Is this still working? I am just curious if it is. I did not even signed in or opened it for a long time. Yes, it was a good reason, still there is. I was just curious. Well, if I am here I post something I wrote to a SEN school to introduce CE several months ago.
Introducing Conductive Pedagogical System
Conductive Education (CE) is a contemporary special education concept being increasingly used in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world. Its system fully falls into the so called SEN education. The following article tries to introduce Conductive Pedagogical System (CPS) for professionals who struggling to find information and fail to see, understand CPS as an education due to lack of pedagogical literature and discussion of its nature in not a medical, rehabilitation context.
Dr. Andras Peto was born in Hungary, studied and worked in Austria after finishing high school in Szombathely, Hungary. In the 1920’s he started to construct new effective systems for healing different illnesses as a freshly qualified physician in Austria and his main focus was natural healing and alternative medicine. From March 1945 he implemented with the aid of the after World War II Hungarian State a new pedagogical habilitation, rehabilitation scheme for central nervous system damaged children and adults in Budapest, Hungary. He recognised that people with the above mentioned disabilities can be taught how to live an active life using their all possible potentials and developed his own unique complex education system how to build up individual’s active orientated personality – orthofunction - and progress their life skills and medical conditions. With this idea he was the first who approached central nervous damaged people with a pedagogical focus and put physical developmental actions alongside with emotional, social, mental and communication developments as part of the education approach.
Conductive Pedagogical System (CPS)
CPS which was mistakenly introduced as Conductive Education to the English speaking part of the world is a pedagogical system, a “special education” structure traditionally for people who have physical disabilities due to damage of the Central Nervous System (CNS) such as Cerebral Palsy, Ataxia, Stroke, Parkinson Disease, MS, Spina Bifida. However, in the last two three decades CPS’s educational structure was recorded to be successful approaching a much broader field of disabilities i.e. Global Development Delay, Dyspraxia, Carbohydrate Glycoprotein Deficiency, Mucolipidosis type IV (ML IV), Down Syndrome, Hydro-cephalous and Micro-cephalous caused disabilities, mental impairment and many others.
Conductive Pedagogy is an assistive (lifelong) process, approach of recovering and living with physical and related complex problems. CPS believes that rehabilitation as a phenomenon not the word which expresses the best way its systematic complex approach as usually different professionals refer to it in most of the countries. People with physical difficulties having complex problems; emotional, social, mental-cognitive, medical issues alongside of the physical concerns, therefore they require a complex approach. A fundamental believe of CPS is that as long as people are alive they are learning and learning is not passive. CPS states that everybody, all human, is capable to learn and expectations should be tailor made for the learning individual. We all learning from others and from models through self-experiences. Learning is a complex phenomenon it involves emotional, social, cognitive, physical aspects and they all linked together; learning is therefore a personal transformation of the individual. The value of culture, family, close and broader social relationships are accounted and reflected in CPS. The practitioner, Conductor, Conductor, Conductive Education Teacher, is not only habilitating, rehabilitating individuals, but transforming the whole person in which process he is very much personally involved, so CPS is a pedagogical approach. Conductive Education Teachers therefore facilitate to live in society and shaping society as a whole.
CPS offers guided participatory for its learners which is based on or close to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) however, Peto’s concept projected practice from social-cultural to motor learning in a specific way and it is being practised in that broader manner. Recently, Barbara Rogoff’s (UK) works are correlative in many ways of CPS.
CPS identifies the following principles of education which relates generally to every age:
• The child/person must be humanly respected even if there is serious damage to the nervous system as well as its environment; parents, peers, carers, etc.
