CE and Me

If Tesco sold bottles of Conductive Education...

2010-09-02T05:05:00.001-07:00

Firstly i apologise for the lack of blogs in the past few months - no good excuse really but i resolve to do better from now on!

a while ago a young adult with whom i work wrote a speech for a fundraising event and i absolutely loved his speech so feel that i'd like to share it with you.

From the horses mouth as it were....

"If Tesco sold bottles of Conductive Education I would be having them as part of my weekly shop as it provides a lifeline for anybody that has a physical or learning disability. Why? I will tell you why. My experiences of conductive education at Rainbow House has taught me and others like me, how to use our bodies and minds to overcome and conquer certain fears and challenges that have been previously huge barriers to us living our lives.

For example, when I started Conductive Education, my body felt useless, my confidence was at rock bottom and my mind was plauged with negative thoughts on how i would live my life independently. Conductive Education has helped me to control my body in times of stress and has boosted my life skills as well as my confidence in myself and in my abilities to overcome the negative thoughts created by how some people in this world see me. In my view, it is the most common sense, theraputic approach that i have come across.

I believe because of the hard work and training the Rainbow House team have done with me over the past three and a half years, my life has changed so much for the better as I am able to achieve so much more than I or others previously thought possible......without Rainbow House's support I would not have the confidence to live independently and of course would not be sitting here in front of you delivering this speech tonight...."

Thanks Jonathan!

A funny time of year....

2010-02-17T05:52:00.000-08:00

Finally, i have the chance to write something new on here. It has been a strange term so far. We've been unbelievably busy which has been exacerbated by the fact that most of the staff have been off sick at some point when we are short staffed as it is.

We've got into the swing of things now with or new conductor who came to us in October. We tried to create a complicated timetable to rotate leading that would let all 3 of us conductors lead each group at some point - mainly since we wanted to ease the new conductor into things, but also (dare i admit it) because we remain quite protective of the children we have in all our sessions, many of whom we've been working with for nearly 6 years.

Having tried and failed to make this timetable work i am pleased to have admitted defeat and having now assigned conductors to lead specific groups permanently (for now anyway!), i feel massively more motivated to start the 2nd half of the spring term. In particular i think all the moving around between groups has simply confused both the kids and the assistants, and whilst all three of us conductors have similar styles of leading and similar 'conductive perspective' if you like, even with a task series in hand the inconsistencies were making it difficult for the children to learn.

I suppose this is not such a problem when you have only conductors in the group, but since this luxury is not one we can afford we have had to sacrifice a bit of control in order to make sure the kids move forward.

I think this time of year is a funny one... lots of people seem a bit down, maybe its the weather, the dark days, i don't know but it seems to have impacted the kids a bit too. Hopefully a half term break will refresh everyone and we can go into the next half of term with more motivation - staff and kids alike.

I myself, somewhat the eternal optimist, remain motivated and am glad to continue to have a job that i adore. I just wish i had a bit less nonsense to deal with and had a bit more time to concentrate on the real 'conducting'!

Since spring is on its way lets hope a spring-like attitude begins to emerge with the new growth!

L-Dopa for CP

2010-01-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

Any conductors, parents, other professionals out there? Does anyone have any experience in the use of L.Dopa for a child with athetoid CP? it has recently come up as a suggestion for one of our kids and i'm a bit bemused about it and had never heard of it being used for CP before. I am aware of its use for people with PD but never CP. Does anyone have any knowledge, exprience etc...

Jules

Just Do it - NICE Graduate Book

2010-01-12T06:40:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Bloggers!

One of the new arrivals this year was my copy of the new publication 'Just Do it' about NICE conductors' experiences since graduating. I have co-authored a chapter which i hope is not as painful for others to read as it was for me! Aside from that i feel compelled to comment on the publication as i thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Firstly i thought that all the chapters (except my own - its never nice reading your own stuff) were well written and engaging. It was interesting to see the differences and similarities between different graduates and the massive variety of experience for those more, or less, recently graduated.

