Education programme for adults with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and stroke, Clin Rehabil.2008 Apr; 22(4):329-37) - I believe it is important to investigate research which might shed light upon the other possible benefits of the method, therefore, qualitative research methodology seemed to be a promising methodology to use. The key difference between quantitative and qualitative methods is flexibility. Qualitative methods allow greater spontaneity and adaptation to the interaction between the researcher and the study participant(s). The relationship is less formal than in quantitative research. Participants have the opportunity to respond more elaborately and in greater detail than is typically the case with quantitative methods. In turn, the researcher has a greater opportunity to study the possible variety of dimensions of lived experience of the participants without prejudging the format of the result, and can respond immediately to the answers by tailoring subsequent questions to information the participant has provided.
For more than a quarter of century narrative and dialogic methods have reshaped qualitative inquiry and can offer an alternative solution for scholars investigating the lived experience of the individual at a deeper level. Since CE is aiming to develop the physically disabled person as a whole in group setting, I consider that a combined use of narrative and dialogic methods could well facilitate the investigation the relationship between the cognitive, social, emotional and functional dimensions of the delivery.

Clandinin and Connelly in Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000), 3 define Narrative Inquiry as a method that uses the following field texts as data sources: stories, autobiography, journals, field notes, letters, conversations, interviews, family stories, photos (and other artifacts), and life experience. It implies that knowledge itself is considered valuable and noteworthy even when known by only one person. Donald Polkinghorne writes in Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences (Albany: SUNY Press, 1988), 132. that Jerome Bruner, the american educational psychologist’s approach places the narrative in time, to “assume an experience of time” rather than just making reference to historical time. Thus narrative captures the emotion of the moment described, rendering the event active rather than passive, infused with the latent meaning being communicated by the teller.
Narrative ,therefore, could shed light onto a person’s lived experience and emotions.
John Dewey explains Narrative Inquiry in terms of the nature of experience. Dewey viewed experience as having both social and personal meaning, believing that people should be analyzed both as individuals and as part of a group or in a social context. In his view nothing and no one exists in isolation. His ideas directed me towards dialogic inquiry. In as much as the paricipants working in group setting have a similar experience of the delivery of CE, they are probably best placed give a view on the investigated dimensions and the link between them.
In David Bohm’s opinion, dialogue is a process of direct face-to-face encounter that insists on facing the corporeal lived experience. “It really means to break things up. It emphasizes the idea of analysis, where there may be many points of view, and where everybody is presenting a different one – analysing and breaking up. That obviously has its value…” in On Dialogue (London and New York, 1997) 6-7.
Richard Kearney in Strangers, Gods, and Monsters (Routledge, 2003) highlights the dialogic dimensions. It suggests that a narrative configuration of the self involves not only a relationship of self to self but also a relationship of self to other. This relationship of self to other maybe referred to as intersubjectivity – relation and response between the subjectivity of the self and subjectivity of the other. This is achieved through dialogue. Through dialogic inquiry we could gain knowledge of the participant’s lived experience in the group and the emotions involved ,giving them a chance to share their individual experiences and further discuss those subjects.

I conclude that a combined use of narrative and dialogic methods could well facilitate the investigation into the relationship between the cognitive, social, emotional and functional dimensions of the delivery of CE.

The research study raises ethical matters which need to be addressed.
At most universities, and certainly at LJMU, before beginning research we need to obtain ethical approval for our research.

“In many ways, this process of obtaining to negotiate our inquiries works against the relational negotiation that is part of narrative inquiry. However, as an institutional requirement, obtaining ethical approval is necessary. This places inquires in a catch-22 position.”
Clandinin and Connelly in Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000) 170

“For decades, oral historians have promulgated high ethical and professional standards, including their ethical requirement to obtain informed consent prior to conducting an interview and a signed legal release at the conclusion of the interview. … A humanities-based, interpretive inquiry model…would stand alongside a revised biomedical model. A radical rethinking would produce an inclusive, ethically empowering model that would be applied to all forms of inquiry.”
Norman K. Denzin in Qualitative Inquiry under Fire, Left Coast Press Inc, California, 2009) 297

“Indeed, ethical research is perhaps best understood as part of an ongoing dialogue which not only precedes the investigation but, while participants and researchers alike my contribute to the ‘conversation’ for a short time, will also continue after it. Greenop Darren, LJMU, 2008

I am at the stage of obtaining ethical approval for my proposed research and, like many other qualitative researchers, I simply try to follow the format of the given form and fill out the required sections. However, during this exercise I have come across some difficulties. To me, one of the biggest concerns is how to outline narrative and dialogic interviews. I would be more interested in what the participants will say rather than giving them suggestions as to what to talk about. The ethical form requires an outline in advance I look for guidance on the subject of obtaining ethical approval in case of narrative and dialogic inquires.

Comment

2009-06-22T15:39:00.001-07:00

As you often say to me, “You took the words right out of my mouth”!Sitting, standing or kneeling on plinths is a pet subject of mine too. One which until now I have not really discussed with anyone.I have done all of these today, the standing, the kneeling and the sitting on plinths. Not because of my age, although I do now belong to the older generation of conductors, but because of what you described as “health and safety” regulations. It was the only way to do my work so I could stay in one piece. The only way to do my work so the client felt safe too.The broader issue here however is giving consideration to the private space which is our client’s. Whether they are on a plinth or on a chair, standing or walking, they have a space around them which we need to respect. We must respect the fact that although we enter that space to help clients achieve their goals we must be careful not to encroach on their personal space unnecessarily.There is a very fine balance between keeping our own bodies healthy while giving the help needed for our clients to achieve their aims and at the same time keeping our distance. This is what we learn through experience.Yes, we had a rigid training at the Petö Institute. We were told not to sit on plinths. We were told lots of other things too which took us a long time to understand and interpret in our own individual ways.Years of experience allow us to become flexible. The experiences give us confidence in our movements and behaviour in the presence of our clients. Through experience and observation we learn when we can enter that personal space and when we can not, and we also learn how best to do it.If I need to sit on a plinth to do my work properly I will do it, respectfully keeping my distance.If I want to sit down because I am tired, or because I want to talk to my clients at the same level, the plinth isn’t the place for me. I can pull up a ladder back chair for these purposes, there are always plenty of them about.Thanks for this posting Laci, it gave me lots to think about at work this week and opened up some interesting discussions with my clients. I expect I will report on them at a later date on my own blog.Susie
22 June 2009

To sit or not to sit that is the question...

2009-06-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

This little ‘sitting’ thing has grown into a big dilemma in my mind throughout many years of CE experiences working in different places and countries. Now I have decided what it is I believe and I have decided that I will stick to my own ideas whatever the absolute truth is.
The question is: to sit or not to sit on the plinth during CE delivery. Well, I will answer it first as I learnt it and then, think about it twice. This little problem has different angles from which to approach it. During my training at the Peto Institute, Hungary, I was taught not to sit on the plinth in any circumstances because the plinth belonged to the client’s personal territory and it was his/her personal education tool and this we highly appropriated in the conductive education system. Parallel to this I worked as a teacher at the State Institute of the Motor Disabled, Budapest, where there was a CE department and where I met great, enthusiastic, passionate older generations of conductors who learnt from Andras Peto himself. I learnt a lot from these conductors and it was here that I feel I was “made” into a conductor.
Some of these conductors were, interestingly, occasionally sitting on the plinth during lying programs or when clients were also sitting on it in order to facilitate them. When I asked them why they were doing so they would tell me I would learn why after 20 years of service. Their answers were, of course, indications of their own state of health.
Since I am graduated from Peto Institute, I worked in different CE environments in Hungary, Germany, Singapore, USA and in the UK. I met many different points of views. At the majority of places it was taken for granted that to sit on the plinth was OK in any circumstances and there was just no need to open up a discussion about it. In my opinion the worse has happened here in the UK when one of my former colleagues sat on the plinth when it was being used as a table with children sitting around it.
So after many years of experience, I decided to put this little thing in its rightful place. On the one hand, I highly appropriate the philosophy of CE and I try most of the time not to sit on the plinth, however, as the older conductors led me to imagine, there are some very questionable parts of this philosophy from the point of few of a conductors’ health.
Just imagine how unhealthy it is to lean forward and maintain this position for longer periods of time while facilitating, when the client is on a low plinth or when the client is very heavy and you actually propose to lift parts of his body in this position. The health and safety based manual handling book says that you must avoid such movements. Unfortunately, I know of many conductors of my age, or older, who have been sentenced to follow a career other than CE because of terrible spine or other CE related health conditions.
A couple of years ago I did a short search to find out what has been written in our training books or what can be read about it on the Net.