• Central role of relationships with others
• Positive attitude coaching, welcome into the society - emotional well-being is seen as fundamental of involvement; children/people without a sense of well-being will find it difficult to concentrate, fully engage (by CP facilitation) in activities, experiences, and interactions with others
• Directive but very friendly, questioning, open minded, supportive and responsible teaching attitude
• Group setting; collective approach but/and person centered dealing with each person
• Importance of the positive atmosphere
• Central role of communication in every aspects (it is an activating system)
• The importance of the personality (dysfunction, orthofunction)
• Person as a whole/ outlook as a whole
• Working (upbringing/training/educating) towards orthofunction
• The importance of regularity, daily routine, structure of life
• The importance of consistency, consequence
• Complex, holistic nature of development
• Age appropriate conscious active learning
• Regular, complex- meticulous and continuous observation of the children/people – identifying emotional, social, mental, physical needs , particularly concerned with execution of movement that can be used for functional tasks
• Aim setting is crucial
• Learning academic as well as movements, skill(s) is cognitive issue
• Motivation is central – intrinsic, extrinsic, Adequate task motivation
• Focus on what children/people are able to do (not what can not to do) and expect as starting point of learning
• Praising, searching positive feedback - Positive regard - Rogers
• Persistent adjustment of expectations in physical performance as development took place - immediately build the learnt skills into daily living activities
• Importance of the professional control, evaluation, feedback, and the more sided transformative communication throughout the teaching-learning process in all possible contexts between the children/people and the teacher
Specific / Special Physical Education characteristics of CP
• Motor learning is embedded of daily living complex activities and it is cognitive issue
• Motor learning through lived experience – active guided participation: The importance of opportunities to experience and act age appropriately even if physical difficulties obstruct - the child/ person is entitled to have opportunity to (1) engage him affectively and socially (2) set him in meaningful and relevant activities and contexts for learning (3) promote his curiosity and the use of imagination and creativity in learning, particularly in motor learning (4) open ended and trial-and-error learning without fear of failure (5) experiential skill development activities with a variety of contexts
• Age appropriate physical expectations – approaching with adequate facilitations
• Setting of long term and short term physical objectives with the person and his family and working towards consciously every day
• Body as a whole
• Facilitations: CP refers to any assistance which serves to develop the clients’ complex needs towards orthofunction.
Orthofunction refers not to the physical condition of the person but physical circumstance is part of it. Orthofunction is the opposite of dysfunction which is an inactive, demotivated emotional, social, physical status due to complex social, health, medical problems. Orthofunction means therefore that the person, despite of his complex difficulties, is self-motivated, lives an active life, takes an immense amount of responsibility of organising his own life in all aspects, bodily; tries not to rely on help and try to use his body (by CP learned techniques) to utilise his full potential to live more independent life.
In this context CP differs the following facilitations:
a)Environmental Facilitation
o Emotional Facilitation
o Social Facilitation
b) Physical Facilitation
o Manual Facilitation
o Equipment
o Gravitation
c) Mechanical Facilitation
d) Intention, Rhythmical Intention (activities, tasks are verbally denoted, repeated and execution is rhythmically verbally supported)
e) Audio and Verbal Facilitation
f) Visual Facilitation
• Spiral task series; during lessons the children/people are going through of academically and physically gradually build up programs where certain tasks are repeated in other contexts and positions in order to deepen understanding. The academic tasks are embedded into physical tasks and vice versa
• Age appropriate daily living situations through guided participation
• Regularity, routine
• Self-control, self-evaluation
• Central role of control, evaluation of the physical learning process of the person
Conductive Education (CE) is a contemporary special education concept being increasingly used in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world. Its system fully falls into the so called SEN education. The following article tries to introduce Conductive Pedagogical System (CPS) for professionals who struggling to find information and fail to see, understand CPS as an education due to lack of pedagogical literature and discussion of its nature in not a medical, rehabilitation context.
Dr. Andras Peto was born in Hungary, studied and worked in Austria after finishing high school in Szombathely, Hungary. In the 1920’s he started to construct new effective systems for healing different illnesses as a freshly qualified physician in Austria and his main focus was natural healing and alternative medicine. From March 1945 he implemented with the aid of the after World War II Hungarian State a new pedagogical habilitation, rehabilitation scheme for central nervous system damaged children and adults in Budapest, Hungary. He recognised that people with the above mentioned disabilities can be taught how to live an active life using their all possible potentials and developed his own unique complex education system how to build up individual’s active orientated personality – orthofunction - and progress their life skills and medical conditions. With this idea he was the first who approached central nervous damaged people with a pedagogical focus and put physical developmental actions alongside with emotional, social, mental and communication developments as part of the education approach.
Conductive Pedagogical System (CPS)
CPS which was mistakenly introduced as Conductive Education to the English speaking part of the world is a pedagogical system, a “special education” structure traditionally for people who have physical disabilities due to damage of the Central Nervous System (CNS) such as Cerebral Palsy, Ataxia, Stroke, Parkinson Disease, MS, Spina Bifida. However, in the last two three decades CPS’s educational structure was recorded to be successful approaching a much broader field of disabilities i.e. Global Development Delay, Dyspraxia, Carbohydrate Glycoprotein Deficiency, Mucolipidosis type IV (ML IV), Down Syndrome, Hydro-cephalous and Micro-cephalous caused disabilities, mental impairment and many others.