I wanted to reassure some of the conductors who commented that they were not sure if the opinions and experiences they had were 'proper' CE, or if they had done things correctly. For example the conductor who had tried to run CE services in Vietnam was unsure that she had still provided 'proper' CE as she had to make huge changes in how she delivered the programme in such a different culture - but from what she had written i felt she was doing very 'proper' CE as the children should not be made to fit the system but the system must create a learning environment for the child. It sounded excellent although extremely challnenging.

There seemed to be some common themes in people's experiences; group sizes, conductors working on their own, language barriers, working within limited organisations (financial, space, resources etc...) and these similar issues seem to run through many conductors experiences across the world. I could certainly relate to this as i work for a charity and for a long time, worked most of the time on my own as a conductor.

I would be interested if anyone who has read the book has any feedback on my own chapter. Myself and Becky discussed all the things we wished we had known more about before starting work as conductors (not that we can know everything but we can try!). Also, since it has been a while between writing and publication of the book i feel i would have written different things about my experiences since we wrote the chapter.

I recommend anyone working as a conductor, or employing a conductor should read the book as it is an insight into the workings of CE; its challenges and achievements - and brilliantly the thread that runs through all the chapters is the continuing love and passion for the participants and the system that all the authors feel!

re-reading Dina...

2009-10-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

I read Dina recently and noticed a sentence that i found a little suprising... having discussed it with my colleagues they agreed that they had never heard of it and hadn't noticed it before in Dina. I'd be interested to know if any conductors had any thoughts on the following....

(sorry i forgot to note the page number for this quote but wrote the quote down - if anyone finds it then please comment on the post to let people know)

'with a child who has a tendency to stand on his toes, positions in
which the foot is not at a right angle to the leg should be avoided. This
applies to crawling as well as, for example, cross leg sitting'

I can see the logic of this but as a student conductor was never told this and have seen many children who tend to stand on their toes use crossed-leg sitting and crawling. And have used these positions with such children many times - i feel appropriately.

so.... any thoughts?

A Conductive Upringing in YouTube

2009-10-11T03:24:00.000-07:00

Sad as it is, on a friday night over a glass of wine with a conductor friend we started looking up CE and other terms on YouTube and in doing so came across lots of links from a woman called Ellen Moore - who i assume is the mother of the child in the videos - Catherine.

There are a number of clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuI1EF60ZD4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMaMbA5Lgsg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_Mpb3ZCEdQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuL_stPkfYA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJnL4s0y2eQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP8-M-NkxZk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBCL3hZShsY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP1v_FwXq7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oIgdrcS9u4&feature=related

... and i think there may be more too.

We were so impressed by the way in which Catherine's mother gave her help when she needed, motivation, rhythm and praise - a model of of a parent practicing a conductive upbringing.

I think, from one of the descriptions that Catherine accesses CE at OMOD in which case i think there must also be praise to the conductor(s) that helped this parent to discover a conductive upbringing.

as for our friday night - So much for a CE-free evening!

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

2009-09-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

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.

Big groups or small groups?

2009-08-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, next point for discussion.

The centre i work at has grown gradually. When i first began working there the rooms were small and consequently so were the groups. Usually 3-4 children in a group with a conductor and 1/2 assistant (depending on children of course). At this point the grouping was not under my control and of course, neither was the size of the rooms. Gradually over the past few years we have created larger groups - and have now got the space to do so.

There have been many reasons for the way in which groups have been set up - the main reasons are as follows;

1. The restrains of building/room size
2. The management's (not a conductor) desire to have only one conductor in a group and then to have assistants with them
3. Other conductor's views that small groups are suitable or visa versa that large groups are desirable

So my question is to you reading this blog. What do you prefer? or think is best?