The result was strange. There was no such rule written down anywhere. Nothing to say that you are not allowed to sit next to your client. So, I decided the following that I wish to declare state now:
I totally believe in the philosophy of CE. However, we need to enjoy it responsibly. If the plinth functions as a bed or a tool on which people sit or work I would consider sitting on if it is easier for me to facilitate in this way. This is not supposed to mean that I am looking for the first opportunity to sit on the plinth ‘because I am tired’ and also not supposed to mean that I put my shoes into the client’s face, etc., but it means that I have to be confidentially responsible for my own health as well as that of my client.
Why am I posting this now? Things have changed in my professional life and turned full circle so that I am now working with freshly graduated conductors. They now tell not to sit on the plinth. Why? For all the same reasons I was told before. It feels like I am looking into a mirror. I see myself a decade ago when I was also 'fighting' for all of those things I was taught. They are great people and I assume great professionals too. Still, I think they do not yet have the kind of independence or the confidence that one acquires through years of experience. This confidence often brings with it flexibility and the ability to move beyond different boundaries. I strongly sense the rigid training effects behind the issue. We all know that. It is really so sweet to discuss such things.
Similar situations have occurred on official university research registration documents. I called clients patients. I had to do this for several different reasons. The freshly graduated conductors started to tell me that the clients were not patients but participants. :)

Between Satisfaction and Pleasure

2009-06-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

Passion lives somewhere between two very positive emotions – satisfaction and pleasure. We often do not distinguish between these two similar emotions. A massage or a bottle of red wine produces the positive emotions of pleasure, however, satisfaction points to something much deeper. Buddha suggested that the things that seen to lead to real satisfaction have something of investment quality to them, such as building a house, creating a child, or writing a book. Some people experience this feeling of satisfaction and passion they produce. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi a psychologist who interviewed thousands of people of all ages and asked them to describe their highest moments of satisfaction. According to Csikszentmihalyi, when people experience their highest moments of satisfactions and are experiencing ‘flow’, they describe the psychological components as: ‘The task is challenging and requires skill’, ‘We concentrate’, ‘There are clear goals’, ‘We get immediate feedback’, ‘We have deep, effortless involvement’, ‘There is a sense of control’, Time stops’.
Interestingly, none of these components are about the experience of pleasure per se. Rather, when we are absorbed in flow, it is about total engagement and a loss of self-consciousness. In other words, when we are wrapped up in flow we are investing in building emotional capital that we can draw on to sustain our passion and therefore our energy. In contrast, to seeking the immediate rewards of pleasurable experience, to build your emotional capital you need to pay attention to the elements of the flow experience that fuel your passion and produce your most rewording satisfactions. People whose motivations are intrinsic exhibited more interest, excitement, and confidence, as well as greater persistence, creativity, and performance than those who motivated largely by external demands and rewards. Passionate people are productive, persistent, high performers. These people look for creative challenges. They also display a constant energy for discovering how things can be done better. One thing is sure, if you have passion for what you do, then what you do is powerful. I saw conductors to have that power, passion when I enrolled Peto Institute in the early nineties. They absorbed me into ‘flow’ several times and that was an extraordinary experience. Then, later, I missed them for long. It felt like; they would have died out. I worked at different work places where individuals were strongly fighting for their individual aims and somehow they lost energy, concentration, effort, but most importantly self control on human strength. It made me really happy to meet someone again, in last November, who was young, powerful and passionate - somwhere between satisfaction and pleasure. Even more happy now, I have been working with some of those....

CE research

2009-06-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

A konduktiv pedagogia tudomanyos vizsgalatara keszulve, osszeszedve gondolataimat, el kellett dontenem, hogy mibe is kezdjek. Nehany dolog a kezdetektol fogva vilagosan, komoly teret nyerve elmemben, eloretolakodva arra "kenyszeritett", hogy ne hagyjam ki oket, vagy bele se fogjak "holmi" kutatasba. Megis, szamtalan dolog befolyasolja ilyen helyzetekben dontesunket. A tajekozottsag, olvasottsag jol jon(ne) ilyenkor, de azzal kerulunk legkevesbe kozelsegbe, amit nem ismerunk:), tehat sokszor tenyleg a tanulasban es kutatasban is a szerencse legalabb akkora szerepet jatszik - meglatasom szerint- mint barmely biologiai jellegu kiserleti kutatasban. Azzal tobbe, kevesbe tisztaban vagyok, hogy amiota a konduktiv pedagogia rendszerevel talalkoztam (1991), egyre tagulo holisztikus felfogasban elek. Azzal viszont kevesbe szembesultem, hogy masok egeszen tavol lehetnek ettol a nezoponttol. Egyszeru megfogalmazasban barki lehet holisztikus, ellentetben a professzionalis valosaggal: kevesen akadnak, akik tokelyre kepesek ezt a napi viszonylatra is munkassagukban 'redukalni'. Minden, mindennel osszefuggesben all. Igen. Ezt azonban nagyon nehez a dolgok melyere hatolva, a dolgok osszesegere alkalmazni a hetkoznapi valosagban. A komplexitast meg lehet ismerni, akademikusan tanulni, megis; semmi egyeb nem vezet a totalis megerteshez jobban, mint a tapasztalati praxison keresztuli megismeres. Ennek a nezetnek es eletfelfogasnak kialakulasahoz jelentosen jarult hozza a Peto Intezeti kepzesem, az akkori kepzesi modell ( elmelet es praxis egyensulya szamomra), valamint akkori eletformam: szaktanari tanitas a Mozgasserukltek Allami Intezeteben, sok es mindenfele onszorgalombol vegzett gyakorlat a Peto Intezet szamtalan csoportjaban + termeszetesen a kotelezo kepzesi gyaklorlatok es tanorak. Itt mindefelekeppen megjegyzendo nehany kollega emberfeletti, vagy inkabb abszolut sallangmentes, nyiltszivu emberi szolgalata; a tudas feltekenyseg nelkuli, emberbarati atszarmaztatasa. Ha neveket kezdenek el sorolni, akkor ez az oldal mara nem fejezodne be, s ha valakit veletlenul kihagynek a sorbol, akkor nagyon nehezen esedezhetnek bocsanatert. Tobben ugy lenditettek at valoszinutlen, nem aposztrofalt krizis, vagy tanulohelyzeteken, hogy eszre sem vettek (vehettek) dialogusuk nagyszeruseget. Megis engedtessek meg kulonos tekintettel arra nezve, hogy nelkuluk aligha valhattam volna konduktorra, hogy Makkai Erzsebet es Horvath Jantje nevet es faradhatatlan munkassagukat emlithessem az elsok kozott...

A holisztikus, komplex eletfelfogas, a kulonbozo elethelyzetek ismerete, iskolak, rehabilitacios intezetek mindennapi praxisa, nehany elottem es ismeretemben vegzett kutatas es azok eredmenyei, ugymond predesztinaltak arra, hogy valasszak. Ez szamomra fekete-feher uggye nott. Valasszak kutatas egy uj iranyban, vagy nem kuatas kozott... folyt. kov.

I met with this just recently

2009-06-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I have never found who wrote this bit but I felt to share it because I feel it is so truth.

