Big groups or small groups?

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

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 ?