The circumstances in our organisation have altered this Septmeber and we are working with one less conductor (hopefully temporarily - anyone looking for a job?). In order to manage (and i mean manage) in the short term we have had to rearrange the groups by putting more children together in larger groups (usually of between 8-10 children) with 2 conductors where possible and additional assistants .

As i said, the management in my organisation struggle to understand that having more than one conductor in a room is NOT a waste of resources. They find it hard to see that since one of us knows all we need to know (!) then we simply need 'pairs of hands' to provide our CE. We have very gradually tried to show that this is not the case and that often one conductor may be able to faciltiate as well as two unqualified assistants. I have not, since qualifying as a conductor had the opportunity to work within a large group of conductors as we did when training and expect i am not alone in this situation.

Also, i have worked with conductors who prefer to work as single conductor with assistants in small groups - however i personally do not think this is how we should be working.

We were often told when we were training about the big groups of children at Peto and saw large groups at NICE also. Do these groups still work in the same way? are they still the best way of doing things? And what do parents think? i suppose it is difficult for them to see some CE in small groups and others in large groups. Maybe they will feel short changed if they move from a small to a larger group - although it is the conductor's responsibility to make sure they understand why the group is the most suitable for the child. Any thoughts?

I do of course know that the answer is that it depends on the child/ren in the group and how best their learning must be encouraged but i am interested to know other peoples thoughts on this matter and if people think there are better or worse reasons for doing one over the other.

Well... these are my thoughts for today. What do you think?

Jules

Conductive Language

2009-08-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

By starting to write a blog I hope to articulate (can you articulate in the written word?) the many thoughts and discussions that i have about my daily work and to see if any of the rest of the conductive world see things in the same way. Or if not in the same way then how others do see it. So one of the most recent thoughts has become the subject of my first post. I hope you enjoy it.

Upon writing my progress reports this year my thoughts have turned to the language we use in Conductive Education. I think about it in the context of awaiting the start of a new year and a new start and wonder whether we should all be looking a little closer at our language. I do not mean our technical language - although that is a topic for discussion, but i mean the language we use day-in day-out within the task series.

I assume we all use the classic sentence 'i sit/stand tall' a huge number of times every day. And i also assume this sentence - a little weird in English if I'm honest - is a direct translation from the task series that originated at The Peto Institute. But as CE has developed and changed in the UK it would seem (as far as i know) that the language we are using has not. Why do we not say 'i sit straight', for example? which would make sense to many more people (including those outside CE) and is much more transferable within daily life and the English language.

Another thought about language has come up within work in recent months as we have a group at work all of whom have significant developmental delay in addition to their motor disorders. We (my colleague) and i discussed the use of language and rhythm in this group all of whom have very limited language comprehension and who work, at most, at a one-word level of understanding. (the appropriateness of CE with this group is also a topic for discussion but one that i will not cover now). We decided to use a simple rhythm where we repeated the significant word in the sentence. But then wondered if we should examine the sentences we used too. For example, in lying on our backs we usually say 'i stretch my leg out, out, out' - but why out? habit? translation? i don't know. But decided that we should either be repeating the word 'stretch' or the word 'leg' and should simply say 'i stretch my leg'.

The context of this group was specific but made us also consider the wider use of language. Should we be saying 'i stretch my leg' and/or 'i sit straight' or any better, more suitable phrases with every group we teach? But what would the impact of this be? our songs are often based around this language ('let me see who is sitting tall') and everyone who uses it is so familiar with it (in particular the children) that it might only serve to confuse the group unnecessarily and thus impact negatively on the group dynamic.

So, as of yet we have not made a decision about this, and will doubtless discuss it more when attempting to finalise the new task series' in September. It is very easy to slip into habits with our intention as we say it so often that we do so, almost without thinking ( a strange situation considering the aim of it is to bring the child/adults activity into his/her conscious control)

But it makes me wonder - our rhythmical intention is one of the key aspects of Conductive Education that makes us so unique and do we really think about it enough? and are we using it as well as we could be ?