“…when Freire talked of love, he suggested it was an energy that extended to a love for all humanity, an energy that fuelled the determination to sustain action for social justice: ‘Love is an act of courage, not fear …a commitment to others …[and] to the cause of liberation’ (1972:78). His belief was that the process of dialogue, so central to the transformative project, could not exist ‘in the absence of a profound love for the world and for people’ (1993:70).”

We need our risks

2009-06-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

They want us to avoid risks, however, WE NEED our risks at CE: because this is the only way to learn orthofunction...

Ethical Implications

2009-06-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

I am dealing with an ethical application form recently and some thoughts have grown in my mind.

Although there is a strong tendency to focus on doing no harm to CE participants, the long term consequences are not always easy to calculate. Summer (2006) writes of the rights to privacy, informed consent and confidentiality in social research as being some of the most difficult assurances to give to any participant. Conductive Education is particularly one of those development ideas which might cause some (if not more) harm. Ethical dilemmas are endemic in all methods, and we must show as CE professionals some concerns, too. Of course, numerous guidelines have been published and are available for professionals. However, guidelines are just that: they are not obligatory and are difficult to police, bearing in mind that they are open to individual interpretation and application. CE is a complex development system and it meets complex possibilities of causing harms.

Though, it is luck that ethical values themselves are not absolutes, and one can understand the problems of translating abstract and disputable principles into a set of practical and relevant guidelines to suit a variety of settings. It could be argued if we should ethical implication at all. I am afraid, however, we must. In conjunction with participants, parents, colleagues, make some moral judgements about the balance between the benefits of CE and the rights of others.

SCIFI

2009-06-06T02:30:00.001-07:00

My father is 71. He was a history, literature teacher before he retired. He loves and closer to the classical literature than the modern but he used to enjoy to read Istvan Nemere's ideas of scifi. He came up with the idea this morning to relax CE community that the missing Airbus probably was taken by aliens to make a great bridge between our and their civilization. Since there is no evidence of a crashed plain anywhere and there were a wide range of great different professionals on the plane it seems to be a good reason to think the above mentioned thought.
I know this is like a befuddled idea but it depicts how many ways of hope is available. If he was right than our missing colleague has a huge job.

A margora irva...

2009-06-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

Ugyan tenyleg teljesen komolyan gondolom, hogy blog oldalam elsosorban, es csakis a kondukciorol szoljon es hogy szemelyes erzeseimet, velemenyemet, stb. felreteve tenyleg csak a szakmaval foglalkozzon, ma megis arra vetemedek, hogy eloszor is magyarul, masodszor, inkabb valojaban rolam, pontosabban erzeseimrol irjak - persze kondukltiv pedagogiat illetoen.

Hadd kezdjem azzal, hogy a blogom irasanak kezdete ota sokkal kevesebbet irok le barmelyik temaban, mint amit arrol gondolok az angol nyelvu megnyilatkozas miatt.

Hatalmas dilemma.

Azert kenyszerultem arra az elhatarozasra, hogy angol nyelven irjak, kifejtsem gondolataimat a konduktiv pedagogiat illetoen, mert ezt mas nem tette meg elottem, s ugy gondoltam, hogy legalabb egy magyar szarmazasu konduktor blogironak lennie kell. Ez persze egy ido utan jelentos konfliktusba torkollhat. Sajat konfliktusomba, mondhatnam frusztraciomba. No, azert nincs krizis, de megis mellyebben gondolkodtam el a dolgon Szatmary Judit visszalepese es kolleganonk tragikus repulobalesete utan bejegyzett irasok utan. Az angol nyelvtudas - mint tanult kepesseg, amelynek szitjet a szuletett nyelvi keszsegunk, a nyelvhasznalat szintere es egyaltalan lehetosege, es persze sok minden mas is befolyasol - erosen behatarolja megnyilatkozasaim melyseget es terjedelmet is egyben. Befolyasolja minden leirt szavam. Az angol nyelven valo megnyilatkozas nehezsegerol, irodalmiassagarol, visszasagarol tobb kivallo magyar anyanyelvu kolto, iro is megnyilatkozott mar, amit tehat nem kell reszletezzek, amely 'nehezsegek' ram eppugy vonatkoznak, mint barki masra.

Vegtelenul szuknek erzem nyelvi es az idobeli korlataimat. Gondolatban szamtalan bejegyzesre referalok, amelyre irasban alig- alig kerul sor.

Dilemmat legyozve ma inkabb magyarul - mert sokkal gyorsabb es a szavak tiszta utjan melyebb ertelmet kolcsonoz gondolataimnak.

Susie Mallett es Andrew Sutton is irtak a "konduktiv csalad"szervezetten kevesbe tettenerheto, de nagyon is jol kitapinthato letezeserol, Szarvas Rita szomoru es tragikus elvesztese okan. Mennyire vagyunk mi egy "csalad"? Leszamitva azt a tenyt, hogy a szamossagot illetoen valoban kis kozossegrol van szo, rendelkezunk-e a csaladokat jellemzo tulajdonsagokkal, vonasokkal? Mennyire respektaljuk valojaban egymast es a szakmat magat? Mennyire tudjuk humanumunkat megtartani egymas kozott? Tudjuk e tisztelni hallgatoinkat, diakjainkat, clienseinket? Es viszont ok kepesek e emberileg megbirkozni a mi altalunk teremtett helyzetekkel? Milyen a kapcsolatunk kollegainkkal a hetkoznapokban? Milyen a generaciok egymas mellett munkalkodasa? Nem folytatom. Attol tartok, onmagunkba kell neznunk nehany esetben.

Szatmary Judit blogjanak bezarasat ennek a csaladnak latszolagos erdektelensege okazta. Mennyire vagyunk erdektelenek? Ha arra gondolok, hogy szamtalan kollegamrol tudom, hogy hanyfele es szerteagazo iranyokban tanultak tovabb, vagy tanulnak most is tovabb, akkor ez a teny azt jelzi, hogy erdeklodoek vagyunk. Ha azt is vizsgalnank persze, hogy mennyire szakmai iranyu ez az aktivitas, akkor lehet, hogy meglepo eredmenyt kapnank. Arra gondolok, hogy sokan talan eppen kiutat keresik a tovabbtanulas jovoltabol, hogy aztan profilt valtva mas teruleteken dolgozhassanak. A konduktiv pedagogiaban aktivan letoltott 5-10-15 ev utan valoban tobben valasztanak uj, mas, vagy kapcsolodo szakmakat.

Az uj generacio es a maradok viszont szazalekaranyban latszolag nem aktivak a szakmai erdeklodes tekinteteben. Azert irom, hogy latszolag, mert bizonyos egyaltalan nem lehetek abban , hogy en megfeleloen latok bele innen Angliabol. Mindesetre itt a neten a kommenteket figyelemmel kiserve, szinte alig van hozzaszolo. Cafoljanak, cafoljatok ra!

Bloom's Taxonomy

2009-06-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, often called Bloom's Taxonomy, is a classification of the different objectives that educators set for students. The taxonomy was proposed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom, an educational psychologist at the University of Chicago. Bloom's Taxonomy divides educational objectives into three "domains:" Affective, Psychomotor, and Cognitive. Like other taxonomies, Bloom's is hierarchical; meaning that learning at higher level is dependent on having attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels (Orlich, et al. 2004). A goal of Bloom's Taxonomy is to motivate educators to focus on all three domains, creating a more holistic form of education. Most references to the Bloom's Taxonomy only notice the Cognitive domain. There is also a so far less referred, revised version of the Taxonomy, published in 2001 under the name of "A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing."