Conductive Pedagogy is an assistive (lifelong) process, approach of recovering and living with physical and related complex problems. CPS believes that rehabilitation as a phenomenon not the word which expresses the best way its systematic complex approach as usually different professionals refer to it in most of the countries. People with physical difficulties having complex problems; emotional, social, mental-cognitive, medical issues alongside of the physical concerns, therefore they require a complex approach. A fundamental believe of CPS is that as long as people are alive they are learning and learning is not passive. CPS states that everybody, all human, is capable to learn and expectations should be tailor made for the learning individual. We all learning from others and from models through self-experiences. Learning is a complex phenomenon it involves emotional, social, cognitive, physical aspects and they all linked together; learning is therefore a personal transformation of the individual. The value of culture, family, close and broader social relationships are accounted and reflected in CPS. The practitioner, Conductor, Conductor, Conductive Education Teacher, is not only habilitating, rehabilitating individuals, but transforming the whole person in which process he is very much personally involved, so CPS is a pedagogical approach. Conductive Education Teachers therefore facilitate to live in society and shaping society as a whole.
CPS offers guided participatory for its learners which is based on or close to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) however, Peto’s concept projected practice from social-cultural to motor learning in a specific way and it is being practised in that broader manner. Recently, Barbara Rogoff’s (UK) works are correlative in many ways of CPS.
CPS identifies the following principles of education which relates generally to every age:
• The child/person must be humanly respected even if there is serious damage to the nervous system as well as its environment; parents, peers, carers, etc.
• Central role of relationships with others
• Positive attitude coaching, welcome into the society - emotional well-being is seen as fundamental of involvement; children/people without a sense of well-being will find it difficult to concentrate, fully engage (by CP facilitation) in activities, experiences, and interactions with others
• Directive but very friendly, questioning, open minded, supportive and responsible teaching attitude
• Group setting; collective approach but/and person centered dealing with each person
• Importance of the positive atmosphere
• Central role of communication in every aspects (it is an activating system)
• The importance of the personality (dysfunction, orthofunction)
• Person as a whole/ outlook as a whole
• Working (upbringing/training/educating) towards orthofunction
• The importance of regularity, daily routine, structure of life
• The importance of consistency, consequence
• Complex, holistic nature of development
• Age appropriate conscious active learning
• Regular, complex- meticulous and continuous observation of the children/people – identifying emotional, social, mental, physical needs , particularly concerned with execution of movement that can be used for functional tasks
• Aim setting is crucial
• Learning academic as well as movements, skill(s) is cognitive issue
• Motivation is central – intrinsic, extrinsic, Adequate task motivation
• Focus on what children/people are able to do (not what can not to do) and expect as starting point of learning
• Praising, searching positive feedback - Positive regard - Rogers
• Persistent adjustment of expectations in physical performance as development took place - immediately build the learnt skills into daily living activities
• Importance of the professional control, evaluation, feedback, and the more sided transformative communication throughout the teaching-learning process in all possible contexts between the children/people and the teacher
Specific / Special Physical Education characteristics of CP
• Motor learning is embedded of daily living complex activities and it is cognitive issue
• Motor learning through lived experience – active guided participation: The importance of opportunities to experience and act age appropriately even if physical difficulties obstruct - the child/ person is entitled to have opportunity to (1) engage him affectively and socially (2) set him in meaningful and relevant activities and contexts for learning (3) promote his curiosity and the use of imagination and creativity in learning, particularly in motor learning (4) open ended and trial-and-error learning without fear of failure (5) experiential skill development activities with a variety of contexts
• Age appropriate physical expectations – approaching with adequate facilitations
• Setting of long term and short term physical objectives with the person and his family and working towards consciously every day
• Body as a whole
• Facilitations: CP refers to any assistance which serves to develop the clients’ complex needs towards orthofunction.
Orthofunction refers not to the physical condition of the person but physical circumstance is part of it. Orthofunction is the opposite of dysfunction which is an inactive, demotivated emotional, social, physical status due to complex social, health, medical problems. Orthofunction means therefore that the person, despite of his complex difficulties, is self-motivated, lives an active life, takes an immense amount of responsibility of organising his own life in all aspects, bodily; tries not to rely on help and try to use his body (by CP learned techniques) to utilise his full potential to live more independent life.
In this context CP differs the following facilitations:
a)Environmental Facilitation
o Emotional Facilitation
o Social Facilitation
b) Physical Facilitation
o Manual Facilitation
o Equipment
o Gravitation
c) Mechanical Facilitation
d) Intention, Rhythmical Intention (activities, tasks are verbally denoted, repeated and execution is rhythmically verbally supported)
e) Audio and Verbal Facilitation
f) Visual Facilitation
• Spiral task series; during lessons the children/people are going through of academically and physically gradually build up programs where certain tasks are repeated in other contexts and positions in order to deepen understanding. The academic tasks are embedded into physical tasks and vice versa
• Age appropriate daily living situations through guided participation
• Regularity, routine
• Self-control, self-evaluation
• Central role of control, evaluation of the physical learning process of the person
