Where is the line between doing it right and doing it yourself?

This i think is really a question for conductors as opposed to those interested in CE....
.... i have been thinking recently about when we (conductors) decide to help a child complete a task correctly and when we let them do it independently.

Of course we were always taught when training to teach the child or adult a straight and a correct position but we were also encouraged to let them find their own task solutions too. I think, when i first qualified i was guided a little by opinions given to me when physios observed my sessions and became quite aware of 'positioning' and i also worked with some conductors who had worked alongside physios who also had this awareness of positioning.

Now, i am thinking about one child in particular who has achieved a great deal from CE and i feel shows signs of becoming an orthofunctional adult. He has spastic quad CP with his left arm very effected. Now he is 8 and whilst we are able to help him manually to extend his knees and correct his foot position when standing he is increasingly confident and balanced on his feet when in his natural position (i.e. knees bent and turned inwards, feet turned outwards etc...). Now i wonder if we should be encouraging him to stand more independently in this position even though it is not a good position. Also, since his left hand is more affected, should we let him hold onto support with just his right hand in order that he could use a walking aid (e.g. a tripod stick) as, although he is increasingly able to use his left hand he is not currently able to hold and use a tripod stick with it. I sort of feel that i should encourage these skills as i want the child (the person) to become more independent and i think this may be a way to do that. That is not to say that i would ignore the positions from now on but also not to get too preoccupied with it so that it gets in the way of the child learning how to use his body.



I think i am quite aware that we are sometimes criticised by other professions such as physios for not looking at the position and just concentrating on letting the child/adult do something for themselves. This is not entirely true but not entirely untrue i suppose. And i am aware that although i have been working as a conductor for a few years now i have not seen children turn into adults and see the impact of these sorts of things whether positive or negative. Sometimes however, since i think i do look at positions a lot, i wonder if i have, without realising it, started thinking a bit like a physiotherapist?

So, what opinions do other conductors have on this? who has seen these children become adults and seen the effects of such decisions? any help, suggestions or opinions would be interesting to hear.

Post Brain-Injury Counsellor

I was in the car on the way home last night, and as i sometimes do, switched over to radio 4. The programme was called Case Notes and was about how to help people rebuild their lives after a head injury.

The link is below if you're interested:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006th1n

As often on the radio i'd have loved to be able to see what they were doing as well as hearing it.

The most interesting aspect of the programme i found was that they spoke to a post-brain injury counsellor. I see this as a valuable role and it sounded like this was a new idea not a wide-spread service. But why have NONE of the families i work with (to my knowledge) been offerred post-trauma couselling when they found out they had a disabled person in their family?

The only such service i have heard of is for children (and siblings) when they are a little older to support them as they come to terms with being disabled. I have heard of this service but after a referral for a child a year ago they still have not had any input from the service.

No wonder then that we so often end up being a sort of counsellor to our parents, grandparents, children, teenagers, young adults, spouses, aunties, uncles, siblings etc... I do enjoy this part of my job - although it can be very difficult - but it is often late in the process before we even meet our children and this programme, once again, made me wonder why they have never had this support before?

I am impressed that the NHS is providing this support to people who have experienced brain injury and their families... but there is still a massive gap in this service for most of our service users.