"Taxonomy” simply means “classification”, so the well-known taxonomy of learning objectives is an attempt (within the behavioural paradigm) to classify forms and levels of learning. It identifies three “domains” of learning (see below), each of which is organised as a series of levels or pre-requisites. It is suggested that one cannot effectively — or ought not try to — address higher levels until those below them have been covered (it is thus effectively serial in structure). As well as providing a basic sequential model for dealing with topics in the curriculum, it also suggests a way of categorising levels of learning, in terms of the expected ceiling for a given programme. Thus in the Cognitive domain, training for technicians may cover knowledge, comprehension and application, but not concern itself with analysis and above, whereas full professional training may be expected to include this and synthesis and evaluation as well.
Cognitive: the most-used of the domains, refers to knowledge structures (although sheer “knowing the facts” is its bottom level). It can be viewed as a sequence of progressive contextualisation of the material. (Based on Bloom, 1956)
The model above is included because it is still common currency, but Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) have made some apparently minor but actually significant modifications, to come up with:
Revised taxonomy of the cognitive domainfollowing Anderson and Krathwohl (2001)
Note the new top category, which is about being able to create new knowledge within the domain, and the move from nouns to verbs.
Affective: the Affective domain has received less attention, and is less intuitive than the Cognitive. It is concerned with values, or more precisely perhaps with perception of value issues, and ranges from mere awareness (Receiving), through to being able to distinguish implicit values through analysis. (Kratwohl, Bloom and Masia (1964))
Psycho-Motor: Bloom never completed work on this domain, and there have been several attempts to complete it. One of the simplest versions has been suggested by Dave (1975): it fits with the model of developing skill put forward by Reynolds (1965), and it also draws attention to the fundamental role of imitation in skill acquisition.

ATHERTON J S (2009) Learning and Teaching; Bloom's taxonomy [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm Accessed: 2 June 2009

Deep Sympathy

2009-06-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

The journey from sorrow to peace is one we all take at our own peace. The sympathy of loved ones help guide the way. Let me express my deepest sympathy to the loss of our CE community on the crashed Air France aeroplane from Brazil to France, earlier today.

According to http://www.nol.hu/

Két felnőtt és két gyermek tartott Brazíliából Párizsba azon a francia repülőn, amely valószínűleg az Atlanti-óceánba zuhant.
Az asszony a Nemzetközi Pető Intézetben dolgozott, és egy három hetes tanfolyamot tartott a dél-amerikai országban. Volt férje felvette a kapcsolatot a Külügyminisztériummal, ahol a nevek alapján megerősítették, hogy valóban az ő kisfia és elvált felesége neve szerepel az utaslistán.

Kesobb, a www.origo.hu -n

Négy magyar volt a gépen
Négy magyar utazott az eltűnt francia repülőgépen - mondta az [origo]-nak Mátrai Zsuzsanna külügyi szóvivő. Az eltűntek személyazonosságáról személyiségi okokból nem árul el többet a Külügyminisztérium. Magyarországot a francia külügyminisztérium válságkezelő központja tájékoztatja hivatalos diplomáciai úton, eddig egyetlen üzenetet kaptak, ami arról szólt, hogy négy magyar szerepel az utaslistán. Már több hozzátartozó is jelentkezett a Külügyminisztériumnál - mondta az [origo]-nak Mátrai Zsuzsanna.
A Pető Intézet kedden megerősítette, hogy munkatársuk, Szarvas Rita konduktor volt az eltűnt gép egyik magyar utasa, aki brazíliai kiküldetéséből volt hazatérőben. "A tehetséges és nagyreményű fiatal kolléganő hivatásszeretetben végzett munkáját mind a Pető Intézetben, mind pedig nemzetközi projektekben nagyfokú elismeréssel illetik, kedves személyiségét megbecsülés övezi" - írta közleményben az intézmény rektora, Schaffhauser Franz.
A Hír TV korábban közölte, egy nő és élettársa, valamint két magyar kisfiú utazott a gépen - közölte a televízió az egyik magyar kisfiú édesapjára hivatkozva. A Hír Tv szerint a gépen utazó nő volt férje felvette a kapcsolatot a Külügyminisztériummal, ahol megerősítették, hogy volt feleségének és kisfiának a neve szerepel az utaslistán. A nő a Nemzetközi Pető Intézetben dolgozott, és egy három hetes tanfolyamot tartott a dél-amerikai országban - közölte a Hír Tv.

Strengths of Humanity

2009-05-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

People who are naturally strong in "strengths of humanity" are those who care for their relationships. You probably know people like this: folk who always send a thank you card, who call occasionally "just to check up", and who are kind and pleasant to be around. For these individuals, caring relationships are important, and their strengths play to developing and maintaining friendships, marriages, and workplace collegiality. In return we often feel a sense of loyalty to and appreciation for these types of people. We admire their empathy, sensitivity, and compassion. They are the people we commonly turn to when we have problems. It may have occurred to you that that many of the people we think of as paragons of these virtues are women. There is a stereotype that women are, on average, more focused on relationships and more kind and considerate than man. This might be true - on average. However, if I think of my professional past, present, I just can not totally confirm this in our community. Despite that the ladies who involved with conductive education are immaculately giving their caring love to children, clients, they can be real disastrous to each other. Why is that? I do not know any good reason, but maybe some good answers can be collected.

Developing Empathy- Buber again - Person centered relationships - Empathy

2009-05-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

Basic empathy enables the conductor to relate to the participant more completely, viewing the person as a whole. This more complete way of relating to the participant can be referred to as the I-Thou position (Buber, 1958). The incomplete experience of the self and other is known as the I-It attitude. As Brient and Freshwater (1998) comment: " The I-It attitude is one in which the other person is never viewed as a whole being. It can never be the basis for a holistic relationship". The I-It positio0n is one that has been found to exist widely within nursing. Menzies-Lyth (1970), in her research into social systems, found that nurses view patients as objects as a way of coping with the intense anxiety that such intimate relationships give rise to. The I-Thou approach to relationship is based on equality, with one individual in their totality relating to the other in their totality. Much of what takes place in CE can be related to the person centered approach: I-Thou. Person Centered relationships usually referred to as Rogerian counselling after its founder Carl Rogers, the person centered approach sits very much in the humanistic tradition. Rogers, influential as both as a psychologist and a counsellor, became convinced during his career that human beings are esentially positive, forward looking and realistic by nature, which he referred to as the actualising tendency. Rogers believed this was the motivating force driving all human beings to achive wholeness.

Empathy is a term that is employed variously in counselling, psichotherapy, nursing and across the helping professions. It is used to describe a particular characteristic that helpers should possess in relation to their clients. Here I am relating it to the skills of the conductor, who need to create a safe and enabling relationship to maximise the potential of the participants. In broad terms empathy is a state of being between two people, where one is entering the world of the other whiole maintaining an awareness oh his or her own world. It is the ability to see the world from the point of view of on other individual or group of individuals, through their frame of reference, which in turn describes the ability of the conductor to enter into the true feelings of the other person or group of people.

It is not an attempt to be that person, and try to envisage how it might feelto be them. It is the 'as if' quality that makes empathy different from sympathy. Sympathy, whilst concerned with feelings of pity, compassion and tenderness for the other person, involves collusion, whereas empathy requires much more effort, concentration and discipline. Empathy is expressed or communicated through a number 9of key skills, including active listening to both the words and feelings that are being conveyed by the participant.

Holistic Learning

2009-05-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

Engage the mind - Touch the heart- Feed the soul Publicity notice, Edinburgh International Festival 2005

The term 'holistic learning' signifies an approach to learning which is predominantly 'whole person', i.e. it seeks to engage fully all aspects of the learner - mind, body and spirit. (See also Whole Brain.) The underlying holistic principle is that a complex organism functions most effectively when all its component parts are themselves functioning and co-operating effectively. And this idea relates very closely to the concept of synergy, with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. In terms of mainstream education a 'whole person' approach to learning is much more likely to be observed within the sensory-rich nursery or primary school activity room than in the intellect-dominated university lecture theatre.

