Hungarian Andras Peto first founded the principles of Conductive Education over 40 years ago and there are now CE centres all over the world.

One of Peto’s founding principles was the repetition of a skill or element of movement so that it is better learned.  These are skills that come with everyday tasks such as getting out of bed, washing, dressing and going to the toilet.  Peto wanted the individual to be seen as a whole.

Peto’s aim was that a person should be able to live a ‘normal’ life but may need to find different ways to achieve that. By looking a the physical, social and personal development of the individual, and regarding all these elements as interdependent parts of the whole, the person learns through working on all parts of these in various activities.

The process is a partnership between the person and the teacher (conductor) so his or her active participation, and that of the family members is essential.

CE has 5 parts – the teacher or conductor, the program itself, the task series (ie what the person wants to achieve, broken into stages), the intention and the group the person is working in.

The Conductor

In order for the person to learn, the conductor creates realistic situations for learning and problem solving.  By concentrating on the positives the individual feels that his/her effort and constant repetition of the tasks and elements of the task is worthwhile.

Conductors are university trained professionals and are responsible for the hands-on instruction as well as the assessment and delivery of the program.

The Program

The program is intensive and what Peto called ‘all life’, meaning that it starts with waking and ends with sleeping, encompassing all the activities between those times.

The Task Series

The task series elements are the teaching tools in CE.  They’re real life rather than a series of exercises and are developed for the individual’s whole life so that his/her needs are met.

The Intention

The intention is the way the person expresses himself – through speech or thought processes – in what he wants to do.  The person can imagine, plan and carry out the movement by focusing on it and each step in the process and with practise, will be able to then control its rhythm and speed.

The Group

The group is the unit in which the person plays and learns.  People within the group are matched of age and ability and they learn to learn from each other, to encourage each other and to work as part of a whole. 

The group also helps the person with social development – asking for help, waiting for help while others receive attention and being accountable for his/her own success.

Patient and parent advocacy have meant that the Peto principles and ethos have grown in popularity across the world. 

There have been few studies into its effectiveness against traditional physical therapy but anecdotal evidence is very strong.

Find out more here.

Image via Wikipedia

Society and the disabled.

Since I was born I was disabled.  At birth, my mother had toxemia and they thought that somehow during my birth process, I had a stroke( where a red blood vessel bursts in your brain), thus causing the disability, also known as Cerebral Palsy.  This is my classification:

• Spastic hemiplegia (one side being affected). Generally, injury to muscle-nerves controlled by the brain’s left side will cause a right body deficit, and vice versa. Typically, people that have spastic hemiplegia are the most ambulatory, although they generally have dynamic equinus on the affected side and are primarily prescribed ankle-foot orthoses to prevent said equinus.[11]

Only one side of my body is affected.  Though I feel that society can only see the afo brace on my leg and nothing else.  I walk a little funny, my right arm goes waaaay up when I walk and I do everything one handed. 

I have a handicap placard, and yet everyone thinks that they can park there who is not disabled.  And I get the stink eye almost all the time  because I wear long pants, and most people would not notice the brace on my leg while I am walking in the parking lot

I work at a daycare and recently, I was told that I couldn’t change diapers because I do it one handed.  I have worked there for 4 years and I have never ever ever had any issues with diapers that would pertain to my disability.  No issues other than the normal wiggle bottoms and stupid tabs on the diapers that break.  

I could see that if I had issues I would be set aside, but I have never had any issues at all.  What if someone who had no disability change a diaper on a child and something happened? 

I know for a fact there is a girl at a sister daycare of ours that is deaf. She reads lips and whatnot, changes diapers and so forth.  What about her?  Are they going to tell her that she couldn’t do something because she is a liability? She is the nicest lady and she does a damn good job.

I was told a few years back, while taking a cooking class in school, that I could not “actually cook” because I had a disability.  No, I couldn’t step NEAR the stove, nor attempt to try to make crepes or omelette’s. Me, I was assigned dish duty. And of course, maybe breaking apart things, or measuring Worcestershire sauce and the like.

Course, if I felt discriminated, in which to a point I do, I could sue. But I cannot afford a lawyer, nor do I want to make a mess. Too much drama with courts and lawyers.

I feel that even though we are protected under the disabilities act, we are discriminated against, based on what they see on the outside: a wheelchair, a brace, an prosthetic arm, a walker.  It seems like society sort of accepts us, but then not.

I don’t let my CP interfere with my life.  My brain may be damaged, but not my feelings or my heart.  My soul is just as alive as my body wants to be.  I am ME.  I just wish that people could see past what is clearly visible.

Some people are going to be upset when they read this next part; I have CP, but I will not date other disabled people. I don’t want to deal with my disability and theirs, it’s too much. I may sound like a hypocrite to you, but that’s how I feel.

I don’t have the ability to control my fingers or my hands to type this article, but I do have a headpointer that allows me to use a computer.  Back when I was going to high school, computers were just coming into classrooms.  My favorite class in high school was music theory.  I wasn’t able to do my music homework independently.  All I had was notation paper, a pencil and with any luck, assistance from a person who had some music theory background.  During those semesters of music theory, I wished that I had the ability to do this homework myself.  All the music theory software programs were archaic and couldn’t serve my needs.  Fast forward five years and music software and computer technology skyrocketed into the 21st century.  I had the ability to compose an entire symphony with horns, strings and any other instruments I wanted to play.  This is what independence means to me.

Independence can be as simple as turning on a light switch.  Some people don’t have the ability to do such a basic task.  When we struggle to do basic tasks, we depend on people to help us.  Our support staff makes it possible for us to do so much; without our support staff, we couldn’t make it through our daily lives.  Independence also means getting out of bed, showering and eating.  When our support staff assists us in figuring out how to do something independently, that can be very valuable.  Sometimes our independence means getting out and visiting family and friends.  Sometimes our independence means getting out into the community and demonstrating that we all serve a purpose in this world.  Our support staff makes it possible for us to do everything we want to in our daily lives.

The next time you are wondering if you job of assisting people in their daily lives is worthwhile, please know, it is.