John Heron's Model of Holistic Learning

John Heron, Founder of the Human Potential Research Project. A powerful pyramid model presents learning as an interaction between four distinct modes of psychological being: feeling, imaginal, thinking and practical. These are normally represented in the form of a pyramid with feeling at the base and practical at the top. And so what is especially unusual about the model is that feeling is presented as our fundamental mode, rather than thinking. This contrasts sharply with much of mainstream traditional education, where cognitive thinking and the pursuit of intellectual competence have the pre-eminent role. The significance of this alternative orientation is that the crucial requirement for each learner is to establish a relationship with their total learning situation which is intimate, resonant and positive (i.e. in the feeling mode). Only when this is firmly in place is it considered that the learner will be free to tap fully into the other three modes of the learning model, viz. imaginal, thinking and practical.

Source

http://www.jwelford.demon.co.uk/brainwaremap/holist.html

A book which is available in English

2009-04-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

I was writing about books two weeks ago, written by Hungarian authors and wished to be translated to English. Now, by contrast, let me suggest one which can be already read in English and which I recomend with pleasure.

Dr. Erika Medveczky

Conductive Education

as an educational method of neurohabilitation

Budapest, 2006.ISBN 963229819 5

A short part from The precondition for succesful conductive education p.:17-18

Peto’s educational aims more than 60 years ago included learning, information in its broadest sense, living with others and an independent way of life. These very same aims were stipulated in the International Law of Human rights (1994) and a few years later in the Commission Report of UNESCO (1997). Society and national culture are involved, namely the environment influences education, the process of learning and socialisation. The developmental approach must be adjusted to the society and culture in different ways by different nations. By now, when conductive education is internationally applied, its principles have proved to be applicable successfully in different national cultures.
Suitability for CE is to be determined by the conductor’s operative observation, since just looking at a person with dysfunctions is already informative. It is even more important to state what the person with dysfunction would be able to do should he receive conductive education. It also must be seen whether contact can be established. The conductor’s responsibility is further increased by her having to give a prognosis concerning the conductive educational future for the person with dysfunctions. Then an individual development plan must be drawn up. The assessment must also answer the question how this educational method can help the disabled person’s development. The conductive education teacher intends to see what the child with disabilities would be able to if development changed his environment, the scene of his education. The conductor considers and documents the results of medical reports and the pace of development which could be registered until this first assessment.
The conductor also wants to see by future operative observation whether an interaction has been formed between the conductor and the child, which may help the learning process. While a paediatric neurological examination focuses on the pathological neurological and neglect symptoms, the conductor’s observation considers the possibility of utilising the existing reserve capacities. She is looking for the preconditions of complex performance in every day situation. Then she wants to see concrete ways of task solutions which can be applied individually in the given case. Thus she must see whether the method is suitable for developing the child with disabilities.
The conductor never sets up a diagnosis – it is not needed- since patients come to conductive education already after a medical check up and diagnosis. However, she tries to explore the abilities which make the patient suitable to be developed by conductive education. This does not always correspond to anatomic extension of brain damage. Experience shows that no cases of damage to the central nervous system with identical origin produce the same loss of functions, symptoms and prognosis.
As shown above, the preconditions for conductive education include a well trained and experienced conductor and operative observation (conductor’s assessment). It is also essential to have a conductive group, to have early development begun in infancy which can be established. A determining factor is that conductor does not work in an isolated position but as a member of homogenous conductor’s team, especially in the early, intensive phase of development.
As the scene of development a peer group is vital, which also influences personality development favourably and prevents early social isolation. The group develops a need to establish contact with peers and the social environment, and also enhances communication. ...

Reaction

2009-04-10T01:12:00.000-07:00

This is a reaction post to the new posts of Andrew Sutton and Judit Szathmary. Those posts had a meeting point in my mind. Andrew was questioning who would be responsible for getting CE a goverment recognised system in UK and he has list of the bodies who have not succeeded so far. In the meantime Judit was writing about Sir Ken Robinson who was invited by the government to to establish and lead a national commission on creativity, education and the economy...
Isn't it strange? Well, of course not. The government decides who to invite and what to do which is normal in democratic countries. It seems to me that if the British government did not want to recognise CE in the past 30 years, it probably won't happen in the near future either. No, I am not negative, I am not pessimistic but we have to realise the reality at some point. There were countries that did not know about CE up till the late nineties, but now use the system. We are sentenced to be in the private sector in the UK without any help from the goverment. The society of people who are interested were never big (thanks God) and strong enough to make a real push or start a "civil war". The government itself is not interested! It is a pity. I thought scientific actions might develop this problem. So far however, nothing has happened. There were recently positive PhDs and good results of studies published on CE - yet there has still been no response! The UK is not interested, and those who are involved seem to be met with obstacles at each turn.

In the Petö Institute / Easter 09

2009-04-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

I have been staying in Hungary for my Easter Holidays and had a possibility to visit the "alma mater" (Petö Institute). I visited the Maria Hari Library for the first time since its opening and it was very nice to see a "normal" library. It has been needed for a long time. The little museum what can be found attached to the library also gives us a great memory of Hari Maria's work and reminds us of her the legacy. How nice! Thank you for all who made this possible.
There, in the library I was advised to read one of the new books published by Petö Institute.
The title is Feladatsorok a Konduktív Nevelésben /Task series in CE/ written by Frencné Beck one of our Budapest trained conductors. The contents of the book have been taught and available as a teaching peaper at the Institute for some time, but I was really happy to get it in a well presented book. Well done! We really needed this, too. The author, Eva, asked me if it was useful to translate it to English. I said such a translation was needed as it is still not avaiable in English, along with the 'The Little Green Book'. I am sure someone, person or company, would donate to enable a translation to be made.
I have just read Andrew's last blog mentioning the financial problems of Hungary and the impact on the Petö Institute and conductors all over the world. Well, it is really a scary situation for all of us and we can have only a good hope that we will sustain and survive the crisis.

Note

2009-02-27T07:52:00.001-08:00

There is going to be a CEPEG Conference on 13th of March at Horton Lodge, at which I am going to give a foreword about the history of UK's adult CE. It is planned to be based on Andrew Sutton's article on the same case.
He mentioned Ronni Nanton's name there, and in his knol as well.

How will I find out about such things in future, without Gill and her library? How will other people at the conference manage?

???

I wish to keep my appearance

2009-02-26T00:07:00.000-08:00

Turns out, I am too busy recently - but because I wish to keep my appearance here on the blog I thought to share one of my activities which keeps me away pretty often from writing it.

I work on an investigation:

Title:
An exploratory study of the rehabilitation of physical disabled adults in a group setting with particular reference to Conductive Education

Aim of the investigation:

1. To explore the characteristics of the delivery of adult CE in a group setting
2. To investigate the relationship between the cognitive, social, emotional and functional dimensions of the delivery of Conductive Education in a group setting and its impact on the experience of rehabilitation amongst a group of physically disabled adults
3. To examine the experience of rehabilitation in a group setting in another rehabilitation context
4. To compare and contrast the two settings.

Engel's Biopsychosocial Model

2009-02-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard about the Biopsychosocial Model? It is almost a 50 years old challenge. At the practical level, it is a way of understandingthe patient’s subjective experience as an essential contributorto accurate diagnosis, health outcomes, and humane care.

The (late) George Engel believed that to understand and respondadequately to patients’ suffering—and to give thema sense of being understood—clinicians must attend simultaneouslyto the biological, psychological, and social dimensions of illness.He offered a holistic alternative to the prevailing biomedicalmodel that had dominated industrialized societies since themid-20th century. His new model came to be known as the biopsychosocialmodel. He formulated his model at a time when science itselfwas evolving from an exclusively analytic, reductionistic, andspecialized endeavor to become more contextual and cross-disciplinary.Engel did not deny that the mainstream of biomedical researchhad fostered important advances in medicine, but he criticizedits excessively narrow (biomedical) focus for leading cliniciansto regard patients as objects and for ignoring the possibilitythat the subjective experience of the patient was amenable toscientific study. Engel championed his ideas not only as a scientificproposal, but also as a fundamental ideology that tried to reversethe dehumanization of medicine and disempowerment of patients. His model struck a resonant chord with those sectorsof the medical profession that wished to bring more empathyand compassion into medical practice.

Source: http://www.annfammed.org/cgi/content/full/2/6/576

George Engel (1913 - 1999)

When these ideas were forming in the early 1950s,he had already made a name for himself in neurology and medicinethrough his studies of fainting, delirium, and ulcerative colitisand was beginning the studies that would document the correlationof loss with the onset of a variety of diseases.

Treatments of CP and Motor Delay

2009-01-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

"Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, teachers, and nursery nurses welcome indisciplinary groups as they can then see the total child and the relationship of their speciality to those of the others in total function. On planning and using structured group session the different disciplines are enabled to share their knowledge with one other so that practical integrated group activities can be created. Different disciplines have then to clarify their main aims with each child and make certain they are understood by everyone in the planning of the programme and in its execution. It is not possible for each professional to convey all her expertise to the other different disciplines, but rather to learn how to discover the overlap of her particular discipline with others. In this way the overlap becomes a practical achievement and enriches the teamwork."

Written by Sophie Levitt in Treatment of Cerebral Palsy and Motor Delay, (p. 268-269) Blackwell, Fourth edition, 2004

....and how lucky to be trained as a Conductive Education Teacher. You do not necessarily need the time to discuss main aims and share those knowledge before puting structured group into action. You are able to see the "total child"....so on

Comment

2009-01-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

I have found this in between the comments, so I thought to make it more public to put it as a post.

Dear László,

Is it right to regard it merely as a (suspicious) business enterprise when someone tries to help people deal with real problems? As well known to you, the Pető Institute has achieved great success in adopting conductive education for adults, especially those with Parkinsonism and MS. Probably due to our results, the interest has grown considerably in the UK as well.
Thus we would like to provide the opportunity for those interested, rather than learning about our work from hearsay, to make an organised, active “visit” to Budapest and apart from getting information on conductive education and the related options on the spot, see the beauty and visit the baths of our capital.
For the time being, there has only been some conversation about this possibility. We certainly seem to interfere with business interests if concerning the “talks” which in fact was only a lunch among friends, we have to encounter presumptions of shady ideas with miss-spelt names.

What do you think?

Interesting

2009-01-19T12:28:00.000-08:00

Regarding to the "advertisement of the Able magazine" issue, here is what I have found:

First, I made a phone call using the given number 07968598281.
Surprisingly, there was a Hungarian young lady on the other side of the line, called Timea Zuranyi. She is not a CE professional but wants to create a business through Conductive Education. She is a representative of the New Start Employment Agency UK, as she has described to me, and tries to set up as a travel agency adult CP, Head injury Parkinson or MS groups to visit Budapest & have Conductive Education during the summer school holiday period in Hungary. She has just returned from Budapest. She visited Villanyi ut, Budapest on Friday and talked about the possible business with Tunde Krokko (??), Laszlo Onodi and Andras Krokovai (??) - sorry I am not sure about the spelling of the names.
So, this is all, just an other business who would like to live on CE on its own way.
What do you think?

I was told to look up some information on the website for csci under directory of care services.

http://www.csci.org.uk

Here is the comment...

2009-01-17T15:26:00.000-08:00

I will keep very short this comment since I have very limited time to spend by my computer this evening but I really wanted to express couple of my thoughts regarding that advertisement.

It seems that the author has not got a clue at all what he/she is writing about. He/she must have heard only recently about “the world famous”. - Ok, that is not unique in the media.
It depicts as adult conductive education would not have known at all in UK and people have never had any experience of “highly skilled and experienced staff” of conductive education having “cerebral palsy, and other muscular weaknesses”. In fact, they have. I think adult conductive education is a boosting area of CE in the UK recently as after a long lonely work of NICE new services can be found throughout the country offering the possibility of CE in Britain for adults, too. Beside NICE’s great approach Percy Hedley, New Castle, Magan Baker House, Moreton Eye, or Independent Conductive Education Services in the North West area just launched (in the last two years) their services for Parkinson diseased, head injured, MS conditioned adult people.

Visit:
http://www.i-ce-s.com/
http://www.meganbakerhouse.org.uk/
http://www.percyhedley.org.uk/
http://www.conductive-education.org.uk/

ABLE news

2009-01-17T10:15:00.000-08:00

I have just come across with this little advertisement in the January - February issue of the
“ABLE”
magazine.

"Do you want to visit PETO Institute?

The famous Peto Institute in Hungary, which has provided conductive education for children with Cerebral palsy, and other muscular weaknesses for more than 60 years, is looking to welcome its first adult guests from the UK this summer.
Hundreds of British children have already enjoyed the services of the institute, located near Budapest, but this will be the first time adults will be able to benefit from the care and support on offer from its highly skilled and experienced staff".

Comment later.

Source: ABLE magazine, Issue January - February 2009, page: 10

By the way, in contrast of Susie, This is my first post with image. :)

Goals

2009-01-08T00:31:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to everyone!
Sorry about the longer pause I had some difficulties around…

GOALS

By the start of a new year many people set their “goals” either for the near future or longer term. Also, we set goals for ourselves in different levels.
Can you remember when you were a child, and thinking about what you wanted to be when you grow up? What occupation attracted you?
Whatever you answer, the appeal of a particular type of adult work is, for many of us, our first hint of the power of goals. Perhaps it is this vision of future outcomes that filled your daydreams, kept you awake during all-nighters in college, or helped you persevere when there were troubles. Goals – whether they are occupational, material, relational, or personal – are the natural motivators of life. Further, many positive psychology researchers have found a direct link between goals pursuit and happiness.
It has been always much emphasis placed on goals by conductors. Most of us have at least an intuitive grasp of their importance: Goals are vital to people because they help them organize their lives to meet crucial existential, social, personal and psychological needs. What’s more, goals are very important to the conductive endeavour because they provide a direction for our work and a baseline for evaluating the effectiveness of our service. Personal goals, those wished or attractive future outcomes we all strive for, have long been the Holy Grail of Conductive Education. Chances are, our clients love working on and toward goals and have an understanding of their motivational power. Likewise, “seasoned conductors”, “family conductors” tend to focus heavily on goals, establishing aims for individual tasks, helping clients to clearly articulate goals, and conducting visioning exercises in which clients set long-term goals. The profession of Conductive Education has, to a large degree, been built around goal setting, and for a good reason. Goals are both functional and important. They give us direction, they motivate us, and they structure our time, actions, and decisions. Working toward goals gives us a sense of accomplishment. Personal and social aspirations are the yardsticks by which each of us can chart a course and measure success.

Goal orientation is the way in which individuals think and talk about their goals. The goal orientation that has received the most research support for being important to happiness is the degree to which people strive for positive goals or strive to avoid negative goals. This dichotomy is commonly referred to as “approach” and “avoidance”. Approach goals are the positive outcomes that clients strive for such as “spend more time with the kids”. Avoidant goals, by contrast, are those negative outcomes that individuals work to avoid or prevent like “avoid gaining weight this winter”. There is a preponderance of research evidence linking avoidant goals to increased distress and anxiety, decreased levels of happiness, lower level of social satisfaction, and poorer perceptions of health.
We all have heard about the glass which is half empty or half full judged by the negative or the positive thinkers. Here is an explanation through parents whom watching their child play in the yard. The approach-oriented parent allows his child to climb a tree because he values exploration, balance, physical strength, or excitement. The avoidant parent, by contrast, tells his child not to climb the tree because there is a legitimate risk of the child getting hurt, and the parent values health and safety. Both parents have a valid set of values, and both have a fine argument backing their respective decisions.
The avoidant orientation is a slightly more negative way to look at the world. As conductors we (should) tuned to listen approach- and avoidance related language of our colleagues and clients, too and make the “magic transformation” (pull the angel out from the people) by reframe negative and work towards success. Conductive Education, as a whole, is based on to avoid of avoidance and “health and safety” employs a higher standard of understanding by CE which allows the child to climb the tree.

Intruduction from basic

2008-12-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

It is so strange that I need ( have) to write things like this when I try to introduce CE. The general medical public still has to be introduced, as I formulated in CE paradox, from a very basic. I thought to share some of my writings:

In research of rehabilitation, an increasing interest can be detected towards group community intervention programs in different rehabilitation areas having results feasible, acceptable, achieving provable improvements and enhance quality of life (Elsie, Lap, 2006) In practice and in some pilot studies we have been introduced, for instance, the efficacy of an outpatient cognitive behavioral group program for the rehabilitation of adult patients with chronic pain. Significant improvements in mood, coping skills, physical disability were found. (Skinner, Erskine, et al 1990). An other investigation proved the efficiency of aqua-aerobic programs in Multiple Sclerosis which are carried out in group situation for physically disabled (Pérez, et al, 2007). However, less emphasis has been laid specifically on the relationship between social, emotional and physical dimensions of the development within group setting but some scholars have already expressed that the motivational aspect provides evidence for the use of groups in physical rehabilitation. (Lawson, Sonja Kristi, 2006).

The successful management of physical disabilities is critical to successful healthcare delivery. The development of practice and approaches are the most important factors in this field. Contributions from a range of experienced researchers and practitioners associated with the rehabilitation and treatment of people with a range of physical disabilities are mostly based on the traditional point of view of delivery; carried out person to person, in the way of individualized therapy. In relation to recent researches, however, the greater significance of development of practice and approaches of physical disabilities is when emotional, social aspects are also involved and psychological management takes great place. (Kennedy & Paul 2007).
“The assets of the person must receive considerable attention in the rehabilitation effort. A person’s healthy physical and mental attributes can become a basis for alleviating as well as providing a source of gratification and enhancement of life. The active participation of a client in the planning and execution of the rehabilitation program is to be sought as fully as possible.” (Beatrice Wright, 2005) In this respect, and critique of traditional point of view of delivery, the predictive quality of practice alternatively could be increased by changing contribution from person to person to group setting in certain areas (such as Parkinson disease, Head injury, Stroke - Aphasia, Ataxia, MS, CP, Ageing).
The implication of emotional, social aspects in the management of physical disabilities shed light upon the links between health science, social psychology, pedagogy, sport science and it seems to be drawing a more holistic contribution. The link between rehabilitation and education, the adult education point of view shell introduce accordingly a ‘new’ possible way of rehabilitation of motor-disabled, the group setting, and the possibility of community intervention programs. (Szogeczki L 2008) “Human beings are group beings” (R. Brown, 2000) “physical disabled are humans, so physical disabled, should be group beings, too and everything what was studied and discovered on group approach for healthy people or people with behavioral, emotional and social difficulties should related to group of people with physical difficulties as well. Group processes is deepen our understanding of relationships within and between groups of motor-disabled and should conduct the successful healthcare delivery.” (Szogeczki L 2008) From generous educational point of view there is no question about the possibility and the success of group setting. Conceptions of adult transformative learning of Mezirow and the most recent alternative perspectives in contrast to Mezirow’s psycho-critical perspective lead us to the psychoanalytic, psycho-developmental and social-emancipatory views of transformative learning. The mentioned teaching approaches could be considered to work in the process of tackling the problems of the adult physical disabled. A forth perspective however, seems to be of crucial importance: the neurobiological perspective of transformative learning (Janik 2005).
This “brain-based” theory was discovered by clinicians using medical imaging techniques to study brain functions of patient who were recovering from psychological trauma. What these researchers determined was that a neurobiological transformation seen as invoking “the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, and the hypothalamic-pituitary pitocin secreting endocrine system to alter learning during periods of search and discovery.”(Janik, 2007, p.12) In simpler terms the findings suggest that the brain structure actually changes during the learning process. These findings turn bring into question of traditional models of learning…and instead offer a distinctive neurobiological, physically based pathway to transformative learning. (Taylor, 2008, p.8)

Psychotherapy is an interpersonal, relational intervention to aid clients in problems of living. This includes increasing individual sense of well-being and reducing subjective discomforting experience. Psychotherapists employ a range of techniques based on experiential relationship building, dialogue, communication and behavior change and that are designed to improve the mental health of a client or patient, or to improve group relationships (such as in a family). Gestalt therapy is an existential and experiential psychotherapy that focuses on the individual's experience, the environmental and social contexts in which these things take place, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of the overall situation. It emphasizes personal responsibility. (Masquelier, 2006).
Meaningful living however, is a central focus of several humanistic theories as well. The rationale for the use of logotherapy is introduced. Somov and Pavel G. review group applications of logotheraphy and offer a clinical curriculum for a group application. They provide a discussion of the specifics of the group format and role induction to the "Meaning of Life" group (Journal for Specialists in Group Work, Oct. 2007).

As I promised...

2008-12-10T15:12:00.000-08:00

As I promised, herewith I let you know about the references of the topic of the body:

Clarkson P (1989) Gestalt Counselling in Action Sage, London
Crossley N (1995) Merleau-Ponty, the Elusive Body and Carnal Society
Body and Society 1 (1) 43-46
Leder D (1990) The Absent Body The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Merleau-Ponty m (1962) The Phenomenology of Perception Routledge and Kegan Paul, London
Rock I and Palmer S (1990) The Legacy of Gestalt Psychology
Scientific American 263(6) 48-61
Sharma U (1996) Bringing the Body Back into the (Social) Action: Techniques of the Body and the (Cultural) Imagination
The Journal of the European Association of Social Anthropologists 4(3) 251-263
Shaw R (1996a) Towards an Understanding of the Psychodynamic
Process of the Body Psychodynamic Counselling 2 (2) 230-246
Shilling c (1993) The Body and Social Theory sage, London
Straus EW (1966) Phenomenological Psychology Tavistock, London
Tolman CW (1994) Psychology, Society and Subjectivity Routledge, London

Body V.

2008-12-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

The Body in psychotherapy

There is a need to justify the inclusion of psychotherapy into this discussion of the body. Psychotherapy which focuses on individuals and acknowledges societal influences as external, is at odds with the sociological perspective which tends to look away from the individual. There is, thus, a dualistic problem of how individual subjectivity can be located within a sociological framework and conversely, how sociological influences are contained within psychotherapy. As Tolman (1994) suggests, “the end result is that the human subject is either totally subjectified or totally objectified, becoming abstracted and isolated in either case.” Psychotherapy does though offer some important insights into how we may come to experience our bodies.

One particular aspect of interest is the notion of preverbal communication; that is the mode of communication employed prior to cognitive process of verbalisation. This preverbal communication is predominantly body-orientated and therefore becomes a means of being able to understand the world via our bodies. It is primarily transmitted via the body, be it as screams, posture, movement, or the contraction of muscle. We feel the world via our body, and then begin to understand and adjust to the environment. There is a link with the phenomenology of perception and preverbal communication since it is the body which is first able to perceive the world and initially the communication with the word is preverbal. Various branches of psychotherapy acknowledge the importance of preverbal communication; those that do include Reichian vegetotherapy and gestalt.
It is these therapies which advocate the use of touch within therapy. This is a major issue within psychotherapy and the prevailing ideology is to avoid physical contact. Touch is considered to evoke sexual feelings and questions arise as to whether the touch involved is the need of the therapist or that of the client. As a consequence, there is a fear of physical contact within the therapy world. However, the controversial debate on touch and its appropriate place in therapy also demonstrates that the body is an important part of the world. The touch taboo is the means of excluding the body, but at the same time, an implicit acknowledgement of its existence.
Psychotherapy acknowledges body process but tends to stand back from a deeper understanding, almost in fear of the repercussions that such work engenders.
The significance of addressing psychotherapy is the somatic process which may be being expressed as preverbal communication. It is well known and observed that psychotherapy clients frequently exhibit somatic symptoms. However, within psychotherapy it is the verbalisation of feelings which is paramount.

Comment II

2008-12-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

Tunde Rozsahegyi could not put her comment through the blog's comments so she mailed this:

Laci,

I absolutely agree with the thoughts in this thread of postings and since your original entry I keep thinking of the issue you highlighted.Yes, we live in a world in the 21 century when anecdotal evidence is not sufficient enough to move CE forward. If we want to strengthen CE by identifying, proving and making the strength and uniqueness of CE more widely acceptable we have to do two things: firstly disseminate our values, experiences and expertise in an academic manner; secondly identifying the weaknesses too.Over the last 30-40 years in English language so many people have said their thought and perspectives on conductive education: therapists, psychologists, educators but unfortunately less heard from conductors themselves. Would a professional body be helpful to change this? Would it be influential enough first of all to have members? I seem to remember that in the last 20 years there were sooooooo many attempts to establish a professional body! Sorry for being pessimistic but I see the role of a professional body something different.I think the advancement of CE and the establishment of a proper academic discourse is emerging, perhaps not in a pace as it is anticipated by those who just passively wait for its outcomes.Working for and 'doing' proper research, seeking and writing about evidence based practice seem to be something alien for the majority of conductors, but this perception needs to be changed and opportunities and support have to be given to those who feel confident and interested to be involved. Hard to believe this can take place without the support from CE organisations, managers and others in a decision-making position.Andrew writes a lot about the economic depression and I do not want to reiterate any of his thoughts accept that in recessions education always do well because people see a way of getting out from the situation by gaining new knowledge and experiences. Perhaps for those involved in the strategic level of managing CE services it would be a time now to rethink what would be useful as a long-term investment; how could they support their conductors to cope with this ever-changing world. To do this it needs long term vision, understanding and commitment to CE and belief in its values.A very final thought if conductors do not articulate CE, will not look into how it should be developed further it is hard to envisage that it will survive in a long term. Others will not do instead of us.

Best wishes,

Tunde

Comment

2008-12-04T01:53:00.000-08:00

I think it is very important to share Judit’s comment here because she thought forward the issue of CE paradox and pointed out some serious truths where from we must move…..

“I really enjoyed reading your post. I read it again, and again, and again. You raised a very important question. ‘So we are here, but what next?’The directions of CE will be determent on the clarity and focus we are prepared to invest in creating its future. Clarity is power. We know this from our work when we facilitate in a conductive way. Just when we look at how CE works at its best, what do we need for that? Amongst many other things we need a unified team who believes in, manifests and carries the same highest level of standards, with a clear outcome in mind. Wishing and hoping will not take us there. Do we want it badly enough to make us move and create such a team? Do we really want to have a professional body, which is prepared to publish the basic core values, standards and structures that would truly represent Conductive Education?We need more brave, talented and diligent people in the here and now to deal with this paradox and to help all of those who are trying to work with CE in different settings. If we really wanted to be taken seriously I think it is about time that we created something valuable for all of us and for the future generation to come.Once hearts and minds meet it will be done.”

First, it is not enough merely to discuss about the difficulties but some actions should be taken. The professional body must be efficient and directed by the real needs. Most importantly, CE professionals individually should reach a certain interest level and develop their own quality requirement for themselves. To sign a code of practice is not automatically means that we are living so….

Next to my everyday practice I work nowadays a lot towards science which makes me a bit capable to recognise some part of why we are still in a professional infancy, it makes me to be a critical viewer of everything what happens around CE. The acceptance of anything (a new medical method, pedagogical approach, philosophy, etc.) comes through science in the modern world. We live in an age where sciences are testable, and the results of careful studies are both replicable and generalizable. I sadly have to recognise that what we completely missed is the scientific appearance in the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties about CE. This fact also caused that we pretty often turned to be so variable and so different in opposite part of Europe or the World. Everybody runs conductive education as she thinks CE is. That is a simple result of lack of scientific introduction and acceptance.
So, because the scientific method is so widely accepted, conductive education practices that are grounded in science will be easier to “sell” to the still sceptical public or potential clients, and especially to organizations that want reassurances that the service will be effective. My prediction is that conductors who can honestly claim to work from a foundation of the latest scientific research and theory will have a tremendous market advantage over their peers. Not only will prospective employers look favourably on them, they will enjoy the comfort of knowing that their interventions are effective (not only in front of them but widely) and obviously appropriate to their unique client base. The importance of science to our field was recently noted and hopefully will help to find the ground for a new start and identify our strengths better than in the past. Have a good day….

CE paradox

2008-12-02T02:17:00.001-08:00

The work of the brave, talented, diligent people who pioneered the field of CE has started to pay off a bit: CE is more widely known - mostly in the private sector of rehabilitation of physical disabled - in some cases getting accepted, different kind of conductor training programs are existing. Even, some Universities take notice of our profession. I should say we are effective.
Beneath this veneer of effectiveness however, there is an irony in the profession that I think of as CE paradox: For a profession that systematically helps people aspire to and reach their innate and function potential, CE has not yet reached its own potential. In fact, although CE is a 60 years old profession, it is still in its relative professional infancy.
CE lacks a coherent, widely agreed on definition, conductor training varies in content and its interventions differ sometimes greatly. In short, CE is still a broadly defined endeavour in need of refining. I would not suggest to look for ‘mistakers’ but we should definitely learn from our mistakes of past and start to be more constructive for the future.
So, we are here, but what next? In which directions CE might move how our interventions and services might evolve in the near future. Where do we, as profession, go from here? CE has long been a powerful force for transformation in people’s lives. Whether contributed in school situations, in blocks, summer camp ways, private, etc., CE is about harnessing the best in people and inspiring them to live out their potential. CE should be a wake-up call, challenging habilitation, rehabilitation, challenging folks to tap their inner abundance. The profession of conductive pedagogy is fortunate to have many skilled and imaginative people working toward a great end.
I hope we can get there one day….

Somatisation - body IV.

2008-11-25T01:50:00.000-08:00

This post continues the body topic. The following about somatisation was written by Robert Shaw which is perfectly embedding into my topic and meets my voice. Shaw is a Psychioterapiest and registered Osteopath in private practice (for note; see belowe).

The construct of somatisation, within the medical world, refers to bodily pain which does not appear to have an organic physical aetiology. Such pain represents a challenge to medicine, as it defies classification within a discrete pathological category. Nevertheless, the very naming of a specific category, in this case somatisation, does provide a medical label. However, people to whom thi label is attributed are often additionally classified by the medical profession as “crocks, turkeys, hypochondriacs, the worried well, and the problem patients” (Lipowski, 1988) There is a belief that pain is ‘all in the mind’ (Evans 1993). There appears to be an assumption that somatisation and psychosomatic disorders are linked, and of less importance than ‘real’ illness, where the patient has a demonstrable pathological label.

Somatisation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in primary health care settings throughout Western culture. Medicine is beginning to view the phenomenon with increasing interest, as the cost of treatment for people who are somatising is called into question. Other cultures have observed somatisation; for example shamanism acknowledges the existence of psychosomatic process (Achterberg 1985). In ancient Buddhism, it was believed that the conversation psychological pain into somatic pain was an adaptive achievement. In other cultures, there is an attempt to link affect to bodily organs, and thereby transcend the mind-body dichotomy; an example here is how Afghanis refer to ‘squeezing of the hart’ to denote sadness or depression. In Chinese medicine, somatic changes and emotions are linked by notions of the angry liver and the melancholy spleen (Ots 1990).

Somatisation, is a distinct category, does try to solve the problem of linking mind and body, bot does so only within the confines of reductionistic medical discourse. This problem has been noted by Ots, who rejects the notion of somatisation on the grounds that it is embedded in the mind-body dichotomy. In arguing against the use of the term somatisation, he makes the link with the body another way, and suggests that the German word ‘lieb’ could be employed. This would describe how mind, body, and person are considered to be all part of lived experience.

Note:
The Embodied Psychotherapist The Therapist's Body Story
Author: Robert Shaw
ISBN: 978-1-58391-269-0 (paperback) 978-1-58391-268-3 (hardback) 978-0-203-42081-2 (electronic)
No. of pages: 170
Originally Published On: September 2003